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Evolution, Religion, and Education: A Workshop for Science Teachers
Registration Form Recent efforts to introduce “intelligent design” in biology classes in the Dover school district have called attention to the relationship between science, religion, and public education. This workshop is designed to help high school science teachers, administrators, and clergy understand more fully the complex issues related to this controversy. Course faculty and participants will discuss questions such as these: What are the historical and cultural roots of this controversy? What points of view do Americans hold concerning the relationship between science and religion? What should science teachers know about this controversy, in order to be better teachers of their subjects and to understand their students better? With financial support from the John Templeton Foundation, Messiah College is sponsoring a workshop for educators and clergy that is designed:
Details: The workshop will be held on the campus of Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, during the week of June 27-July 1, 2005. Sessions will run from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm, with a 90-minute lunch break and regular coffee breaks. Precise campus location TBA. For additional details about the specific subject content of the workshop, see below. Audience: The intended audience is high school science teachers, including teachers from private schools. Clergy of all faiths are also encouraged to attend. Others with an interest in the subject, including college faculty and members of the general public, will be admitted as space allows. Registration: A non-refundable registration fee of $65 (reduced to $50 for early registrants) will be charged. Tuition, books, and lunches for participants are covered by the grant. See the link to the printable registration form above. On the first day of the course, each participant will receive two books: Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (1997), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History; and Karl W. Giberson and Donald A. Yerxa, Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story (2002). Workshop faculty: The workshop director, Dr. Ted Davis, is Distinguished Professor of the History of Science at Messiah College. Known internationally for his scholarship on the history of religion and science, his recent works include a complete edition of The Works of Robert Boyle, 14 vols. (London, 1999-2000), the entry on “Creationism” in The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, ed. John L. Heilbron (Oxford University Press, 2003), and an article on “Science and Religious Fundamentalism in the 1920s” in the latest issue of American Scientist (May-June 2005). Dr. Davis has spoken at numerous American and European universities, including Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Penn, and Princeton; at a public forum on evolution and the schools sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC; and in various churches. His article on the “intelligent design”movement was a cover story for The Christian Century magazine, and a British Broadcasting Company radio program based on his study of modern Jonah stories had four million listeners. With support from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation, he is currently writing a book about the religious beliefs of prominent American scientists from the period of the Scopes trial. A former high school science and mathematics teacher who now teaches the history of science, Dr. Davis is very interested in both secondary science and social studies teaching. Dr. Robin Collins, Associate Professor of Philosophy, has research interests in the relationship of physics and religion, on which subject he has spoken at several major universities, including Yale, Baylor, and the Università Cattolica in Milan. He received the B.S. from Washington State University, whose faculty named him the outstanding student in physics in his junior and senior years, and went on to do graduate work under John Wheeler in theoretical physics at the University of Texas. His doctoral dissertation in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame received the Graduate Student Award in the Humanities for outstanding research, teaching, and publication; he then did post-doctoral research in the philosophy of science at Northwestern University. In numerous scholarly articles, he has examined how the fundamental findings of cosmology and physics relate to the existence of God. This winter he was an invited speaker at a symposium on the multiuniverse hypothesis at Stanford University, which brought in fifteen of the world’s leading physicists and cosmologists. His current project is a book tentatively entitled, The Well-Tempered Universe: God, Cosmic Fine-Tuning, and the Laws of Nature. Dr. David Foster, Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, has traveled the world teaching in natural history courses–from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, to the US Desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Jungles of Belize and Guatemala, and the temperate forests of New Zealand. Reared in the Northern Wisconsin hills along the south shore of Lake Superior, he has always loved the outdoors; by the time he was in college, he had spent more than three years living outside, under the open sky. After completing a B.S. in Biology at Eastern College, he earned an M.S. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin. For six years he has taught biology and environmental science at Messiah College, where he also serves as Director of the Oakes Museum of Natural History. Dr. Foster is extensively involved with the AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies (www.ausable.org) and the Creation Care Studies Program (www.creationcsp.org). The uniting themes throughout Dr. Foster’s adventures are exploration of the natural world and teaching about its wonders. Dr. Sandra Holmes, Associate Professor of Education and Biological Sciences, earned a B.S. in Natural Sciences and a B.A. in Elementary Education at Eastern Washington University, where she also completed an M.A. in Science Education while teaching sixth grade. Her doctoral dissertation in Science Education at the University of Idaho was given the Outstanding Dissertation Award for Instruction by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Nationally recognized for her expertise in all aspects of science education, Dr. Holmes has been a consultant for many states and local school districts. She is currently supervising the multi-disciplinary research team responsible for the crater science component of the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center that is studying Iturralde Crater in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. Dr. James Makowski, Professor of Biology, earned a B.S. in Biology from Messiah College, an M.A. in Biology from West Chester University, and a Ph.D. in Science education (Genetics emphasis) from the University of Delaware. He was named the Robert Stegner outstanding science educator at the University of Delaware in 1990. He has taught biology and genetics at Messiah for 21 years, and has recently chaired “Project Inquiry,” a curriculum for first year science students emphasizing an investigative, inter-disciplinary, inquiry-based approach to science education. Dr. Makowski is an international consultant in the identification of animal protein products as a means of containing the spread of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease). His current research examines the relationship between science and scripture, with specific emphasis on creation and evolution. In this connection he is designing a curriculum which will allow high school science teachers to present creation and evolution topics in a manner that avoids creating a “win-lose” scenario for the students. Main course texts, distributed at registration, are: Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (Harvard University Press, 1997), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History; and Karl W. Giberson and Donald A. Yerxa, Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). Evaluation: Teachers who wish to receive hours applicable to Act 48 requirements must submit a written statement to Dr. Davis no later than Friday, July 29. The statement must indicate which parts of the workshop the teacher will incorporate into their own teaching, and outline clearly how the information in those parts will be used. Comments from participants in last year’s workshop, quoted with permission: A balanced, humble and fair approach presented by experts in History of Science, Evolutionary Biology and Philosophy made me feel very privileged... –Dr. Samuel Olson, Ph.D., teaches chemistry, physics, and mathematics at a high school in Norway I loved the tour of the Oakes Museum with Dr. Foster. It is a wonderful local resource. –Ms. Cheryl Holquist, biology teacher, Carlisle (PA) Senior High School The workshop was a very good experience with stimulating discussion led by well-versed and distinguished speakers. It was well worth the time and effort spent. –Anonymous, principal of a private religious high school in Pennsylvania In my sixth grade life science class, evolution is mentioned often in the textbook as it covered plant and animal adaptations. In the coming year, I plan to spend more time talking about Charles Darwin and his discoveries at the beginning of the year. This will help lay a foundation for the rest of the year. I will pull information from the notes I took... –Anonymous, teacher of elementary and middle school science at an Episcopal school in Pennsylvania My overall evaluation of the workshop is very high, 9 out of 10. I was excited to return each day...
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