Why this website?

Why create this website?  Quite simply, to address a major flaw in the way evolution is commonly taught.

According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 46% of US citizens do not accept that humans are the result of evolution (Gallup, 2012). Why? Is it simply a religious issue or has education in the United States dropped the ball on evolution education? It’s the opinion of this website that at least some of that blame ought to rest squarely on us as science educators.

If you are well versed in online resources for evolution education, you have probably seen the same issues I have.  A) They focus almost solely on how evolution takes place, like natural selection, and completely gloss over whether evolution has actually taken place.  Or, B) Each resource seems to present its own incomplete, unique, and difficult to understand set of evidence in support of evolution.  There is almost no consistency between sources on what constitutes the most important evidence supporting evolution.

In an effort to address both of these issues, this website was born.  As I have dug deeper into the problem several realizations have taken place about what was needed concerning macroevolution evidence education. What is needed is a method to teach evolution’s evidence that is

  • Coherent and avoids esoteric, academic language
  • Concise so as to be memorable
  • Comprehensive to set up important intellectual scaffolding that can be built upon later and
  • A way of thinking and not just facts

While those are lofty goals, this website attempts to do all of those things. Please click on ‘Evidence Overview’ to begin the journey.

Gallup, G. (2012). Evolution, creationism and intelligent design. Retrieved August 17, 2013 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx

Excellent publication that shares many of the views that this website does:
Catley, K. M. (2006). Darwin’s missing link—a novel paradigm for evolution education. Science Education, 90(5), 767-783.

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