Last night at the Creation Museum, Bill Nye the Science Guy debated Ken Ham the Young Earth Creationist on the question "Is creation a viable model for origins?" I don't want to spoil it for you because that ruins the fun of watching, so I'll give the answer in Spanish: "No."
The debate over creationism and evolution has been going on for quite a while, and the legality of teaching creationism in public schools has been addressed by US courts at a variety of levels. Thankfully, the courts have almost always sided with science and said, in no uncertain terms, that you cannot advocate for religion in public school classrooms, and creationism amounts to doing just that.
That doesn't make evolution any easier to teach, though. While many students are more than happy to learn about where they came from there are those that offer a bit more of a challenge. Some students state that they don't believe in evolution but they are willing to listen and memorize things for the test. Some refuse to participate when the evolution unit rolls around. Others push it a bit further and engage in debates with their teachers and fellow students, often coming in with prepared remarks often given to them by parents of pastors. Believe me - I have been given my fair share of pamphlets, Jack Chick books, and prayer cards over the years and I live in an area where this is not a major issue. My colleagues in unnamed southern states that rhyme with “Malabama” and “Mennessee” have had whole groups of students form prayer circles in class, turn their desks around and read their bibles, and engage in mass walk-outs to protest the teaching of evolution.
So given the fact that this subject can be controversial, how is a teacher to deal with students that find it difficult to accept the theory of evolution? It isn't an easy thing to do for a wide variety of reasons, and in a series of posts I am going to attempt to address this by sharing the strategies that have worked for me over the years. You may find that you have similar issues, or, should your issue not be covered here, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll tackle it in a future post.
So lets get out of the gate here with the thing that is simultaneously the easiest and most difficult thing to address: Teacher knowledge of evolution.
In this day and age of Common Core, state mandated testing, RTI, reading and writing across the curriculum, and the many other initiatives teachers have to deal with on a regular basis, most teachers are highly educated in pedagogy (which totally sounds like something you could be arrested for) but not as educated in the content of our discipline. Because almost all of our inservice time is taken up learning how to implement these initiatives there isn’t a whole lot of time for us Biology teachers to further educate ourselves on content knowledge. We all come out of college with a bachelors degree which is essentially the equivalent of a black belt in martial arts. It seems like it is a real accomplishment, and it totally is, but it basically just proves that you have the ability to learn things and you are now ready for the next level. It does not necessarily mean that you have mastered anything.
As an example, I felt that I had a really good grasp of cellular respiration because I did well in cell and molecular biology and passed my tests and did well in the lab and was, in general, a ferociously amazing person. Sometimes it physically hurt to be as awesome as I was. When I first taught cell respiration to my students I realized that I was lacking a bit in the general knowledge department. “Where do those NAD+ molecules come from?” inquired one student. “Why does adding electrons to it suddenly make it NADH?” asked another. “What, exactly, causes a cell to switch from aerobic to anaerobic respiration?” demanded yet another. “Do you pick your own clothes out because those pants don’t go with that shirt,” said a 4th who had clearly stopped giving any semblance of a crap about cell respiration.
Aside from explaining that, yes I do pick out my own clothes and yes these pants did go with this shirt, thank-you very much, I couldn’t answer these questions. I knew what NAD+ and NADH were, and I also knew what anaerobic and aerobic respiration were, but I had no idea how to address the specific things these kids wanted to know. It was only after doing a bunch of research and asking more experienced teachers that I learned the answers. Evolution is similar but can be so much worse. When have you ever been told by a student that they don’t believe in cellular respiration?
We all know the basics of evolution. We know who Darwin was and all about his journey on the HMS Beagle. We are aware of fossils and probably can name some of the cool ones like Archaeopteryx and Basilosaurus. We can read and interpret cladograms and help the students determine a common ancestor. But often our knowledge is lacking when it comes to the details that help transform evolution from a series of events and facts into a coherent story, and it is this story of life that makes biology amazing and comprehensible to the students.
As I mentioned before, addressing the lack-of-knowledge issue is both the easiest and the most difficult problem to tackle. It is easy because all it takes is a some time to read books and articles, watch videos and debates, and discuss with your colleagues the things you are having trouble with. It is also difficult because it quite a bit of time and, as already mentioned, time is not a luxury most of us have.
To get you started on the journey, I have added links to many places where you can begin to enhance your understanding of evolutionary biology. Some are great for classroom use while others might border on the NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Take some time and enhance your knowledge of evolution. I'll update this list as I find/remember resources. If you have any ideas, chuck 'em into the comments and I'll add them in.
Talk Origins Archive - One of the oldest creation/evolution sites. It has basically all of the information you will ever need to answer almost any question a student might have. Spend enough time on this site and you will most likely never worry about teaching evolution again.
Ẅhat Next? - John Kyrk - An animated timeline of the earth showing basically everything that happened in the evolution of both the universe and the life in it. Move the slider along and watch tiny animated atoms, fish, dinosaurs, primates and everything in between inhabit your screen.
Pharyngula - a blog by popular researcher/blogger PZ Myers. Often irreverent and potentially offensive, but almost always worth checking out. (Occasionally NSFW for language),
Your Inner Fish - A book by Neil Shubin. Starts off with a wonderful description of the work involved in discovering Tiktaalik and continues with an easy to read and totally informative look at how evolution has shaped the human body. Should be required reading for anyone interested in evolutionary biology.
