User:Filll/Exploreevolution

Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism is the name of a biology textbook written by a group of intelligent design supporters and published in 2007. It is co-authored by three Discovery Institute members, Stephen C. Meyer, Scott Minnich and Paul A. Nelson, as well as illustrator and creationist author Jonathan Moneymaker and Kansas evolution hearings participant Ralph Seelke. Creationist and "butterfly man" Bernard d'Abrera's company, Hill House Publishers (London and Melbourne), is the publisher of Explore Evolution.

Nick Matzke of the National Center for Science Education suggests that the name Explore Evolution might have been chosen to create confusion. For example, Explore Evolution is also the name of a National Science Foundation grant program for museums in the United States launched in June, 2003.

This book replaces "Of Pandas and People", the previously suggested textbook for introducing intelligent design to high school students. Discovery Institute fellows William A. Dembski and Jonathan Wells are rewriting "Of Pandas and People" as a new 360-page textbook intended for the use in colleges to be called "The Design of Life".

Promotion

The Discovery Institute is promoting Explore Evolution as a superior and comprehensive approach to introducing high school biology students to evolution:

“Sadly, the majority of biology textbooks in use today are ‘dumbed-down’ and do a poor job explaining evolution,” said Dr. John West of Discovery Institute, the book’s United States distributor. “Explore Evolution will improve the teaching of evolution by providing teachers and students with more information about evolution than they are likely to find in any other textbook written at the same level.” West is Associate Director of the Institute’s Center for Science and Culture.

The Discovery Institute emphasizes that the book Explore Evolution encourages critical thinking:

Explore Evolution promotes inquiry-based learning, encouraging students to participate in the process of discovery, deliberation, and argument that scientists use to form their theories.

“Explore Evolution brings to the classroom data and debates that already are raised regularly by scientists in their science journals,” emphasized science education policy analyst Casey Luskin, M.S., J.D. “Exposure to these real-world scientific debates will make the study of evolution more interesting to students, and it will train them to be better scientists by encouraging them to actually practice the kind of critical thinking and analysis that forms the heart of science.”

The Discovery Institute trumpets the fact that the textbook was "peer-reviewed" and suggests that it was written by authors with impeccable credentials:

Co-authored by two state university biology professors, two philosophers of science, and a science curriculum writer, Explore Evolution was peer-reviewed by biology faculty at both state and private universities, teachers with experience in both AP and pre-AP life science courses, and doctoral scientists working for industry and government. The textbook has been pilot-tested in classes at both the secondary school and college levels.

The M. A. Program in Science and Religion and the Department of Education of Los Angeles' evangelical Christian Biola University (formerly the Bible Institutee of Los Angeles) presented a conference entitled Science Teacher Symposium - Teaching Biological Origins on August 3rd and 4th of 2007. A major thrust of this conference was to introduce and promote Explore Evolution as a textbook to teachers and others. There have been uses of Explore Evolution in various public school and college courses already, and there are plans to use it in a public school in Tacoma, Washington. “

Reaction

Sally Lehrman wrote an editorial in the Boston Globe on August 9, 2007 in which she noted that "A new high-school textbook from the Discovery Institute, Explore Evolution, claims to teach students critical thinking but instead uses pseudoscience to attack Darwin's theories."

University of Minnesota faculty member PZ Meyers wrote a preliminary review after examining a copy of Explore Evolution. Meyers had a negative impression of the book. Meyers writes,

In general, the book presents the subjects superficially, cherry picks examples, and sets up shallow hypotheses that bear little resemblance to what scientists actually think about the subject, and then shoots down the examples in such a way as to cast doubt on entire disciplines. It's a dirty, dishonest book in a slick package. It's gonna sell like hotcakes to every lazy, stupid teacher who wants to substitute vacuous crap for an honest and serious examination of a difficult and important subject.

Meyers feels that, "The biology part is shallow, useless, and often wrong, and the critiques are basically just warmed over creationist arguments." Meyers also points out that Explore Evolution is only 150 pages which does not compare favorably with the 1,146 pages of Kenneth Miller and Joseph S. Levine's popular high school textbook, Biology

National Center for Science Education Public Information Project Director Nick Matzke suggests that Explore Evolution is a major signal at the vanguard the fourth stage of the creationism-evolution controversy:

Round 1: Fundamentalists ban evolution (1920s-1960s). Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) concluded this round.

Round 2: "Creation science", which was invented in 1969, and ended as a serious legal strategy by Edwards v. Aguillard (1987), although there were earlier defeats such as Hendren v. Campbell (1977) and McLean v. Arkansas (1982).

Round 3: Intelligent design, invented about 1987, ended as a serious legal strategy by Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005).

Round 4: Attack evolution and imply creationism and/or intelligent design without making explicit statements. This is the strategy used in Explore Evolution in 2007.

This is acknowledged by the Discovery Institute themselves:

But the Dover lawsuit also highlighted the effectiveness of the Discovery Institute’s approach. State school boards in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Minnesota along with local boards in Wisconsin and Louisiana have adopted science standards that encourage critical analysis of Darwinian Theory. To date, not a single lawsuit has challenged such standards.

This is an approach that if I were a Darwinist I would be particularly frightened of,” said John West, associate director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. “The policy that we’ve recommended turns out to be the precise common-ground approach we said it would be. It reduces the decibel level; you don’t get sued; you get good education; and the Darwinists don’t have a leg to stand on.”

consistent with the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns, "Stand up for science" and "Critical Analysis of Evolution".

John Calvert, managing director of IDnet, believes that although Explore Evolution is "enormously important," he is skeptical about its chances for success. Since 2005, IDnet has tried to bring critical analysis of evolution into the classroom. However, a setback in Kansas in February of 2007 to change science standards in the wake of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision left Calvert doubtful:

"I don't think the Discovery Institute's textbook is going to have any traction until we get the Dover court decision reversed. Until we get a legal decision on our side, things will keep getting worse."

External links

• Explore Evolution official website