National Center for Science Education

Asteroid 249530 Eugeniescott was named in honor of NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott, according to the Minor Planet Circulars for July 12, 2014 (PDF, p. 324).

The Climate Science Students Bill of Rights, which articulates the principle that all students deserve the best climate science education available as part of a 21st-century science education, was widely discussed in Wyoming.

NCSE is pleased to announce the launch of the Climate Science Students Bill of Rights, which articulates the principle that all students deserve the best climate science education available as part of a 21st-century science education.

Writing in the July 2014 issue of the American Geoscience Institute's magazine Earth, Scott K. Johnson relates his experience in engaging in evolution outreach in a not-so-usual venue: at his local county fair.

The Wyoming state board of education voted on July 1, 2014, to recommend a halt to the development of a new set of science standards for the state, according to Wyoming Public Media (July 1, 2014). 

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

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Brandon Haught's Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom (University Press of Florida, 2014).

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 involving students, who have a direct stake in the integrity of science education, in science education advocacy.

"What are they teaching your kids about global warming?" asked National Journal (June 26, 2014). The answer is provided by "a patchwork of climate instruction guidelines that largely leaves teachers to their own devices, facilitating massive disparities in global-warming education from school to school and state to state."

"Political debates surrounding climate change and creationism are now making their way into America's schools, as more states are deciding whether to adopt or reject new common science standards "that put a greater emphasis on controversial topics like global warming and evolution," according to US News and World Report (June 20, 2014).

On June 19, 2014, Oklahoma's governor Mary Fallin approved the state's adoption of a new set of science standards, according to US News & World Report (June 20, 2014), despite the objections of state legislators to their inclusion of climate science.

The British government recently clarified and extended its ban on teaching creationism in academies, according to a June 18, 2014, press release from the British Humanist Association, which congratulated the government "on its robust stand on this issue." 

The Wyoming Association of Churches endorsed the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards, according to the Casper Star-Tribune (June 16, 2014).

Eugenie C. Scott

Eugenie C. Scott, the former executive director of NCSE and the current chair of its Advisory Council, will receive a Presidential Citation for Science and Society from the American Geophysical Union at a reception in Washington DC on June 17, 2014.  

A new Bloomberg News National Poll included (PDF) questions about whether climate change is a threat, whether it is worth increasing energy costs to prevent climate change, and whether scientists are to be trusted about climate change.

The South Carolina state board of education rejected the Education Oversight Committee's proposal to revise the state science standards to require students to "[c]onstruct scientific arguments that seem to support and scientific arguments that seem to discredit Darwinian natural selection" at its June 11, 2014, meeting, according to the Charleston Post and Courier (June 11, 2014). 

Eugenie C. Scott

Eugenie C. Scott, the former executive director of NCSE and the current chair of its Advisory Council, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Humanist Association at its annual conference in Philadelphia on June 7, 2014.  

NCSE's Glenn Branch's "Going Ape: Interview with Brandon Haught" (PDF) was just published in Evolution: Education and Outreach.

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Grady Klein and Yoram Bauman's The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change (Island Press, 2014).

NCSE is proud to have been named in the Best of the Scout Report for 2014, as "the most shared resource by Scout Report readers" for the academic year 2013-2014. "There are many free excerpts to read and it's a fun way to trace the evolution of these popular and significant debates," the report commented.