NCSE Round Up: The Latest in Evolution and Climate Change

Find out the latest in evolution and climate change this week from the National Center for Science Education. 

Misconception Monday: More Tree Misconceptions, Is Jargon Okay?

This week, Stephanie Keep discusses why taking time to define scientific jargon can make it appropriate for use in explain scientific terms. She also busts some popular misconceptions regarding the evolution of trees.

This week, the misconception is: Trees are arranged such that the least advanced organisms are on the left and the most advanced organisms are on the right.

The correction is: Trees are arranged to show relatedness, and there is no correlation between the horizontal position of a taxon and…well, anything.

Read more about busting this misconception in your classroom here. 

Josh Rosenau Analyzes Pope Francis' 'Land Ethic '

In a three-part post, Josh Rosenau analyzes the Pope's opus on environmental ethics for the modern Catholic Church.

"Early on, the encyclical argues, 'the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor.' Later, there’s a fascinating segue from a discussion of the abstract importance of contact with nature to a careful dissection of the way that class and economics segregate access to nature," Rosenau writes in Part 1.

But Rosenau holds issue with the Pope's centered focus on humanity and refusal to acknowledge population growth as at least part reason behind growing environmental problems.

"Francis argues that calls to limit population growth are inequitable, shifting attention away from efforts to address poverty and denying poorer nations the chance to grow as other nations did. But this elevates the human desire to procreate above the needs of the natural world," he says.

In Part 2, Rosenau draws comparisons to why he believes the Pope's encyclical is similar to the "Land Ethic" of pioneering American conservation biologist Aldo Leopold in a goal to a develop a "new ethic which would bring all of nature into an ethical relationship with individuals and society."

In Part 3, Rosenau discusses "Thinking Like a Mountain" and why the Pope's "statement stands out for its focus and its depth, and its integration of even subtle details of ecological thought."

"If any human institution has the capacity to think like a mountain, it must be one with the millennia of continuous history that we see in the Catholic Church," Rosenau writes.

Luckily, Rosenau points out that the Pope has said he and the institution of the Catholic Church will be in it for the long haul and will continue to call humanity to act even in the face of those in denial.

Read more here. 

NSCE Endorses Innovation: An American Imperative

Ann Reid discusses the NSCE's support for Innovation: An American Imperative, which is a call to action from all involved in the field of science to urge Congress to make investments into the United States' global innovation in order to reverse "short-sighted federal policies that fail to support innovation."

"Healthy and consistent funding levels, merit-based and politically neutral allocation of research funds, and the other priorities included in the imperative are as essential to the well-being of science in the United States as is a sound science education for our children," Reid said.

Read more here. 

Interview with "Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology" Author Stephen H. Jenkins

NCSE's Minda Berbeco sat down with author Jenkin's in order to find out about his latest successful book and also what motivates him to teach- his first love and profession.

When asked about his inspiration for writing his book, he said , "I...developed a core course in research design for graduate students that introduced them to key ideas in the history and philosophy of science and to general principles of designing experimental and observational research. As I continued teaching these courses, I became more and more convinced of the importance for nonscientists to understand how science works."

His book seeks to explain everything from different tools in science to the motivation of scientists in the field in an attempt to do just that- teach nonscientists how science works.

Berbeco asks Jenkins about his decision to include climate change in the book, and he explains he does so to highlight critical thinking skills as well as because climate change is such an important part of science for all to understand.

When asked how teachers can use his book, he said "Pre-college teachers can use my book as a source of topics for discussion or debate or to learn about use of case studies in teaching. Teachers of introductory biology classes can use it as a textbook, especially if they emphasize scientific methods and critical thinking."

He even said some unique college courses focused on critical thinking would find his book useful and any general beginners science class.

Read more here.

Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/26/2015