National Center for Science Education

NCSE is pleased to announce the second of a new series of on-line workshops aimed at broadening and deepening the networks that make our work possible. The workshop focuses on lobbying policymakers — legislators, members of state boards of education, members of local school boards, and the like — and features NCSE's Josh Rosenau, the ACLU's Dena Sher, and Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education's Vic Hutchison.

Will a federal court dismiss a lawsuit seeking to prevent Kansas from adopting the Next Generation Science Standards? In documents filed on December 5, 2013, the defendants in COPE et al. v. Kansas State Board of Education et al. asked the United States District Court for the District of Kansas to dismiss the suit, saying (PDF) that the court lacks jurisdiction over all claims asserted in the complaint and that the complaint fails to state a claim against the defendants.

NCSE's outgoing executive director Eugenie C. Scott was interviewed for the December 2013 issue of Americans United for Separation of Church and State's magazine Church & State.

Eugenie C. Scott

NCSE is pleased to announce the addition of a further batch of videos to NCSE's YouTube channel.

"Old wine in new bottles" (PDF), a review of Jeffrey P. Moran's American Genesis by NCSE's Glenn Branch, was just published in Evolution: Education and Outreach.

The integrity of science education triumphed in Texas when the state board of education gave its final approval to all of the proposed textbooks for high school biology and environmental science courses at its November 22, 2013, meeting.

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

What can citizens like you do to respond when science education comes under attack? How can you and other concerned citizens organize to fight back? What can you do to prevent attacks on science education in your community? NCSE is pleased to announce the first of a new series of on-line workshops aimed at broadening and deepening the networks that make our work possible. The workshop begins at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time (6:00 p.m. Eastern time) on November 25, 2013, and spaces are still available, so register now!

When the Texas state board of education held its final public hearing on science textbook adoption on November 20, 2013, NCSE's Joshua Rosenau was on hand to present the board with a statement urging the adoption of the textbooks endorsed by no fewer than fifty-one scientific and educational societies.

Ann Reid

"Ann Reid has been a researcher, a policy wonk, and a program manager. In January, she will put on a new hat — as first responder to attacks on science education," reported Science Insider (November 20, 2013), taking notice of NCSE's announcement of Reid's appointment as its new executive director, succeeding Eugenie C. Scott.

In a 4-3 decision issued on November 19, 2013, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the termination of John Freshwater.

Ann Reid

NCSE is pleased to announce that Ann Reid will be the new executive director of NCSE. Reid succeeds Eugenie C. Scott, who served as executive director for twenty-seven years, 1986 to 2013.

As the Texas state board of education is preparing for its final public hearing on science textbook adoption, the Dallas Observer (November 14, 2013) published a marvelously detailed look at Texas antievolutionism past and present.

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of John Gurche's Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins (Yale University Press, 2013).

The executive director of the National Science Teachers Association called on the Texas state board of education to "reject any pressure to promote any nonscientific views in its textbooks or classrooms."

What do Canadians think about climate change?

In honor of the centenary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace, NCSE is pleased to list a number of on-line resources on Wallace's life and work.

A milestone: there are now over 30,000 fans of NCSE's Facebook page. Why not join them, by visiting the page and becoming a fan by clicking on the "Like" box by NCSE's name?

Leonard Krishtalka

NCSE congratulates Leonard Krishtalka for becoming the namesake of Nyctitherium krishtalkai, "a fossilized 50-million-year-old insect-eating mammal, about the size of a shrew or small hedgehog," according to a press release issued on October 28, 2013, by the University of Kansas.

"Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say there is solid evidence that the earth has been getting warmer over the last few decades, a figure that has changed little in the past few years," according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.