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NCSE is pleased to announce the winners of the Friend of Darwin award for 2018: Tiffany Adrain, the collections manager at the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository and a supporter of NCSE’s Science Booster Clubs in Iowa, and Robert Stephens, a cell and molecular biologist who proposed the idea of Darwin Day in 1993 and cofounded the Darwin Day Program to coordinate and encourage the celebrations of the great naturalist's life and work.

NCSE conferred its Friend of Darwin award for 2018 upon two people—Robert Stephens and Tiffany Adrain—who have significantly contributed to efforts to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of evolutionary biology in informal educational settings.

Robert Stephens, Molecular Biologist

Each year, NCSE awards its Friend of the Planet award to individuals or organizations who have significantly contributed to efforts to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of the science of climate change. This year’s winners have worked tirelessly to give the public the tools it needs to understand what scientists know about climate change and how they know it. 

"Some private schools in Florida that rely on public funding teach students that dinosaurs and humans lived together," reports the Orlando Sentinel (June 1, 2018). 

NCSE bids farewell to Emily Schoerning, who joined NCSE as its first Director of Community Organizing and Research in 2015. A microbiologist by training, Schoerning brought to NCSE a passion for science education and outreach that she found while a post-doctoral researcher.

"Evolution should remain part of the science standards for Arizona public high schools, despite what is being proposed by the state's top school official, Gov. Doug Ducey [R] said Monday [May 28, 2018]", the Arizona Daily Star (May 28, 2018) reported.

In a May 15, 2018, letter (PDF) to Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, the Association for Science Education — representing the United Kingdom's community of science educators — expressed its opposition to the changes to the Arizona draft science standards that compromised the treatment of evolution.

"School Superintendent Diane Douglas is apparently behind a rewrite of science standards for all Arizona school children that would delete references to evolution," reports KPHX (May 18, 2018) in Phoenix.

When the Louisiana state legislature adjourned sine die on May 18, 2018, Senate Resolution 33 (PDF), which would have commended a former state senator "on his support and endorsement of teaching creationism in public schools," died.

"About half of Americans say the Earth is warming mosly due to human activity," according (PDF) to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

As a draft of new science standards for Arizona are undergoing public comment, "experts are alarmed" about changes imposed by staffers at the department of education, KNAU in Flagstaff reports (May 14, 2018) — and evolution is affected.

Connecticut's Senate Bill 345, addressing climate change education in the state's public schools, died when the Connecticut General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 10, 2018, as NCSE previously reported. But it turns out that its provisions were previously included in a different environment-related bill, House Bill 5360.

When the Connecticut General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 10, 2018, Senate Bill 345, addressing climate change education in the state's public schools, died on the House of Representatives calendar. 

NCSE is pleased to welcome Paul Oh, NCSE's new Director of Communications. Oh comes to NCSE after stints at a variety of non-profits specifically concerned with education, including the Teaching Channel, where he was a senior director overseeing editorial content and leading social media, and the National Writing Project, where he managed projects involving interest-based learning.

NCSE is seeking to hire a Director of Community Science Education.

NCSE is seeking to hire a Director of Community Outreach.

A pair of bills introduced in Congress in April 2018 — S. 2740 in the Senate; H.R. 5606 in the House of Representatives — would authorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to institute a competitive grant program aimed in part at developing and improving educational material and teacher training on the topic of climate change.