This week in National Center for Science Education news, the NCSE team reviews an early education resource and places a big focus on the importance and value of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Next Generation Science Standards Aren’t Just About Climate Change

While Minda Berbeco likes when the NGSS get media attention, she wants to ensure that people are aware of how broad the standards are and how much they cover aside from climate change alone.

Berbeco says the standards “address everything from molecules and organisms to energy and engineering design,” and would hate for students to be denied them simply because of how political climate change education has become.

Read the full post here.

Early Ed Resource: Evolution for Preschoolers

Stephanie Keep interviewed Jonathan Tweet this week, author of “Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution.”

Tweet has worked tirelessly to design a book that explains the complex concept of evolution to the earliest learners.

“With Grandmother Fish, the story is about human evolution, but I made a point of showing that each “grandmother” has many children, which represents evolution going in all directions at once. Most of the prehistoric creatures in the book are our ‘cousins,’ not our ‘grandmothers.’”

Read Tweet’s full conversation with Keep here. 

Utah Science Standards: Okay on Climate Change, Needs Work on Evolution

Though Minda Berbeco says Utah’s standards concerning climate change are totally fine despite media attention suggesting otherwise, she says it’s the standards on evolution for seventh grade science that could use work.

“First and foremost, they don’t mention evolution by name. Instead, they say ‘change in species over time.’ That’s not just awkward, it’s inaccurate. Moreover, they don’t address natural selection, whereas the equivalent section of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) does. And since the standards in Utah’s “Change of Species Over Time” strand otherwise match the NGSS standards, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that natural selection was deliberately omitted,” she says.

Read her full post here.

Sea Level Rise Could Mean Drastic Changes by 2100

New research indicates that by 2100 or sooner the sea level will rise at least 1 meter.

What seems like a relatively small change could have big implications. According to Emily Schoerning, that could mean the Key West in Florida would be completely under water, in addition to some other big changes for states on the coast.

“The reality of sea level rise is not a debate. It's something that is already happening. If we don't understand the non-controversial science behind this phenomenon, we might end up all wet.”

Read her full post here.

For more NCSE news, check out what the NCSE team is reading this week.

Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/22/2015