The Fordham Institute conducts regular reviews of states’ science standards and oftentimes pays close attention to the treatment of evolution in those standards. Another review is actively in the works, and a reviewer wrote a blog post praising one state that has really stood out so far for its outstanding treatment of the subject: Florida!
But, thus far, only one set of standards from the 35 states I’ve looked at so far includes human evolution. Just one. I’ll leave it to you to guess which state it is while you read this description of the unit:
Identify basic trends in hominid evolution from early ancestors six million years ago to modern humans, including brain size, jaw size, language, and manufacture of tools. Discuss specific fossil hominids and what they show about human evolution.
The state: Florida.
…
I’d like instead to lift up a toast to Florida — which I bet was not the state that most of you guessed — as exemplifying the way forward here.
For all of you out there who helped write and then fight for our new standards (over and over again, unfortunately), stand up and take a bow.
wow–as a framer, that’s nice to hear; as a parent it’s kind of scary for the other 49 states!
Wow, as a writer, that is indeed nice to hear, thank you. I consider my participation in writing the NGSSS for science the professional highlight of my career.
However, I consider what I do in my classroom most days (hey, we can’t be “on” all the time”) the most important aspect of my career.
Sorry to hear your teaching career is a bit delayed but it took me over a year (and moving to Florida from Colorado) to get my first gig.
Can someone explain to me the change in thinking regarding the theory that gradual mutation (resulting from natural selection dynamics) is the basis for evolution to the concept of rapid and dramatic change “punctuated equilibrium”.
Caseyboy:
These are just two components of evolution, depending on the context and circumstance of populations in their specific environments. There are plenty of other components as well. One doesn’t replace another.