The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of controversies surrounding the teaching of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, and to provide information and resources to schools, parents, and other citizens working to keep those topics in public school science education. Based in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, it claims 4,500 members that include scientists, teachers, clergy, and citizens of varied religious and political affiliations. The Center opposes the teaching of

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

views in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

classes in America's public schools; it does this through initiatives such as Project Steve. The Center has been called the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

' "leading anti-creationist organization". The Center is affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. NCSE is currently a member of the National Coalition Against Censorship.

History

In 1980 Stanley L. Weinberg, a veteran high-school teacher in Iowa, began to organize statewide Committees of Correspondence "committed to the defense of education in evolutionary theory," modelled upon the

committees of correspondence The committees of correspondence were, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to British Parliament and, later, support for American independe ...

in pre-Revolutionary America. Their purpose was to keep interested parties informed about creationist endeavours and to share ideas for responses, allowing a political response at a local level. This grew into volunteer networks in most states, with the ''Creation/Evolution Newsletter'' interconnecting them, which was incorporated as the NCSE in 1983. In 1987, author and lecturer

Eugenie Scott Eugenie Carol Scott (born October 24, 1945) is an American physical anthropologist, a former university professor and educator who has been active in opposing the teaching of young Earth creationism and intelligent design in schools. She coined t ...

, who holds a PhD in Physical Anthropology, became its executive director. The Board of Directors and official supporters, as explained by NCSE, "reflects our scientific roots." In the 1990s, based upon its monitoring of creationist efforts, it issued warnings of high levels of official anti-evolutionism and a "sharp surge upwards" in creationist attacks on evolution, including attempts to downgrade evolution from "fact" to "theory" (see evolution as theory and fact) or present the "evidence against evolution" (see objections to evolution). The organization's supporters include

Bruce Alberts Bruce Michael Alberts (born April 14, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American biochemist and the Chancellor’s Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education, Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisc ...

, former President of the National Academy of Sciences;

Donald Johanson Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...

, discoverer of the "

Lucy Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...

" fossil; and evolutionary biologist Francisco J. Ayala. Also the late

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and writer Stephen Jay Gould was a long-time supporter. As of 2012, the group has 4500 members who are "scientists, teachers, clergy, and citizens with diverse religious and political affiliations." In November 2013

Ann Reid Ann Reid is an American scientist. Since 2014, she is the executive director of the National Center for Science Education. Education Reid graduated from Bard College at Simon's Rock in environmental science, obtained a master's degree in Internati ...

succeeded Eugenie C. Scott as executive director. Eugenie C. Scott served as executive director for 27 years, 1986 to 2013.

Activities and programs

The NCSE maintains up-to-date listings of current events and information regarding creationist and antievolution advocacy, as well as about evolution education. Historian of science

Michael Shermer Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of ''Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientifi ...

describes its website as being one of "the two best resources on the Internet on the evolution/creation topic" (the other being

TalkOrigins Archive The TalkOrigins Archive is a website that presents mainstream science perspectives on the antievolution claims of young-earth, old-earth, and "intelligent design" creationists. With sections on evolution, creationism, geology, astronomy and homin ...

). The NCSE also opposes

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

and other "alternatives" to

because it says they are misleading euphemisms for creationism. NCSE "is religiously neutral, though it cooperates nationally and locally with religious organizations, as well as scientific and educational organizations like the National Academy of Sciences, the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the

National Science Teachers Association The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), founded in 1944 (as the National Science Teachers Association) and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization ...

." Its willingness to engage positively with, and avoid taking sides against, religiously minded supporters of evolution has been noted by historian of creationism Ronald L. Numbers and atheist author Richard Dawkins. The NCSE offers a variety of lecturers, including biologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and theologians, for topics relating to evolution, science, and education. Also it hosts activities including trips and conferences. It publishes ''Reports of the National Center for Science Education'' bimonthly, containing peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, and news. From 1980 to 1997, it published the ''Creation/Evolution Journal'', which has since been merged into ''Reports of the National Center for Science Education''. Additionally, it publishes books, such as a compilation of scientific analyses of creationist books. In 2003, the NCSE gained international attention with Project Steve. In 2005, the NCSE assisted the plaintiffs in '' Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'', the most prominent case testing the constitutionality of intelligent design in public school science classes, and put their extensive library of creationist materials at the plaintiffs' disposal. Nick Matzke, the NCSE's Public Information Project Director at the time, served as liaison to the legal team, and was responsible for uncovering the substitution of "intelligent design" for "creationism" within drafts of ''

Of Pandas and People ''Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins'' is a controversial 1989 (2nd edition 1993) school-level supplementary textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton and published by the Texas ...

'', which became a devastating part of the testimony of

Barbara Forrest Barbara Carroll Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She is a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute. Biography Forrest is a graduate of Hammond High School. She re ...

(also an NCSE Director), and was cited extensively in Judge John E. Jones III's decision. In April 2008, the NCSE launched Expelled Exposed, a website critical of the alleged documentary '' Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'' starring Ben Stein. The website received press attention and a large amount of traffic. In 2012, the NCSE announced they would be engaged in efforts to keep

climate change education Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change ...

, and global warming issues, safe from threats from special interests. They have developed a series of lessons addressing climate change misconceptions and offer teacher training through a Teacher Ambassador program.

Media

appeared on Uncommon Knowledge, as NCSE spokesperson, twice in 2001 debating intelligent design creationist William A. Dembski. Then in 2004, NCSE was represented by Scott on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show '' Bullshit!'' on the episode "''Creationism''". Scott offered scientific views about the creationist and intelligent design movements. She noted, "it would be unfair to tell students that there is a serious dispute going on among scientists whether evolution took place. There's not." She further noted that

"a lot of the time the creationists ... they'll search through scientific journals and try to pull out something they think demonstrates evolution doesn't work and there is a kind of interesting rationale behind it. Their theology is such that if one thing is wrong with the Bible you have to throw it all out so that's why Genesis has to be interpreted literally. They look at science the same way. If one little piece of the evolutionary puzzle doesn't fit the whole thing has to go." Scott then explained "that's not the way science is done."

In November 2007 Scott discussed the NCSE's exploration of

on the NOVA documentary '' Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial'', which documented ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District''.

Staff and supporters

Staff

* Executive Director: Ann Reid * Deputy Director: Glenn Branch * Director of Community Science Education: Kate Carter * Director of Teacher Support: Lin Andrews * Program Coordinator: Emma Doctors * IT Specialist: Stuart Fogg * Member Relations Manager: Nina Hollenberg * Director of Operations: Rae Holzman * Director of Development: Deb Janes * Editor, Reports of the NCSE: Paul Oh * Director of Communications: Paul Oh

Officers and Directors

* Kenneth R. Miller, President * Lorne Trottier, Vice President * Michael Haas, Treasurer * Vicki Chandler * Sarah B. George * Michael B. Lubic * Michael Mann *

Naomi Oreskes Naomi Oreskes (; born November 25, 1958) is an American historian of science. She became Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University in 2013, after 15 years as Professor of H ...

* Barry Polisky * Benjamin D. Santer

Notes

References

External links

*
Expelled-Exposed

Creation/Evolution journal online 1980-1996 (full run)
{{Creation Science Climate change organizations based in the United States Science advocacy organizations Scientific organizations based in the United States Scientific organizations established in 1983 Educational charities based in the United States Educational organizations based in the United States Nonpartisan organizations in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations Charities based in California Non-profit organizations based in California Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area Organizations based in Oakland, California 1983 establishments in the United States Organizations established in 1983