Thinking Evolutionarily: Evolution Education Across the Life Sciences: Summary of a Convocation

by National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Board on Life Sciences

Evolution is the central unifying theme of biology. Yet today, more than a century and a half after Charles Darwin proposed the idea of evolution through natural selection, the topic is often relegated to a handful of chapters in textbooks and a few class sessions in introductory biology courses, if covered at all. In recent years, a movement has been gaining momentum that is aimed at radically changing this situation.
On October 25-26, 2011, the Board on Life Sciences of the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences held a national convocation in Washington, DC, to explore the many issues associated with teaching evolution across the curriculum. Thinking Evolution Education Across the Life Summary of a Convocation summarizes the goals, presentations, and discussions of the convocation. The goals were to articulate issues, showcase resources that are currently available or under development, and begin to develop a strategic plan for engaging all of the sectors represented at the convocation in future work to make evolution a central focus of all courses in the life sciences, and especially into introductory biology courses at the college and high school levels, though participants also discussed learning in earlier grades and life-long learning.
Thinking Evolution Education Across the Life Summary of a Convocation covers the broader issues associated with learning about the nature, processes, and limits of science, since understanding evolutionary science requires a more general appreciation of how science works. This report explains the major themes that recurred throughout the convocation, including the structure and content of curricula, the processes of teaching and learning about evolution, the tensions that can arise in the classroom, and the target audiences for evolution education.

110 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2012

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Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

This volume has nothing to do with the evolution of the species. On the contrary, it is the desperation committee of religious nuts trying to make stone age beliefs attractive to the younger generations.

[Steven]

the people on this topic are genuinely bizarre. possibly worse than nutrition people.