Free Republic

This week marks Climate Week 2019. Climate change affects all of us, and each of us can make a difference in our own way, big or small. To show how we can take Climate Action into our own hands, a poster has been hung on the cafeteria wall. Each student and staff member can show commitment to combatting climate change by writing on the poster something they did that day or week to make a positive difference for our planet. We are aiming for 100% participation by the XYZ High School Community. Thank you for your support, and let’s make...

PRESTON, Idaho -- A school district in Idaho is investigating an incident that took place last week in which a science teacher allegedly fed a live puppy to one of his reptiles in front of students. Local animal activist Jill Parrish is the one who filed the police report. "What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick," Parrish told KSTU. Parrish said a teacher at Preston Junior High School told her that last week after school, Robert Crosland fed a live puppy, who was reportedly sick, to one of his reptiles....

The political fight over global warming has extended to science education in recent years as several states have attempted to weaken or block new teaching standards that included information about climate science. But only in Idaho has the state legislature stripped all mentions of human-caused climate change from statewide science guidelines while leaving the rest of the standards intact. Now teachers, parents and students are pushing back, hoping to convince the Republican-controlled Idaho Legislature to approve revised standards, which science proponents say are watered down but would still represent a victory for climate change education in the state. The Idaho...

Three senior House Democrats asked U.S. teachers Monday to destroy a book written by climate scientists challenging the environmentalist view of global warming. The Democrats were responding to a campaign by the conservative Heartland Institute copies of the 2015 book, “Why Climate Scientists Disagree About Global Warming” to about 200,000 science teachers. Democratic Reps. Bobby Scott of the Committee on Education, Raúl M. Grijalva of the Committee on Natural Resources, and Eddie Bernice Johnson of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology all issued a statement telling teachers to trash the book. “Public school classrooms are no place for anti-science...

(Editors’ note: This column is co-authored by Chris MacFarland)New, robust partnerships between the public and private sectors are needed today to attract and educate the young scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians for tomorrow.A stem is the main trunk of a plant, and STEM — short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — is the main trunk of our economy.A plant that gets too little water will fail to grow. Unfortunately, that’s also what’s happening to STEM education in our country today.We’re simply failing to attract and educate a sufficient number of young scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. Demand for these...

Last fall, my daughter Veronica got an idea for the seventh grade science fair at her school. She’d compare different ways to clean a toothbrush. First she’d take a new toothbrush out of a package and brush her teeth, covering it with her mouth bacteria. Then, she’d clean it with one of three liquids: water, lemon juice, or vinegar. Finally, she’d wipe the brushes on Petri dishes and see how many bacteria grew on them... Veronica submitted her plan, and then reported back to me that we had to fill out some forms. These forms turned out to be an...

A young-Earth creationist microscope technician formerly at California State University-Northridge is suing his former employer for religious discrimination, wrongful termination, and the violation of free speech. Who's the plaintiff? Mark H. Armitage. Mr. Armitage is a microscopist; he's worked with microscope sales and services since at least 1984. When not involved in commercial microscopy, he is interested in scientific microscopy. He did undergraduate work without a degree in Biology at the University of Florida, he acquired a B.S. in Education at Liberty University, an M.S. in Biology (emphasis in parasitology) at the Institute for Creation Research, an Ed.S. in...

Students and faculty are reportedly clashing with the administration at an evangelical college in Tennessee after it recently changed its statement of faith regarding the creation of man, and Adam and Eve. The Board of Trustees and President Stephen Livesay of Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., have been receiving some criticism from students and faculty who argue the school's modified statement of faith is too narrow. The college has strong evangelical roots, as it is named after William Jennings Bryan, the politician who opposed the teaching of evolution in the famous 1925 Scopes Trial. Back in February, the school's Board...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Twenty-six percent of U.S. respondents do not realize Earth revolves around the sun, a survey by the National Science Foundation indicated. The NSF conducts the poll on some basic science facts every two years, The Atlantic reported. The foundation said there has been little change in the percentages of correct answers since 1992.

An educational program funded by Ohio’s oil and gas industry and sponsored by Radio Disney has environmental activists — and some parents — up in arms over what they say is a hijacking of public education by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) interests, in a state sitting on billions of dollars’ worth of gas-rich shale. The program, called Rocking in Ohio, went on a 26-stop tour of elementary schools and science centers across the state last month. It involves interactive demonstrations of how oil and gas pipelines work, and is led by three staffers from Radio Disney’s Cleveland branch. It is entirely...

A chemistry teacher at Manhattan’s award-winning Beacon High School set two 10th graders on fire Thursday morning — leaving one boy with serious burns — in a fiery experiment gone horribly awry. Teacher Anna Poole had hoped to treat her students to a “fun” demonstration during their first class back from the holiday break, students told The Post. But four flaming crucibles in the Upper West Side public school’s third floor chemistry lab instead exploded into a fireball that raged across a countertop and engulfed sophomore Alonzo Yanes, 16.

Ball State University, a public institution in Muncie, Indiana, is purportedly looking into claims that a course centered around the subjects of creationism and intelligent design constitutes a violation of the separation of church and state. The college purportedly began its investigation after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a church-state separatist group, sent a letter of complaint regarding physics and astronomy professor Eric Hedin. Hedin’s offense? He apparently encourages students to read books by scientists, journalists and proponents who embrace intelligent design. The description of his course, as reported by World on Campus, claims that students will “investigate physical...

Intelligent design is just another form of creationism, creationism is profoundly unscientific, and such unscientific views do not belong in public classrooms. This, in a nutshell, is the argument of activist Zack Kopplin, a student at Rice University who began his battle against a Louisiana academic freedom law (the Louisiana Science Education Act) while in high school. He is the 2012 winner of the “Troublemaker of the Year Award.” “Well, this law allows supplemental materials into our school biology classrooms to ‘critique controversial theories like evolution and climate change,’” said Kopplin in a March interview on the Bill Moyers show....

The Kansas legislature had considered a House Bill 2306 calling for objectivity in science. The bill was introduced by the House Standing Committee on Education and is supported by medical doctors who also wish to see balance in science education. The bill states: The legislature recognizes that the teaching of certain scientific topics, such as climate science, may be controversial. The legislature encourages the teaching of such scientific controversies to be made in an objective manner in which both the strengths and weaknesses of such scientific theory or hypothesis are covered. The committee sponsoring the bill has been called "anti-science"...

For Zack Kopplin, it all started back in 2008 with the passing of the Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill made it considerably easier for teachers to introduce creationist textbooks into the classroom. Outraged, he wrote a research paper about it for a high school English class. Nearly five years later, the 19-year-old Kopplin has become one of the fiercest — and most feared — advocates for education reform in Louisiana. We recently spoke to him to learn more about how he's making a difference.

Looking to boost the quality of science education, Florida has just made it tougher for aspiring teachers to pass required certification exams. But the move to ensure that would-be science teachers know their subjects well could worsen Florida's shortage of science teachers. That could leave middle and high schools scrambling even more to find instructors for biology, chemistry, Earth-space science, general science and physics classes. .... The State Board of Education this month bumped up the scores needed to pass the teacher-certification exams in those five science fields. As a result, the passing rates for first-time exam takers are expected...

Education is the key to the future: You've heard it a million times, and it's not wrong. Educated people have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, and better educated countries grow faster and innovate more than other countries. But going to college is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects. And American students are not studying the fields with the greatest economic potential. Over the past 25 years the total number of students in college has increased by about 50%. But the number of students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (the so-called STEM...

A Chicago-area atheist is on a crusade to have a high school science teacher fired for teaching creationism in his classroom. “It has nothing to be dissatisfied,” atheist activist Rob Sherman told the Chicago Tribune. “I’m protecting conquered territory and assisting parents who want the teacher fired by articulating their concerns.”

If you're in a room of 100 people, odds are likely about 40 think God created humans about 10,000 years ago, part of a philosophy called creationism, according to a Gallup poll reported Friday (Dec. 17). That number is slightly lower than in years past and down from a high of 47 percent in both 1993 and 1999. And 38 percent of Americans, the poll estimates, believe God guided the process that brought humans from "cavemen" to today's incarnation over millions of years, while 16 percent think humans evolved over millions of years, without any divine intervention. This secular view,...

"Some people think that my life began at birth, but my life's journey began long before I was born."