29th Dec 2008 : "We desperately need more qualified ... science and math teachers, because of retirement,... overcrowded classrooms ... and people teaching out of [their] field"

23rd Dec 2008 : More than a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons, according to a national poll of primary and secondary teachers.

16th Dec 2008 : Creationists who want religious ideas taught as scientific fact in public schools continue to adapt to courtroom defeats by hiding their true aims under ever changing guises

11th Dec 2008 : Salman Hameed teaches astronomy and religious studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has lectured in Pakistan on reconciling evolution with Islam.

8th Dec 2008 : Here Be Dragons is a free 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking.

7th Dec 2008 : Cynthia Dunbar has written a book. It's typical wingnut nonsense: it "refers to public education as 'a subtly deceptive tool of perversion' and calls the establishment of public schools unconstitutional and 'tyrannical.'"

5th Dec 2008 : In July, 27 children and teens from across the nation convened for Camp Inquiry ‘08 where they embarked upon a week of exploration, imagination, and critical thinking.

20th Nov 2008 : The Texas State Board of Education is holding hearings right now on their science standards, and by all reports it is an embarrassment to the state: on the one side, we have the educated teachers and scientists, and on the other, a coterie of ignorant ideologues.

10th Nov 2008 : It featured a four-way roundtable format, with a participant from each quadrant of the atheist/theist and pro-ID/anti-ID axes.

9th Nov 2008 : Nearly a third of teachers, who responded to an email poll for Teachers TV, think creationism or intelligent design should be given the same status as evolution.

1st Nov 2008 : The Texas Board of Education has named the six people who will be on a committee to review science curriculum standards. Texas, you've got trouble.

18th Sept 2008 : The creationism row at the Royal Society has exposed the number of Britons who believe Darwin was wrong about man's origins - and the Bible right. James Macintyre investigates

13th Sept 2008 : There are two ways of reacting to the Royal Society's claim that its education director Michael Reiss was misrepresented in reports alleging he thought creationism should be taught in science classrooms. Either journalists got it wrong or Reiss - an ordained Church of England clergyman - did indeed suggest religious dogma be mixed with science teaching. I tend very much to the latter view.

13th Sept 2008 : Two Nobel prize winners - Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts - have demanded that the Royal Society sack its education director, Professor Michael Reiss. The call, backed by other senior Royal Society fellows, follows Reiss's controversial claim last week that creationism be taught in schools' science classes.

11th Sept 2008 : My central argument of this article is that creationism is best seen by a science teacher not as a misconception but as a worldview. The implication of this is that the most a science teacher can normally aspire to is to ensure that students with creationist beliefs understand the scientific position.

20th Jun 2008 : British atheist and staunch Darwin defender Richard Dawkins' official website is urging Americans to oppose the Louisiana Science Education Act. Newsflash for Richard, we're not a British colony anymore.

13th Jun 2008 : A recently completed youtube series on Science and the history of the Universe.

11th Jun 2008 : SB 733, the "LA Science Education Act," is a stealth creationism bill. Introduced by Louisiana Sen. Ben Nevers on behalf of the LA Family Forum (LFF—the LA affiliate of Focus on the Family), it is the direct descendant of SB 561, the "LA Academic Freedom Act." SB 561's twin in the LA House of Representatives was HB 1168. SB 733 was passed in the LA Senate on April 17, 2008, and in the House Education Committee on May 21 as a compromise bill. SB 733 is being promoted by the Discovery Institute (the Seattle headquarters of the intelligent design (ID) creationism movement) and the LFF as part of the Discovery Institute's coordination of the introduction of academic freedom bills in six states: Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

11th Jun 2008 : Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern University, and Gene Mills from the Louisiana Forum on Family, debate the pros and cons of teaching creationism in schools.

8th May 2008 : AMERICAN science is in trouble, and if you wonder why, just go to the movies. Popular culture is gradually turning against science, and Ben Stein's new movie, "Expelled," is helping to push it along.

3rd May 2008 : They have spent years working school boards, with only minimal success. Now critics of evolution are turning to a higher authority: state legislators.

16th Apr 2008 : Nobel winner battles plan to let teachers challenge Darwin's theory

14th Apr 2008 : Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss sat down for a public discussion at Stanford University on Sunday, March 9th 2008. The focus was on Science education, but the discussion also covered religion, physics, evolution and more. This video will be released on DVD soon at RichardDawkins.net , along with other unmoderated discussions with Richard Dawkins.

9th Apr 2008 : A new "Darwin chip" could make evolution as easy as pressing play.

19th Feb 2008 : New School Curriculum Standards Pass By Narrow Vote

16th Feb 2008 : What is it with creationists and fruit? I hope you've had your coffee already, because this is an unpleasant way to wake up. The clip below is from a public hearing in Orlando, Florida, in which citizens had a chance to stand up and state their opinions of evolution. Are you braced to handle a little smug and stupid this morning?

11th Feb 2008 : The University of Oxford has advertised the Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science. I retire from the Chair in September 2008. The advertisement can be seen at http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/fp/wd9-018.shtml

7th Feb 2008 :

23rd Jan 2008 : Many who support the separation of church and state say that the intelligent design theory of creation ought not to be taught in public schools because it contains a religious bias. They dislike its suggestion that the evolutionary development of life was not the result of natural selection, as Charles Darwin suggested, but was somehow given purposeful direction and, by implication, was guided by God.

21st Jan 2008 : The Sunshine State is in the process of approving new standards for science that (gasp) actually mention the word 'evolution'! You would think that would be good news, inasmuch as the Fordham Foundation has consistently rated Florida as 'poor' on its teaching of evolution, as the graphic above illustrates.

17th Jan 2008 : Scientists fearful that Texas was about to approve a program to offer online master's degrees in science education — from a creationist perspective — received some good news Tuesday.

29th Nov 2007 : In the Dover trial, you got the palpable sense that the creationists were terrified of Barbara Forrest's testimony. I did not know quite how deeply the dread was until today, though: the Texas director os science curriculum, Chris Comer, was pressured into resigning because she forwarded an e-mail announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest. One Lizzette Reynolds, Republican hack and senior advisor to the Texas Education Agency, was freaking horrified.

25th Oct 2007 : I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who also just so happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy who's seen generations of teens come and generations go and who has a delightful poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and his family and his beloved teaching career.

24th Oct 2007 : This is Eugenie Scott's talk from AAI 07 in Washington DC on Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism. She covers the history of the movement and how it has evolved, including the recent Dover, PA trial.

8th Oct 2007 : A major campaign to boost the teaching of science and technology is needed if the UK is to keep its place in the global economy, a key report warns.

5th Oct 2007 : The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning.

23rd Sept 2007 : The First Prize Winner of the Second Annual Seed Science Writing Contest answers the question: What does it mean to be scientifically literate in the 21st Century?

23rd Sept 2007 : Richard Dawkins - 1996 Richard Dimbleby Lecture. Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder.

13th Jun 2007 : This week, for example, Professor David Colquhoun FRS - one of the most eminent scientists in the UK - has been forced to remove his quackbusting blog from the UCL servers where it has lived for many years, after complaints from disgruntled alternative therapists.

28th Apr 2007 : Brief free taste for public but internet expositions by top academics such as Richard Dawkins and Niall Ferguson will then be licensed

3rd Apr 2007 : Intelligent design creeping into Canadian schools, academic warns

13th Mar 2007 : The battle between creationism and evolution is a familiar debate in many North American classrooms. You may remember a documentary we aired earlier this year about "Biblically Correct" tours of museums in the United States where creationists take students through a museum of natural history to dispute Darwin's theory of evolution.

3rd Mar 2007 : Sen. Raymond Finney proposes to use the legislative process to get an answer to the question of whether the universe was created by a "Supreme Being."
Under Senate Resolution 17, introduced by the Maryville Republican, the answer would come from state Education Commissioner Lana Seivers "in report form" no later than Jan. 15, 2008.

19th Feb 2007 : Georgia lawmaker's plea comes to Texas through No. 2 in House

13th Feb 2007 : TOPEKA, Kan. - New, evolution-friendly science standards for Kansas' public schools were adopted Tuesday by the State Board of Education, replacing ones that questioned the theory and generated international ridicule.

3rd Feb 2007 : It will no doubt pain him to hear this, but the ongoing saga of David Paszkiewicz — the Kearny High School teacher who got caught using his classroom as a pulpit for Christianist wingnuttery — has been an object lesson in the workings of evolution, in terms of the Kearny school board's response.

23rd Jan 2007 : Teenagers will be asked to debate intelligent design (ID) in their religious education classes and read texts by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins under new government guidelines.

7th Dec 2006 : Schools will be told not to use special pack; Intelligent design group asks for meeting

6th Dec 2006 : Newsnight ran a segment about the dissemination of Intelligent Design teaching materials in the UK.

27th Nov 2006 : PR packs spread controversial theory

24th Nov 2006 : There is much to praise in the new Report of the Committee on General Education...

9th Nov 2006 : We teach 'a better theory,' unlicensed school says

3rd Aug 2006 : The seesaw battle over state science standards in Kansas seems to have tipped back a bit in the direction of sanity.

10th May 2006 : The third annual event for headteachers and senior managers from science colleges; and subject leaders and science practitioners from affiliated schools.

10th May 2006 : "How Current Are Our Classrooms?" is a 75-minute panel discussion held February 20, 2003 at THE FUTURE OF LIFE SUMMIT.

10th May 2006 : In this week's The Long View, Jonathan Freedland explores the role of religion in the school curriculum.