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Re: possibly OT: NYT article on GA creationism/evolution debate



Cliff, you are also right to excoriate texts which present scientific
conclusions with no indication of the evidence upon which those
conclusions are based (and teachers who teach science that way). In
introductory texts it is not always possible to give the whole
picture, but the least they could do is indicate that these
conclusions are not just "beliefs" but are based on evidence that has
been gathered, sometimes over thousands of years. That our science
textbooks don't emphasize that science is almost entirely
evidence-based, and also on how we decide which observations are
scientifically relevant and which can be ignored, probably has more
to do with the sorry state of science literacy in this country than
most anything else. It is also partly responsible for the fact that
most kids get turned off to science when they get to middle school,
where the process of turning science into the collection of factoids
really gets underway.

It is also important that students see that one of the aspects of
science that applies to almost no other endeavor in life is its
continually emerging (and evolving) consensus. Scientific efforts
lead eventually to general consensus or they wither. Those that
achieve strong consensus persist, those that don't last for a while
and are gone. Evolution is certainly one that has achieved that level
of consensus. The arguments among evolutionary scientists today are
over the details, not the idea.

That our understanding of the complexities and simplicities of the
world is not just due to the musings of a few idle dreamers is
something that desperately needs to be communicated to our students.
They need to understand why F=ma is such a useful tool for engineers
and physicists even more than they need to know how to use it
themselves. And the same is true of the other great scientific
ideas--students need to know why they are considered great, what they
can or could do and why they might have been replaced by other ones,
or might be in the future.

I forget now who said "Science is no more a collection of facts than
a pile of stones is a house."

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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