Communicating Evolution as Science

Abstract

If you are a scientist or science teacher reading this journal, you almost certainly recognize evolutionary biology as straightforward science and intelligent design and creationism as non-science; which belongs inside the science classroom is clear. Unfortunately, the distinction is a blurry one for many. Most Americans support the teaching of creationism in public schools (Plutzer and Berkman 2008), and around one-fourth of biology teachers in some states think that creationism is scientifically founded (Moore and Kraemer 2005). Some anti-evolution groups have taken things a step further, by not just promulgating misconceptions about creationism’s scientific status, but attempting to redefine science to include creationism. In 2005, the Kansas State Board of Education enacted a change in the state's science teaching standards (Wilgoren 2005). Science went from being “the human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us” to being “a systematic method of continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena.” Though longer and more jargon-laden, the altered definition was less specific about the types of explanations science can build—not just natural explanations, but any sort of explanation deemed “more adequate.” By opening the door of science to supernatural explanations, the new definition threw out one of the key characteristics that make science work: the testability of its explanations. Happily, with the election of a new state board of education, the original definition was restored. These are the sort of battles that the National Center for Science Education and Eugenie Scott have been fighting for decades and that Kenneth Miller fights to keep science textbooks free of ideas that have “failed as science,” as he describes in an article in this issue (Miller 2010). Such conflicts often play out on a political stage, shaping classroom practice in a top-down manner. Is there something that science teachers can do within the walls of their own classrooms to impact the broader discussion of what ideas belong in science class? Science teachers can lighten the load of the next generation of evolution defenders by helping students recognize the distinction between science and non-science. This means finding ways to communicate the fundamental characteristics that set science apart from other endeavors and helping students learn to interpret representations of evolution in the media, such as those described by Carl Zimmer in this issue (Zimmer 2010). Here, we’ll examine what students need to know about these topics, provide evolutionary examples, and discuss how this content can be incorporated into science teaching. In so doing, we will introduce content from the University of California Museum of Paleontology’s Understanding Science website (www.understandingscience.org).