I stumbled upon this on Richard Dawkins’ website: a collection of Evolution Outreach Projects by Colin Purrington of Swarthmore College. These are a must-see.
A lot of it is cute little stickers and temporary tattoos of Darwin, but at the heart of the effort is a push to get evolution taught to young children. Purrington advocates what every education expert should already know: children are perfectly capable of understanding evolution, and the only reason they do not learn about it is indoctrination in their early years and the delay into high school of the introduction of the concept. As Purrington says:
The notion that young kids cannot understand evolution is a myth perpetuated by those who don’t want kids to understand evolution.
I’ll be starting a unit on evolution soon in my high school biology class, and I’ll certainly be using some of these materials. (I should be right in time for Darwin Day!) Check it out; it’s wonderful, and the author’s self-effacing humor is quite charming.
Tags: axis of evo, colin purrington, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, science education, swarthmore college, war on science
Allusions of Grandeur 
December 12, 2008 at 6:40 am |
We don’t need to teach evolution to kids, we just need to teach science and analytical thinking. From that they will renounce religion and discover evolution for themselves.
December 13, 2008 at 7:30 pm |
I agree that we need to teach science and analytical thinking, first above all else. But we can still teach evolution while we’re at it, can’t we?
February 9, 2009 at 1:58 pm |
We don’t need to teach evolution to kids, we just need to teach science and analytical thinking. From that they will renounce religion and discover evolution for themselves.
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Evolution is proof that God doesn’t exist? Your analytical thinking needs more evolving.
February 10, 2009 at 10:21 pm |
Along, perhaps, with your reading comprehension? Nowhere in his comment does he say that evolution proves God doesn’t exist.