{"id":768,"date":"2008-11-05T12:42:12","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T16:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=768"},"modified":"2008-12-29T22:05:02","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T03:05:02","slug":"ufos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=768","title":{"rendered":"UFOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is some controversy going on concerning an exhibit and talk going on at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science<\/a>. I’ll let Dr. Paul Cottle<\/a> tell you all about it via his letter to the editor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Brogan should give up UFO ‘pseudoscience’<\/p>\n

Florida’s scientists and science educators recently completed a year’s work revising the standards for teaching and learning science in the state’s public schools. In the end, most of the energy spent by the standards writers, policymakers and citizens was focused on the threat of pseudoscience undermining scientific literacy in our state.<\/p>\n

That’s why it is so discouraging that the Brogan Museum of Arts and Sciences has chosen to feature an exhibit (“The Roswell Exhibit”) and to host a speaker (well-known charlatan Stanton Friedman) that feature UFO pseudoscience.<\/p>\n

The Brogan is going to alarming lengths to sell tickets to Friedman’s talks. Last week, the museum sent an e-mail to a number of FSU physics professors asking them to award extra credit to students in their classes for attending Friedman’s lectures and coughing up the $10 ticket price. The Brogan staff was presumably inspired to make this request by Friedman’s claim that he is a nuclear physicist.<\/p>\n

The Brogan should make a new commitment to promoting genuine science. There are too many scientists and educators working hard to improve the scientific environment in Tallahassee to allow the Brogan to undermine it.<\/p>\n

PAUL COTTLE<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The museum executive director responded with his own letter to the editor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Learning inspires, should not be shamed<\/p>\n

Kudos to Florida scientists and science educators who recently spent a year revising the standards for teaching and learning science in the state’s public schools. Much energy was spent by standards writers addressing the controversy between creationism and Darwin’s theory of evolution. I think this is what Mr. Cottle was really referring to in his recent letter when he mentioned “pseudoscience undermining scientific literacy in our state.” Last I checked, Florida public education was not including beliefs about UFOs among testing standards. The state’s first science center opened more than 50 years ago with a conch shell, a goat and an iguana on a string. Then and now, museums use a variety of entertaining experiences to attract audiences to science, mathematics, technology and other ultimate educational goals. UFOs and dinosaurs attract people of all ages to, we hope, seek truth, learn more and perhaps be entertained while inspired.<\/p>\n

Brogan staff did send an e-mail to Florida State University professors hoping that they would encourage students to visit the museum, experience the exhibit and the lectures. Shame on us. In addition to some members of the Physics Department, the e-mail was also sent to professors who teach about UFOs in literature, history, pop culture and astronomy.<\/p>\n

Stanton T. Friedman received B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. He was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist for such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics and McDonnell Douglas.<\/p>\n

He has provided written testimony to congressional hearings and appeared twice at the UN. Friedman takes an unambiguous stand that some UFOs are alien spacecraft. Maybe, just maybe, he will inspire a child to learn more.<\/p>\n

CHUCHA BARBER
\nExecutive director
\nThe Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is some controversy going on concerning an exhibit and talk going on at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science. I’ll let Dr. Paul Cottle tell you all about it via his letter to the editor: Brogan should … 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":[21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/scZNLl-ufos","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1429,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1429","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":0},"title":"University System Chancellor Touts STEM Classes of Florida’s Economic Plan","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00c2\u00a0Frank T. Brogan, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said in a\u00c2\u00a0impassioned talk Wednesday,that it was time for Florida to \"grow up\"touting a growing focus on STEM classes as a move toward that goal. Speaking at the 2011 Florida STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Summit, Brogan rallied\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=9","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":1},"title":"Fighting pseudoscience","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a thought-provoking article offering an explanation for why pseudoscience is so widely accepted by the general public. The basic lesson to take away from this article is one that I've believed for many years: people need to be taught how to think. No, not what to think, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=25","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":2},"title":"Fighting pseudoscience","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a thought-provoking article offering an explanation for why pseudoscience is so widely accepted by the general public. The basic lesson to take away from this article is one that I've believed for many years: people need to be taught how to think. No, not what to think, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2343,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2343","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":3},"title":"Unintelligent Design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Lynn University in Boca Raton has a series of courses called Dialogues of Learning that tackle the main topic of Belief and Reason. One of the courses offered in the Dialogues series is Unintelligent Design. The course description says: Ever since its original publication, the Theory of Evolution by Natural\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1225,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1225","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":4},"title":"A fusion of creation science and hip hop","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"You know it was bound to happen. It was just a matter of time. Bad science meets bad music. I give you Destiny Lab: \"Our music is a fusion of creation science and hip hop.\" Here's a lyrics sample from their song Remembered As Dragons. Sorry to do this to\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1225#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=333","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":5},"title":"Science teachers need more than pay; they need guts!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This news article in the St. Petersburg Times provides a decent analysis of one possible reason Florida's students do so poorly in science: shortage of qualified teachers. I like the nod the reporter made to the draft of the new science standards. He slipped in a mention of evolution's inclusion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768"}],"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=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}