Access Research NetworkTeaching science is back on the classroom agenda, and along with it comes the debate over teaching the theory of evolution.
Scientists say it is not the kind of argument Arizona should be engaging in if it wants to attract national attention as a hub of biotechnology research.
Dozens of scientists and teachers are poring over Arizona's science standards, which haven't been updated since 1998. The exercise is an important one because it is meant to prepare students for a new statewide AIMS science test by 2008.
But revisiting the standards has reopened the controversy over how to teach evolution without stepping on beliefs that God, or even several Gods, created the world and human beings.
Scientists say the evolution theory that started with Charles Darwin's monkey-to-man premise and the fossil record of an old and evolving planet is the same one that is at work when researchers learn how bacteria evolve into drug-resistant strains. It is even at work when a new type of dog is created through selective breeding.
Scientists said the most recent draft of Arizona's new science standards oversimplified and explained incorrectly the evolution theory. The language so alarmed Arizona State University President Michael Crow that he sent a letter to state schools chief Tom Horne to express what he and his faculty called serious reservations.
"Strong, rigorous life- science standards are particularly critical in light of Arizona's efforts to build strength in the biosciences and related industries," Crow wrote in an April 22 letter to Horne.
The standards have been rewritten to address Crow's concerns, but some scientists still fear the standards are too vague.
Specifically, the latest draft of the standards did not include requirements to teach how evolution provides a scientific explanation for the fossil record of ancient life forms. It also did not demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution by natural selection, or explain how the descent from common ancestors produced today's diversity of organisms.
Jane Maienschein, who directs ASU's Center for Biology and Society, helped write the 1998 state science standards that gained national recognition as one of the best in the country. Maienschein said without clear standards that provide teachers with step-by-step guidance in teaching evolution, Arizona students won't get proper grounding in the theory and everything that builds on it.
Arizona standards teach that all science is theory, that scientific theories change as we learn more, and that they should always be questioned and challenged in order to make advances. Singling out evolution as a theory that needs to be questioned and refuted is not only unnecessary but "sneaking creationism in by stealth and effectively dumbing down the standards," Maienschein said.
"We're trying to build a big biotech presence in this state, and we're not going to have the workforce, the brain power and understanding if we don't teach our kids in the best possible way," she said.
Bethany Lewis is legislative analyst for the Scottsdale-based Center for Arizona Policy, a Christian group, and wants Arizona teachers to be directed to "test, modify or refute the evolution theory."
"We are Christians. We believe in God and believe there is a designer behind the natural world we look at," said Lewis, who fears some people want to replace religion with science.
Lewis said her organization is not asking the state to teach creationism. It wants teachers to engage students in discussion of "intelligent design."
Intelligent design theory is being promoted nationally by Christian organizations and some states. It maintains that a close examination of nature shows it was designed by a "pre-existing intelligence."
Jeffery DelVisco, researcher for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called intelligent design a more marketable way of promoting creationism. Bringing "intelligent design" into classrooms is being pushed around the country, but especially in Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, he said. "It's a steamroller and is gaining some strength," DelVisco said.
Meanwhile, some science teachers who are also people of faith struggle with their classroom objectives.
Willie Longreed is a Stanford University-trained scientist who teaches at Tuba City High School and also believes in the traditional Navajo religion, which says that many Gods, called The Holy People, created the world and humans.
Longreed also is a member of the committee that's working on the latest set of science standards. He calls evolution theory the crux of the biological sciences, and every day walks among its evidence of fossils, ancient footprints and the timeline found in stratified rocks.
Longreed calls science "observation," which he teaches in the classroom, and his faith "all assumption," which he "tiptoes around" when teaching. As for his personal peace, Longreed said he has found a balance between the two, having faith in The Holy People but also having faith in antibiotics, which the theory of evolution helped to produce.
Said Longreed: "You have to hear both sides of the issue and fit yourself in."
File Date: 5.2.04
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