Evolution Education across the Life Sciences: Making Biology Education Make Sense

In 1996, elementary school students in Marshall County, Kentucky, were ordered to turn in their science textbooks. After the books were returned, students found two pages of each textbook were glued together. The pages were glued by order of the school superintendent because they contained a scientific explanation of the origin of the universe but not a biblical account. But what if others tried to avoid teaching evolution using this tactic? Could they? At the October 25–26, 2011, convocation, Thinking Evolutionarily: Evolution Education Across the Life Sciences, organized by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Board on Life Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, DC, Robert Pennock (Michigan State University) argued that no one should think they can simply glue together a few pages or a chapter of a textbook and be able to avoid the topic of evolution; if modern biology is taught as it should be, references and connections to the fundamental concepts of evolution should be seen throughout the textbook and in every topic presented in the course. He issued the following challenge to the participants of the convocation: “How can we make sure that you couldn’t do this unless you [were willing to] glue the whole textbook together?”