NEWSSCIENCE

Louisiana high school student Zack Kopplin has one goal: to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act. Quite the opposite of its name, the bill, passed in 2008, gives public school teachers the ability to teach creationism in their science classes.

Even beyond issues of separation of church and state, Kopplin, a senior, understands the practical impact of the bill on his fellow students.

"When Louisiana students apply to college, people won't know if that student was taught creationism in their science classes," says Kopplin. "Maybe they'll think they don't have the science background to get into college."

Today, Kopplin and his supporters will march on the state capitol in Baton Rouge, demanding that the law be repealed and that accurate, research-based science education be the only curriculum taught in Louisiana classrooms. He's enlisted the help of state senator Karen Carter Peterson, and started a petition on Change.org to rally Louisiana supporters.

Lost in the debate about education reform is the undeniable fact that the public education system in the United States is one of the most violent in the world.

Despite overblown media reports about school shootings and daily exaggerations about youth crime, it is not the students who are perpetrating the majority of this violence. We’re talking about violence initiated by the teachers and administrators that we trust to safeguard our children’s education. Teaching is one of the most admirable professions -- which is why it’s a shame that this profession is muddied by one of America’s darker and more insidious legal practices – corporal punishment.

Of the 20 states that legally employ corporal punishment, Texas hits the most students every year -- nearly 50,000 during the 2005-2006 school year, according to the latest available statistics. In fact, administrators and teachers in Texas legally hit more students every year than the rest of Europe combined. That could change, though, if a bill to end corporal punishment at Texas schools passes this year.

Update as of Feb. 4, 2011: Success! Thanks to activism by the Texas Freedom Network, FTE has announced it's pulling back from efforts to get its creationist text books into the hands of Texas school children. Read more here.

Could rogue pandas be targeting Texas science education textbooks?

It sure looks that way, with the Texas Freedom Network reporting that the anti-evolution publisher Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE) will be submitting their own special brand of curriculum material to the Texas State Board of Education later this year.

FTE is best-known for their 'intelligent design' science textbook Of Pandas And People, which a federal judge ruled in 2005 could not be taught in public schools because it violated the Constitution. That landmark Dover, Pennsylvania case found that 'intelligent design' is a religious belief, not a scientific theory, and that the book's publishers had replaced the word 'creationism' with 'intelligent design' in an attempt to cover up their attempts at proselytizing.

“Getting their materials in public schools has long been a top priority for creationists, and it’s clear that they intend to make Texas their flagship. Teaching inaccurate information rejected by the scientific community would be a huge disservice to Texas kids and a major setback for science education everywhere,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that tracks the religious right's activity in the state.

It's up to advocates, scientists, students and Change.org members to tell the board that Pandas - or anything like it - is unacceptable when it comes to teaching science in Texas. (Sign our petition here.)

You know that whole "religious freedom" thing where religious discrimination is illegal in the United States? Apparently, the University of Kentucky didn't get the memo. In 2009, Dr. C. Martin Gaskell was interviewed as a leading candidate for running an observatory at the University of Kentucky. He was passed over for the job, partly because his potential future colleagues did some Internet research and found that Gaskell was, gasp!, an evangelical Christian. At the end of his job interview, Gaskell claims in a lawsuit against the University, his interviewer asked him about his religious beliefs and was told they were a matter of concern. Dr. Gaskell was not offered the position and is now suing the University of Kentucky for religious discrimination.

Let's get this straight. Gaskell is not a creationist, he says, and accepts standard evolutionary science. Although he is on record tying scientific evidence to his religious beliefs, i.e. fitting Genesis in with scientific findings, he's also a career scientist who got to the interview stage of a prestigious research university's hiring process. But he faced opposition like this email between department staff in which one staff member said, “Clearly this man is complex and likely fascinating to talk with, but potentially evangelical.” Another staff member allegedly advised that hiring Dr. Gaskell would be a “huge public relations mistake.” The case is now set to go to trial in February.

Science teachers in Louisiana are stepping up to the plate and asking for something that should be a given: the permission to teach, well, science.

The issue in question is a series of high school life science textbooks up for approval by the state's board of education. They've been targeted by a group that attacks the books' inclusion of evolution, arguing that the books should include disclaimers and teach about creationism as well. An advisory panel approved the books last month; next week, the state board will hold a final vote.

Taking a stand for the books are educators who include Dr. Jason VanMetre, a biology teacher at A.M. Barbe High School in Calcasieu Parish, La. In a recent letter to the state board of education, he urged them not to cave to political pressures and instead focus on equipping Louisiana students for success.

"To tell the students of Louisiana that natural selection is a controversial idea is ludicrous," he wrote. "Natural selection is supported by every major scientific and educational association." Other educators, backed by the Louisiana Coalition For Science, are arguing that allowing life sciences textbooks to be censored or targeted means that Louisiana students won't be prepared for college, and won't be as knowledgeable about science as students in other states.

Despite a battle waged over high school science textbooks in Louisiana by creationist advocates who criticized the books' inclusion of evolution, it looks like Louisiana students may be allowed to learn about evolution with no disclaimers, sidebars or long explorations of the theory of intelligent design.

A state advisory panel voted 8-4 last week to approve new high school life science books, which will now go on to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve in December. It's a victory that the Louisiana Coalition for Science and other advocates are celebrating as progress in the continuing culture wars over science education in the state.

Louisiana is infamous for its passage of the Science Education Act (LSEA) in 2008, which allows local school boards to approve classroom materials that criticize evolution, global warming and human cloning. (American students rank 21st out of 30 developed countries when it comes to science literacy. Somehow, I don't think those supplemental materials will be helpful.)

What do evolution, global warming and human cloning have in common? They all become frequent rallying cries for politicians and religious groups. Education, to these activists, becomes less about equipping students to function in the world and more about controlling what they learn.

Former Vice President Al Gore is throwing his hat into the ring to call attention to another pressing problem: the need for quality math, science, technology and engineering education.

At noon EST this Wednesday, he'll join astronaut Sally Ride, Jamie and Adam from the Discovery Channel's MythBusters and inventor Dean Kamen in a live webcast for students, encouraging them to think more about science and how it fits into life post-graduation. The virtual "town hall" will also connect students with kids in other countries to compare notes on how science is perceived and taught around the world.

When it comes to science knowledge, U.S. students aren't at the top of the class. A 2006 study found that American students were 21st out of 30 in science literacy among developed countries. (They were 25th out of 30 in math literacy.)

The need for better science and math education is something President Obama has been stressing lately. He recently announced a new nonprofit initiative called Change the Equation. Part of the group's goals, CEO Linda Rosen says, is to fix current misunderstandings about the importance of understanding math and science.

They usually write about sharks, flesh-eating plants and hagfish, but the ocean science bloggers at Southern Fried Science are up to something a little different this month: competing against other scientists to see who can raise the most money for schools.

In a show of scientific support of teachers and schools, science bloggers are working with DonorsChoose.org to raise donations for science projects and equipment.

The donor campaign is a friendly competition between biologists, chemists, physicists and oceanographers, as scientists in different branches compete to be on top of the leaderboard. It's also, sadly, a necessity for the teachers who post their class projects on DonorsChoose.org, asking donors they've never met to provide supplies, books and basic materials for their classrooms. 

Change.org Education writer Sara Bernard wrote last week about the plight of teachers in California, where some teachers spend as much as $1,500 a year of their own salaries on classroom supplies. (The NBC reality show "School Pride" featured a Compton school last week where a science teacher was storing his classroom's chemicals in water bottles.) For the 2009-2010 school year, America's teachers spent $1.33 billion dollars out of pocket on supplies.