National Center for Science Education

Melissa Lau, an NCSE Teacher Ambassador from Oklahoma, was featured — wearing her NCSE Teacher Ambassador t-shirt — in a story on climate change education on StateImpact Oklahoma (July 11, 2019). 

When a bill that would require Massachusetts's state science standards to "include only peer-reviewed and age-appropriate subject matter" was discussed in the Joint Committee on Education on July 9, 2019, the sponsor explained that it would keep climate change denial out of the science classroom, according to the Lowell Sun (July 10, 2019).

Understanding how science functions is critical for anyone who engages in science learning. For that reason, we’ve embarked on developing our first cohort of NCSE Teacher Ambassadors who will create a series of lessons on the Nature of Science. This group will be meeting at Clemson University this summer, working with Cynthia Deaton and two NCSE staff: me and Kate Carter, our director of community science education.

Melissa Lau, an NCSE Teacher Ambassador from Oklahoma, was highlighted in a story headlined "Teaching global warming in a charged political climate," which appeared in the Hechinger Report (July 6, 2019) and in the Washington Post (July 6, 2019).

We’re proud to introduce our second cohort of NCSE Teacher Ambassadors focusing on evolution. This group will be meeting at BEACON on the Michigan State University campus this summer, working with Louise Mead, me, and my colleague at NCSE Kate Carter to update our soon-to-be-published evolution lessons and strategize ways to offer effective professional development for teachers in their areas.

Climate change education can feel like a balancing act between two extremes. Activities using data and graphs, crucial for evidence-based learning, often don’t personally resonate, while those featuring polar bears on melting icebergs and sea turtles with plastic in their stomachs can feel emotionally manipulative and overly reductionist.

The theologian Norman Geisler died on July 1, 2019, at the age of 86, according to Christianity Today (July 1, 2019), which wrote, "Described as 'a cross between Thomas Aquinas and Billy Graham,' Geisler was a prolific author, apologist, and professor, as well as the co-founder and former president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) in North Carolina and co-founder of Veritas International University in California." He wrote or edited over a hundred books during his long career.

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education — volume 39, number 3 — is now available online. 

NCSE is seeking to hire a Director of Teacher Support.

The Utah state board of education voted 11-4 to adopt a proposed new set of high-school-level state science standards on June 6, 2019, despite resistance from a few members of the board centering on evolution and climate change.

The attempt to require the teaching of climate change in Connecticut's public schools by law ended — for now — when the Connecticut General Assembly adjourned sine die on June 5, 2019, with House Bill 7083 unpassed by the Senate.

The attempt to require the teaching of climate change in Connecticut's public schools by law is still proceeding.  On May 28, 2019, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted 103-43 to pass House Bill 7083, after it was amended to change a requirement that science be taught to a requirement that science "including climate change consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards" be taught.

The attempt to require the teaching of climate change in Connecticut's public schools by law briefly revived in late May 2019, according to the Connecticut Mirror (May 24, 2019), when the House of Representatives considered adding a provision to require the teaching of climate change to House Bill 7113.

A new report from the Yale Program on Climate Communication offers new data on Americans' beliefs and attitudes about climate change, with a particular emphasis on the influence of political views. "Climate change is now more politically polarizing than any other issue in America," the program's director Anthony Leiserowitz told the Guardian (May 22, 2019).

NCSE is pleased to announce the winners of the Friend of Darwin award for 2019: Jim Krupa, Professor of Biology at the University of Kentucky; Joe Thornton, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago; and Lacey Wieser, the former director of K-12 Science and STEM in the Arizona Department of Education who resigned in 2018 in protest of then Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas's attempt to undermine the treatment of evolution in the state's science standards.

A pair of identical bills in the Washington state legislature aimed at "establishing a comprehensive initiative to increase learning opportunities and improve educational outcomes in climate science literacy," House Bill 1496 and Senate Bill 5576, died in committee when the legislature adjourned on April 29, 2019.

Rhode Island's House Resolution 5563 — expressing the House of Representatives' support for increased climate education — died on March 27, 2019, when the House Committee on Health, Education, and Welfare recommended to hold it for further study.

The NCSE office was recently turned into a time traveling scavenger hunt as a way to prototype a new app-based science outreach activity called Geology Park. This activity breaks new ground for NCSE as it’s specifically meant to help adults as well as young people engage with science, and because it integrates real-world tangibles with an NCSE-designed mobile app. Geology Park also breaks the mold of typical science outreach activities in that participants are able to engage without necessarily needing oversight by a facilitator or interpreter.

NCSE is seeking to hire a Program Coordinator.