UCF Department of Biology<\/a> brought her to town as part of their speaker series honoring the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work on evolution. Her first lecture was targeted at graduate students and focused on how universities can do a better job of teaching about evolution. The second event was a public lecture for a generalized audience and provided a guided tour of the history of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bills that are popping up across the nation, including here in Florida.<\/p>\nThe graduate student lecture had at least 70 people in attendance with some latecomers forced to find a spot on the floor to sit. Dr. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lecture was entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Genie’s Top 10 Ways to Teach Evolution Better.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She politely admonished the university system for not emphasizing evolution enough when training future public school teachers. Evolution simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be set off into a separate course while ignoring it in other life science courses. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s irresponsible, especially since many non-biology majors won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever make it to that higher-level evolution course. Evolution should instead be the main theme driven home again and again during even introductory level biology courses. She then took a step away from evolution and made a few points about the nature of science overall. For instance, the general public does not understand how science uses the words law, fact and theory. Also, the public tends to think that science changes from day to day as new things are discovered, but Dr. Scott said science is nonetheless incredibly reliable due to a core body of accepted knowledge.<\/p>\n
Are you a Newtonist? No, of course not, Dr. Scott said. Physicists don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refer to themselves as Newtonists. Neither should evolutionary biologists stand for being called Darwinists. Doing so just plays into the hands of folks actively campaigning against the teaching of evolution. Likewise, Dr. Scott confided to the audience that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in evolution. Her point was that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153believe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is essentially a statement of opinion. Evolution should be understood and accepted (or not accepted), but not believed.<\/p>\n
This lecture went beyond her allotted hour, but the audience certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to mind. Dr. Scott was incredibly knowledgeable and quite friendly. After her lecture and a few minutes of asking questions, she was whisked away to other engagements for the remainder of the afternoon.<\/p>\n
The evening lecture was also well attended, with more than 300 people filling up the auditorium. For this presentation, Dr. Scott started off with a basic primer on evolution so that the audience had a knowledge baseline to launch from. Next, she led us through step by step the progression of anti-evolution activities from the Scopes trial to creation science to equal time laws and finally to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153teach all the theories\/strengths and weaknesses of evolution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mantra. Dr. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presentation made it quite clear how the anti-evolution movement \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evolved\u00e2\u20ac\u009d over the years, and how the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bills we saw here in Florida recently are simply the modern incarnation.<\/p>\n
Dr. Scott was incredibly accommodating after her lecture, taking pictures with folks and patiently talking with journalism students before finally heading back to her hotel. A handful of college faculty and Florida Citizens for Science members then snagged an hour of her time later that evening and heard all about the challenges in Texas and Louisiana. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say enough about how incredibly nice Dr. Scott is. She was obviously tired from a long, action packed day, but still gave us her time and attention. What a class act!<\/p>\n
Our thanks to the UCF Biology Department folks for bringing her here. We definitely made some new friends. It was time well spent. And on a final note, I was told that UCF got a letter from the Discovery Institute complaining about Dr. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance. Too dang funny!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eugenie Scott is not a fire breathing Darwinist. Heck, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even believe in evolution. And those are just a few of the things I learned Monday from Dr. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two lectures she gave at the University of Central Florida. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-cl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2443,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2443","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":0},"title":"He’s itching for a fight","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Scholberg, a freelance writer and member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Gainesville, wrote a guest column for the Gainesville Sun entitled Gainesville\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evolution vs. creation saga. In it he laments the absence of any good evolution vs. creationism debate at the University of Florida since the 1980s. Back\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2443#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=754","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":1},"title":"Eugenie Scott at UCF","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I mentioned before that Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education is going to be here in Florida Nov. 3. The University of Central Florida issued a release about it today. Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, will discuss \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Academic Freedom Bills:\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=754#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1103,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1103","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":2},"title":"Lecture: Evolution and Creation Conflicting or Compatible?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Public lecture: The Mattie Kelly Cultural & Environmental Institute at Northwest Florida State College will host Dr. Patricia \"Tricia\" Kelley, a National Association of Geoscience Teachers Distinguished Lecturer, at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 on the main stage of the Mattie Kelly Arts Center on the Niceville campus. She will present\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1103#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1107,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1107","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":3},"title":"NWFSC evolution lecture series","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I had mentioned here before that there is a series of lectures about to launch at Northwest Florida State College on the subject of evolution. Here is a story that gives a bit more detail about the first speaker and the subjects of subsequent lectures. The first lecture [Aug 27],\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1107#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1048,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1048","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":4},"title":"Pensacola science lecture","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will be in Pensacola today to present a public lecture about the relationships between science and the community it serves. Relationship issues to be discussed include embryonic stem cell research and the teaching of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1048#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1975,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1975","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":5},"title":"Florida Atlantic University Frontiers in Science 2014 public lecture series","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Atlantic University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science will launch its Frontiers in Science 2014 public lecture series with a presentation by John Long, Ph.D., titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Devices: Biorobots Reconstruct the Evolution of Ancient Animals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The lecture will take place on Friday, Jan. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}