Teaching/Advocacy Material
Please scroll down to view our many different resource topics or simply click on the links below to be immediately taken to a specific area:
K-12 Teaching Tools
Resources for Scientists
Statements by Scientific Societies
Other Resources of Interest
K-12 Teaching Tools
15 Evolutionary Gems from Nature
This resource summarizes 15 lines of evidence for evolution by natural selection from papers publish in Nature over the past 10 years. The evidence is drawn from the fossil record, studies of natural and artificial habitats, and research on molecular biological processes.
ActionBioscience.org
This website provides original peer-edited lessons on evolution for high school and undergraduate levels. The site’s resources are also available in Spanish here.
The National Center for Science Education
This organization defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. The Center’s Resources page offers a wealth of information.
The National Academy of Sciences
NAS has issued a teacher’s handbook called Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science. The book offers help on selecting instructional materials and suggests effective ways to engage in classroom discussion on evolution. NAS also provides a list of reports, statements, research papers, and other outside resources on evolution which are free to download. Former NAS President Bruce Alberts and Jay Labov have also published an article in Cell Biology Education on the topic of teaching the science of evolution. It focuses on the Academies’ efforts to address challenges to the teaching of evolution in the nation's public schools and offers ways to combat these challenges.
The National Science Teachers Association
This website has a Q & A on the teaching of evolution, addressing why it is a controversial subject and has become increasingly challenged, and how to respond to questions from students on alternative theories of biological evolution.
The National Association of Biology Teachers
This website has an evolution page with links to various papers, resources, and facts.
The American Geological Institute
AGI offers an interactive map detailing state by state challenges to the teaching of evolution in the public classroom. The web site also offers a comprehensive list of documents and articles relating to the controversy of evolution vs. intelligent design.
The Society for the Study of Evolution
This website has various resources for educators, including an online course for K-12 teachers hosted by Cal State–Fullerton and a list of essays addressing evolution, intelligent design, and the works of Darwin.
Teach Evolution and Make It Relevant
This website funded by NSF, offers resources and materials for teachers at the pre-college level, including a 2-week classroom unit on applied evolution.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has a well-developed site on evolution here, including a list of evolution FAQs and lessons for both students and teachers.
Understanding Evolution
This UC-Berkley website is aimed at teachers. It includes sections on how to avoid potential pitfalls in the classroom, overcome roadblocks, and prevent confusion in students. Sections on how evolution impacts everyday life, the evidence for evolution, and the history of evolutionary theory are also helpful tools.
Resources for Scientists
National Center for Science Education
Their webpage has a section dedicated to understanding and teaching the science of evolution.
HHMI
This organization sponsored two lectures on new discoveries that have transformed our understanding of how animals, plants, and humans develop and evolve. Sean Carroll, PhD, and David Kingsley, PhD, spoke Dec. 1-2, 2005, as part of the Holiday Lectures on Science. The lectures are available through web cast and DVD.
Read an interview with Massimo Pigliucci, professor of evolution and ecology at SUNY-Stony Brook. He discusses evolution’s role in agriculture and the environment and its importance to other disciplines.
Selected papers and commentary on the scientific basis of evolution are available on a site hosted by Donald Forsdyke, who runs a laboratory of bioinformatics and theoretical biology at Queens University in Canada.
Kenneth Miller, a professor of biology at Brown University, operates a web page that compiles evolution information, including articles on the failure of intelligent design and his personal defense of evolution.
AAAS has a page dedicated to a dialogue on science, ethics, and religion. Essays include “Does God Play Dice? Divine Providence and Chance” and Ken Miller’s keynote address, “Finding Darwin’s God: The New Battle Over Evolution.”
PBS provides a round-up of frequently asked questions about evolution here.
Statements by Scientific Societies
FASEB Statement Supports Evolution, Opposes Teaching Intelligent Design.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has played a major role in fighting efforts to weaken the teaching of evolution in public classrooms. In 2002 the Board released a resolution on intelligent design theory, urging policymakers to oppose its teaching within science classrooms.
The American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Governing Board views with alarm the recent action taken by the Kansas State Board of Education to remove biological and cosmological evolution from the State Science Standards. The AIP Governing Board endorses the American Geophysical Union Position Statement on ‘Creationism is Not Science,’ and the “Statement of the Society of Physics Students Regarding Science Education Standards,” and the statement by Jerome Friedman, President of the American Physical Society. The Council of the American Physical Society opposes proposals to require “equal time” for presentation in public school science classes of the biblical story of creation and the scientific theory of evolution.
Other Resources of Interest
The interim President of Cornell University, Hunter R. Rawlings III, focused his State of the University Address in October 2005 on what he called “the challenge to science posed by religiously-based opposition to evolution, described, in its current form, as ‘intelligent design.’” The brewing controversy is about the tensions between science and belief, reason and faith, public policy and private religiosity, said Rawlings, and it could have an effect on what is taught in universities.
A brief history of creationism from the Middles Ages to ‘Creation Science’ is available on the NCSE web site. The site also contains a news room which lists state-by-state activities related to evolution, including antievolution proposals and legislation, op-eds, and newspaper articles.
The Creation vs. Evolution Forum offers a discussion board for those interested in debating the controversy online.
The AAAS Evolution press room is a catch-all resource with information ranging from recent court decisions to historical AAAS resolutions on evolution.
The UC-Berkeley Museum of Paleontology hosts a website version of a publication called This is Science! which describes how scientists do science, different approaches to its study, and the science of evolution. A good beginning piece for both scientists and non-scientists.