HON 120    Fourth Credit Group Project #2: Tracking Creationism:

  DUE APRIL 10

As we have discussed, modern creationists have employed a number of tactics to either eliminate or, at least, dilute the teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms—especially biology but also including earth science, chemistry, and physics. A number of school boards in the United States have responded to the demands of creationist constituents by requiring “equal time” for creationism and evolution, by using creationist biology textbooks, by requiring disclaimers in evolution-based textbooks, or by eliminating the teaching of an evolutionary perspective altogether.

We thought it would be informative to survey all fifty states to assess how widespread the impact of creationists has been on public school science curricula.

Your group’s job is to visit the web sites of eight or ten state boards of education and to examine the requirements of their high school science programs. Determine as best you can the evolutionary content of their science programs (for example, if there are base-line teaching goals in their various courses, is the knowledge of an ancient and changing universe and an understanding of biological change among those goals?).

State groups:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey

Washington

Oregon

California

Idaho

Montana

North Dakota

South Dakota

Alaska

Minnesota

Michigan

Wisconsin

Iowa

Kansas

Nebraska

Missouri

Illinois

Arizona

New Mexico

Utah

Colorado

Texas

Oklahoma

Nevada

Wyoming

Florida

Georgia

Alabama

Mississippi

Louisiana

Arkansas

North Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee

Hawaii

Maryland

Delaware

Virginia

West Virginia

Kentucky

Ohio

Indiana

Pennsylvania


Find out whatever you can about the evolutionary content of the state-wide science curricula in these states. Feel free to email any contact persons listed on the websites and ask polite questions about the curriculum. Be sure to document all websites used, and include a copy of all email interactions (printed out). Each group should prepare a write-up of their results; about half a typed-page for each state investigated should be sufficient.