Evolution: Education and Outreach

Rose Chang writes the following:

Hi everyone:

Issue 1 has its newest piece:

Fisher, M., Goetz, A., Hill, S., Kruger, D., Michalski, R., Osipowicz,
K., Platek, S. M., & Salmon, C. (2009). Voices from the field: Current
trends and experiences in Evolutionary Psychology. EvoS Journal: The
Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 1(1), 11-33.

While you are checking it out at (http:evostudies.org/vol1.html)
please also sign up for the RSS feed for EvoS Journal. Then you will
be first to learn of new articles!

Thanks,

Rose Chang
Editor, EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies
Consortium

This is sure to be interesting and controversial, since it’s on the topic of Evolutionary Psychology, which is often divisive—some people think its main ideas are virtually self-evident as an approach to human thought and behavior, while others think it’s an example of science run amok.

Regardless, take a look, so that when the EvoS journal is publishing its 101st article, you can say, “I remember when they published their 1st. . . . “

by Jenkins, Kristin P.

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0158-8
Online Date: 8/8/2009
View article on SpringerLink

by Mead, Louise S.; Mates, Anton

In 2000, Lawrence Lerner and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation reviewed state science standards in 49 states and the District of Columbia, specifically with respect to the coverage of evolution. We repeat his survey for all current standards publicly available as of May 2009 and discuss the history and role of state science standards in American public education. Our survey indicates that science standards tend to cover evolution more extensively than they did a decade ago, and that the average quality of the treatment has increased. However, certain types of creationist language are also becoming more common in state standards. We also discuss the history and role of state science standards in American public education.

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0155-y
Online Date: 8/7/2009
View article on SpringerLink

by Eldredge, Greg

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0160-1
Online Date: 8/7/2009
View article on SpringerLink

by Eldredge, Greg; Eldredge, Niles

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0159-7
Online Date: 8/7/2009
View article on SpringerLink

In a new posting to her Wild Side blog, Olivia Judson shares her reflection on the Oxford Museum of Natural History.

Last week, I visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Stepping inside is, in some ways, like entering a time warp. The vaulted, iron-and-glass ceilings are reminiscent of a 19th century railway station; the ornate carvings and ironwork decorations conjure a time of Imperial splendor and grand ambition. Statues of Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and other men of science, stand on pedestals around the ground floor. Many of the skeletons and skins on display were collected by the explorers and administrators of Empire. And if you get bored with the dodos and dinosaurs, you can visit the Pitt Rivers Museum — the entrance is behind the skeleton of the giraffe — a fascinating repository of human objects and artifacts that includes totem poles and shrunken heads.

She takes up the theme of the museum’s pivotal position at the crossroads of history: though the specimens collected in the pre-Darwinian era were not intended to be subjects in the study of evolution, present-day DNA extraction techniques offer a way for the scientists of today to use them as just that.

If you can’t make to it Oxford, or even if you can, a visit to Judson’s blog is strongly recommended.