Scientific Method / Science & Exploration

Florida Board of Education approves ‘the scientific theory of evolution’

February 12th marked the birthday of Charles Darwin, and the great State of …

Given the United States' federal system, there is no overriding national education standard for the sciences. Instead, states are free to decide on what does or does not get taught to children. Sometimes this ends up in the news, as creationist movements have influenced decisions made by school boards, as we have seen in Georgia, Kansas and Pennsylvania.

Florida has been shaping up as the most recent battleground in the war on science, as reported last month. But the Florida Board of Education has decided, by a 4-3 vote, to approve standards that state's first standards to include the word evolution.  They did, however, replace all mentions of 'evolution' with 'the scientific theory of evolution.'

This move will no doubt please many, including our own Dr. Timmer, who just recently enunciated the need for children to be taught more about the scientific method.

Not everyone is so sure that kids should be taught about evolution in schools, however. Over at Wired Science, microbiologist Carl Woese equates evolution with quantum mechanics: "One has to be quite educated to work with these concepts; what they pass on as evolution in high schools is nothing but repetitious tripe that teachers don't understand." I don't think I'd agree with Woese. Sure, much of what kids learn in school as science turns out not to be quite so true once they get to higher education, but that certainly doesn't mean that basic concepts central to modern science shouldn't be taught.

Finally, Science has the heartwarming tale of palentologist Stephen Godfrey, a one-time Young Earth creationist who came to realize he couldn't support his beliefs after spending time as a graduate student on a fossil dig in Kansas. Meanwhile, evolution, like Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, moves to the newest battleground state, Texas

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