Skip to main content

Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (1998) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

Appendix C
Pages 124-129

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 124...
... Within this context, NSTA recommends that: · Science curricula and teachers should emphasize evolution in a manner commensurate with its importance as a unifying concept in science and its overall explanatory power. · Policy-makers and administrators should not mandate policies requiring the teaching of creation science or related concepts such as so-called "intelligent design," "abrupt appearance," and "arguments against evolution.'' .
Read the entire page →
From page 125...
... The National Science Education Standards recognizes that conceptual schemes such as evolution "unify science disciplines and provide students with powerful ideas to help them understand the natural world," and recommends evolution as one such scheme. In addition, the Benchmarks for Science Literacy from the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 and NSTA's Scope, Sequence, and Coordination Project, as well as other national calls for science reform, all name evolution as a unifying concept because of its importance across the discipline of science.
Read the entire page →
From page 126...
... Legal Issues Several judicial rulings have clarified issues surrounding the teaching of evolution and the imposition of mandates that creation science be taught when evolution is taught. The First Amendment of the Constitution requires that public institutions such as schools be religiously neutral; because special creation is a specific, sectarian religious view, it cannot be advocated as "true," accurate scholarship in the public schools.
Read the entire page →
From page 127...
... neither refutes nor supports the existence of a deity or deities. Accordingly, the National Association of Biology Teachers, an organization of science teachers, endorses the following tenets of science, evolution and biology education: · The diversity of life on earth is the outcome of evolution: an unpredictable and natural process of temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by natural selection, chance, historical contingencies and changing environments.
Read the entire page →
From page 128...
... Science teachers can, and often do, hold devout religious beliefs, accept evolution as a valid scientific theory, ant! teach the theory's mechanisms and principles.
Read the entire page →
From page 129...
... Statement on Forced Teaching of Creationist Beliefs in Public School Science Educations WHEREAS it is the responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to preserve the integrity of science, and WHEREAS science is a systematic method of investigation based on continuous experimentation, observation, and measurement leading to evolving explanations of natural phenomena, explanations which are continuously open to further testing, and WHEREAS evolution fully satisfies these criteria, irrespective of remaining debates concerning its detailed mechanisms, and WHEREAS the Association respects the right of people to hold diverse beliefs about creation that do not come within the definitions of science, and WHEREAS creationist groups are imposing beliefs disguised as science upon teachers and students to the detriment and distortion of public education in the United States, THEREFORE be it resolved that because "creationist science" has no scientific validity it should not be taught as science, and further, that the AAAS views legislation requiring "creationist science" to be taught in public schools as a real and present threat to the integrity of education and the teaching of science, and Be it further resolved that the AAAS urges citizens, educational authorities, and legislators to oppose the compulsory inclusion in science education curricula of beliefs that are not amenable to the process of scrutiny, testing, and revision that is indispensable to science.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • science teachers
  • creation science
  • evolutionary theory
  • unifying concept
  • teachers association

  • natural world
  • scientific theory
  • public schools
  • teaching evolution
  • school district

  • biology teachers
  • fossil record
  • teach evolution
  • religious view
  • american biology

  • education standards
  • district court
  • science curricula
  • biology teacher
  • supreme court

  • natural selection
  • sense except
  • emphasize evolution
  • special creationism
  • requires inclusion

  • nor advocate
  • capistrano unified
  • science curriculum
  • supernatural influence
  • valid scientific


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.