KGS--Publication Sample--A Kansan's Guide to Science

Kansas Geological Survey Publications Sample

A Kansan's Guide to Science

Paulyn Cartwright, Roger L. Kaesler, Bruce S. Lieberman, and Adrian L. Melott
Educational Series 15
2001
20 pages, 14 figures, glossary, and reading list cover thumbnail

A full online version of this publication is not available. Copies of this publication are available from the publications office of the Kansas Geological Survey (785-864-3965). The cost is $7.50 per copy, plus sales tax, shipping, and handling.

Preface

Modern scientific inquiry has provided us with a wealth of insight into the workings of the natural world, and this will in turn lead to great technological advances as we enter the new century. In this high-tech era, it has become more imperative that average citizens, not just scientists, be equipped with a basic understanding of scientific discoveries and the scientific process. The authors of this booklet all are scientific researchers and educators from Kansas with a real interest in the scientific literacy of the people of this state. This interest became concern when, in the summer of 1999, the Kansas State Board of Education (BOE) voted to adopt a new set of standards for the teaching of science in Kansas public schools. The Board voted six to four to approve public-school science standards that downgrade the teaching of accepted scientific concepts: specifically, they de-emphasized or deleted references to geologic time, evolution, and the origin of the universe. We are concerned for several reasons. First, excellent evidence that life has evolved is all around us. Similarly, evidence for the nature and extent of geologic time can be found in rocks under foot in the state of Kansas; many of these rocks are under active study by Kansas geologists. Furthermore, scientists also are watching the Kansas skies to uncover clues to the origin of the universe. Finally, all the challenges to the immensity of geologic time, the nature of evolution, and the origin of the universe that motivated the BOE decision were based on pseudoscientific approaches or qualified as junk science, ideas not backed up by any actual data.

Our concerns motivated us to write this booklet. In the booklet we pose a set of questions that were chosen because they address topics that were most under attack by supporters of the Kansas BOE decision and most misunderstood by the general public. It is our intent to reach all Kansas citizens who wish to learn more about the nature of science, geologic time, evolution, and the origin of the universe from a Kansas perspective.

Kansas Geological Survey, Public Outreach Section
Placed online March 15, 2001
Comments to webadmin@kgs.ku.edu
The URL is HTTP://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Books/2001/Science/index.html