Education

Wilson DS.
Evolution for Everyone: How to Increase Acceptance of, Interest in, and Knowledge about Evolution.
PLoS Biol. 2005 Dec;3(12):e364. Epub 2005 Dec 13.Evolution is famously controversial, despite being as well established as any scientific theory. Most people are familiar with the dismal statistics, showing how a large fraction of Americans at all educational levels do not accept the theory of evolution [1], how efforts to teach evolution often fail to have an impact [2], and how constant vigilance is required to keep evolution in the public school curriculum [3]. Even worse, most people who do accept the theory of evolution don't relate it to matters of importance in their own lives. There appear to be two walls of resistance, one denying the theory altogether and the other denying its relevance to human affairs.This essay reports a success story, showing how both walls of resistance can be surmounted by a single college course, and even more, by a university-wide program. It is based on a campus-wide evolutionary studies program called EvoS (http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~evos/), initiated at Binghamton University in 2002, which currently includes over 50 faculty members representing 15 departments. Enthusiasm at all levels, from freshmen students to senior administrators, makes EvoS a potential model for evolution education that can be duplicated; the basic ingredients are present at most other institutions, from small colleges to major universities.In this essay, I will briefly describe the basic ingredients at both the single-course and program levels. First, however, it is important to document the claim that evolution can be made acceptable, interesting, and powerfully relevant to just about anyone in the space of a single semester.

Without a doubt, Darwin pulled off quite a feat with his main work and it remains one of the very great works of intellectual history,” Schoenborn declared in a lecture in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on Sunday. “I see no problem combining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, under one condition ” that the limits of a scientific theory are respected.”Science studies what is observable, and scientists overstep the boundaries of their discipline when they conclude evolution proves there was no creator, said the cardinal, 60, a top Church doctrinal expert and close associate of Pope Benedict XVI.“It is fully reasonable to assume some sense or design even if the scientific method demands restrictions that shut out this question,"

(Note, please go easy on me, I’m just suggesting that science-education might seem more credible if it tolerated a creation-event or something).