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Iowa officials worry new science standards may be divisive


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WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The new set of standards for what is taught in Iowa science classrooms could prove divisive because of the sections on evolution and climate change.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/1NruErT ) several members of the State Board of Education and some members of the public expressed concerns about those subjects.

A team of experts is reviewing a set of model science standards, and will make a recommendation to the state board later this spring. The model standards are designed to highlight the most important concepts and skills students need to learn if they want to be scientists.

Board members Michael Knedler and Mike May said at a meeting last week that they worry that including evolution and climate change could make it difficult to implement the standards statewide.

"If we don't deal with that . I think we'll pay a price in the end," May said.

State Rep. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, has been trying for two years to keep Iowa from adopting the model Next Generation Science Standards.

"There are a number of concerns," Salmon said. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that woven throughout the standards are controversial topics of climate change, man's negative impact on the environment, and evolution as scientific fact. That's not just a separate unit in the standards; it's woven throughout the standards."

One of the review team members, John Bedward, said the concepts of evolution and climate change are linked to other areas of scientific study, so they can't just be omitted from the standards.

"There will always be contentious issues within the sciences," said Bedward, who teaches at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake. "It would be doing our students a disservice if we did not at least have a conversation and give them the ability to inquire about (the issues)."

Kris Kilibarda of Des Moines, said the standards committee has been studying scientific data and reviewing public comments submitted online and at four forums.

"We're looking at the scientific evidence," said Kilibarda, who is director of Grand View University's Jacobson Institute for Innovation in Education. "All of us are coming in with the lenses of scientists and science educators. But we're also absolutely looking at the data from the surveys, from the public forums, from the electronic submissions."

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Information from: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, http://www.wcfcourier.com

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