Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science

by National Academy of Sciences, Working Group on Teaching Evolution, Board on Science Education, et al.

Book Overview

Today many school students are shielded from one of the most important concepts in modern science: evolution. In engaging and conversational style, Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science provides a well-structured framework for understanding and teaching evolution.

Written for teachers, parents, and community officials as well as scientists and educators, this book describes how evolution reveals both the great diversity and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309063647
• ISBN13: 9780309063647
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.6" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent resource for teaching!

This book is an excellent book aimed at helping K-12 school teaching understand and teach evolution. It includes exercises on the scientific method, natural selection, and more. It also includes information for teachers that have never taught the subject and may have questions about teaching evolution.

This book rules!

Evolution rules, science proves, and creationism fools! The National Academy of Sciences has done us all a great justice by so succinctly putting the case together for the theory of evolution that even the most ignorant creationist can understand it. Too bad that most die hard ignoramuses like the creationists and "I.D. Theorists" won't get it. It just doesn't sink into their thick skulls. The scientific method doesn't satisfy them. A natural explanation of the world doesn't satisfy them as they would rather have a completely un-provable supernatural explanation for the world we all live in. Word to the wise folks, there is a natural explanation for everything and that means everything. No need to posit supernaturalism to explain anything in the natural universe. There is no need for the hypothesis of supernaturalism, because science does an excellent job of explaining natural phenomena without it. Since creationists and "I.D. Theorists" are so against science when it comes to evolution, then perhaps they shouldn't even benefit from the advances in medical technology that comes from a firm understanding of the theory of evolution! Perhaps they shouldn't be the hypocrites they are and stop benefiting from medical advances that are based entirely on the founding principles of biology and the fact that all biology is best explained in the light of the theory of evolution! But no, they hypocritically enjoy the benefits of advanced medicine while decrying the theory of evolution upon which much of it is based! This book is short, but sweet. It highlights the facts, not the pseudoscience of creationists and "I.D. Theorists." To evolutionists it is an entertaining read. To creationists and their ilk they probably won't even understand a word of it since they all seem to be science illiterate and revel in the ignorance of the scientific facts. Evolution is a fact of life and a fact of nature. Get over it.

An Excellent Presentation

..., it is an excellent, balanced presentation of evolution and how it should be taught in public schools. It presents clearly what most people, ..., fail to understand. That is the nature of scientific inquiry and what makes an idea qualify as a scientific theory... either imply or overtly state that there is much contradictory evidence left out in this book that would refute evolutionary theory and support what they call "creation science" No biologist would deny that there are problems with evolution and that there are many things that cannot be explained yet. This is the nature of science!!!!! As more evidence is collected, ideas and theories change. The overwhelming evidence supports evolution and that's why it's one of the fundamental ideas in science. Anyway, this is a great book for teachers, and every teacher who cares about scientific truth should read it.

A very excellently-done piece of one-sided pedagogy.

This booklet is perhaps the finest packaging of the viewpoints and mindset of hard-line evolution educators. It is disappointing, however, in failing to deliver on its promise to become the "voice of reason" in the midst of discordant emotionalism and controversy. The writing is good. The flow, format, sequencing, etc... are all very well done. It makes easy, clear reading. The illustrations, charts, graphs, and photos are all highly professional. What is disturbing is how dogmatic this "voice of reason" can be. In what seems a presumed effort to "make peace with" religious believers and their misgivings about evolution theory, the authors make veiled references to representative position statements from various faiths, which give assent to the most popularly accepted views of evolutionary biology. In an effort to present evolution as a rational and believable idea, the authors stretch painfully the definitions of & quot! ;fact" and "theory" (the likes of which I have never seen in nearly 20 years of science teaching) in order to make a purely semantic argument in favor of belief in evolution. They also present well-known established scientific concepts to the readers, as though these concepts are evidence or even proof in favor of evolution, when these concepts (e.g., symbiosis, natural selection, variation within a species population, antibiotic resistant bacteria) are in fact completely neutral to the issue of whether evolution is true or not. In this way, the authors literally comandeer much science that is agreed upon by all in the scientific community, as though it were only possible to interpret it as being in support of belief in evolution. The presentation seems intended to convince classroom science teachers that the only honest and ethical approach to teaching science is to teach evolution as though it were a most important fact of science and to outright di! scourage students from any critical-thinking treatment of t! he subject. This is not good teaching of any subject. A secondary purpose of the booklet seems to be to assuage any fears that religious believers may have about accepting evolutionary theory as fact. Teachers are encouraged to think that there are not only no scientific reasons to question the "just so" teaching of evolution, but also that there is no reason to feel that doing so should offend the religious beliefs of any of the students in their classes. On page 8 we read, "That's the point: religious people can still accept evolution." These two themes--that evolution is the only scientifically and rational explanation worthy of consideration, and that religious people should have no compunctions about accepting it, too--seem to be woven into every paragraph, illustration, and sentence in the publication. If a reader wants to understand completely the most insistent viewpoint that teaching evolution as fact is the only acceptable ap! proach to the teaching of science and that an