National Center for Science Education

Oklahoma's House Bill 1674 (PDF), which would, if enacted, deprive administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies," passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 79-6 vote on March 3, 2014. 

Bernard Winograd

Bernard Winograd, a member of NCSE's board of directors, died on March 1, 2014, at the age of 63.

Senate Bill 175 (PDF), prefiled in the Louisiana Senate on February 25, 2014, and provisionally referred to the Senate Committee on Education, would, if enacted, repeal Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, which implemented the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, passed and enacted in 2008.

Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1765 (PDF), which would, if enacted, have deprived administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies," died in the Senate Education Committee on February 24, 2014, when a deadline for senate bills to pass committee expired.

NCSE is pleased to announce the next of a new series of on-line workshops aimed at broadening and deepening the networks that make our work possible. The next workshop focuses on media outreach: the panelists will discuss their own experiences, and share advice and resources to help citizens like you plan for media outreach and be effective spokespeople for science.

Eugenie C. Scott

NCSE's Eugenie C. Scott received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Inquiry and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in October 2013.

Louisiana's Senate Bill 70 (PDF) would, if enacted, repeal the state's Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act, which was enacted in 1981 and declared to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987.

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of New Trends in Earth-Science Outreach and Engagement (Springer 2013), edited by Jeanette L. Drake, Yekaterina Y. Kontar, and Gwynne S. Rife. The excerpt consists of the entirety of "Infusing Climate and Energy Throughout the Curriculum: Challenges and Opportunities," by NCSE's Minda Berbeco and Mark McCaffrey.

Public opinion about climate change was reviewed in the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators (PDF) 2014.

Public opinion about evolution, the Big Bang, and teaching evolution in public schools was reviewed in the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators (PDF) 2014.

A bill in Oklahoma that would, if enacted, deprive administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies" is back from the dead.

Just three days after the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee refused to approve a section of the new state science standards involving evolution, Senator Mike Fair (R-District 6), a member of the committee whose opposition was responsible for the refusal, is reportedly withdrawing his objection.

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line.

The National Association of Biology Teachers expressed its opposition to Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1765 (document), which, if enacted, would deprive administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies."

The Turkish biologist Aykut Kence died on February 1, 2014, at the age of 67, according to soL Portal (February 1, 2014).

Virginia's House Bill 207 died in the House Education Committee on February 11, 2014, when a deadline for bills to pass their house of origin passed. 

The American Institute of Biological Sciences expressed its opposition to Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1765 (document), which, if enacted, would deprive administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies."

At its February 10, 2014, meeting, the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee approved a new set of science standards for South Carolina — with the exception of a clause involving the phrase "natural selection."

Missouri's House Bill 1472, which would require school districts to allow parents to have their children excused from learning about evolution, is in the headlines, after the bill was referred to the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education on February 3, 2014.

With the recent debate between Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis attracting as many as three million viewers, it is likely that interest in creationism/evolution debates will skyrocket. Writing in The Scientist (February 7, 2014), NCSE's Ann Reid and Glenn Branch warn that "formal oral debates between scientists and creationists are by and large counterproductive — at least if the goal is to improve the public's understanding of evolution and the nature of science, and to increase the level of support for the teaching of evolution uncompromised by religious dogma."