High School Has An Impact

May 2nd, 2009

According to a study by University of Minnesota researchers, what is taught by high school biology teachers affects the views of their students.

“Co-authors Randy Moore and Sehoya Cotner, professors in the College of Biological Sciences, surveyed 1,000 students taking introductory biology classes at the University of Minnesota to learn how biology majors view evolution compared to non-majors. Results showed that the two groups’ views were similar and revealed that high school biology teachers influence whether majors and non-majors college students accept evolution or question it based on creationism.”

According to the article one-fourth of high school biology teachers believe that creationism can be scientifically validated. I haven’t found access to the original article to validate the reference. But, such a statement is concerning when considered alongside this new paper.


7 Responses to “High School Has An Impact”

  1. TaviGreiner on May 2, 2009 9:55 pm

    “But, such a statement is concerning when considered alongside this new paper.”

    It’s not just concerning, it’s alarming! One-fourth is a huge percentage. 🙁

  2. Bob Calder on May 3, 2009 7:31 am

    This is tangential at best, but FIRST robotics teams in Florida are distributed unevenly. There are only four North of mid-state where the number of fundamentalist churches is high. You could conclude that robots are allergic to unscientific attitudes.

  3. Suzanne Moore on May 3, 2009 9:37 am

    That is past concerning – it’s downright frightening. I sometimes wonder how this is going to end. Back to the Dark Ages?

  4. Ken on May 7, 2009 8:23 am

    I just came to look at Pictures of Dr. Kiki. She’s so pretty.

  5. MadScientist on May 13, 2009 5:06 am

    Is there a special award for stating the obvious? One of the things which always comes up every year is “how to get the new students to forget whatever they think they know about the subject”; this is true in chemistry and physics as well as biology. There have been a few things I had struggled with because I was taught the wrong thing before so I kept seeing things all backwards and couldn’t get the correct model to work in my head. This is also why religions prey on the young – the younger they are when brainwashed, the better – they will indulge in their fantasies and delusions rather than learn about the real world.

  6. David on May 20, 2009 11:00 pm

    Came from Twitter…Cool blog….Great content…david

  7. alloycowboy on May 22, 2009 8:44 pm

    Evolution, the big bang, and creationism need to be discussed in the class room. Just to understand how they are related and how they are different. I could write a long reply trying to explain it, but Fr. Barron does a much better job in this video clip.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZR3UVYeddg&feature=channel_page

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