English 106 Blog

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Library Sources

Monday, October 29, 2007

Primary sources- A potential primary source for my topic could be to interview a biology teacher. And to get the other side of the argument, I could interview a priest or some other clergyman to get his view on the topic.

Secondary sources- My secondary sources will mostly consist of scholary research from either the internet or the library. I have already found a couple real good sites and articles by quailified authors on the topic. I will also probably incorporate court cases dealing with the subject, to show that there is still a controversy going on.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Research So Far

I've been able to find a lot on the subject of why creationism should not be taught in public science rooms. That if you allow creationism to be taught in public schools, you have to open the door for all pseudosciences to be taught as well. I've also read up on the ways that religious networks teach kids at a very young age not to believe in evolution, and how that sticks throughout a lot of their lives. This connects with my overall topic, which is what is the role of educators and what is their responsibility in teaching the truth. The fact is that there are many teachers that are afraid to teach evolution because they are scared of pressure and backlash from parents. Recently there were a couple high school teachers in Colorado, that after teaching evolution in science class, there was so much of an outcry by parents and so much pressure put on them, that they were forced to resign and relocate.

I would say that my research paper will be under the category Advocate in a Controversy. Instead of just evaluating the debate whether creationism should be taught in public schools or not, my paper will defienetely be taking a side in the argument and have a purpose. Part of my paper, though, will have instances of Reviewer of a Controversy, Analyzer and Evaluator of a Controversy, and also Analytical Thinker Positioned in a Critical Conversation.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

List of potential sources

List of sources-
Carl Sagan site called Does the truth matter
Sites that cover recent cases dealing with the topic
Article from the Anti-Defamation League on the topic
Anything else I can find on Google Scholar

List of keywords-
creationism in public schoolos
intelligent design
creationism vs. evolution
pseudoscience

Friday, October 19, 2007

Plans to say/do

Plans to say

Since I'm doing my paper on the debate of whether creationism should be taught in school or not, my audience would most likely be academics and people in education. But since the academic community has almost universally agreed that creationism has no place in a science classroom, I will not just focus on the science of it.

Plans to do

Since a recent poll had the United States population almost split down the middle in belief between evolution and creationism, I can address the larger issue of scientific illeteracy. That scientific illiteracy is a bad thing for a country to have because it is through knowledge of how things are and work that makes it able for a country to fix their problems. Also, how the proponents of intelligent design theory have helped to give the false-belief that creationism has scientific validity. The thing that can tie this all together is the idea of what the purpose of education is, and how educators can address this problem and what they should do about it.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Exploration

Part 1: Exploration

1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.

The topic I chose is does "creationism" have any place in the public school system.

2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?

My interest in the topic is that I think it is extremely important that truth and facts are taught in school, and creationism goes completely against this.

3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?

My opinion is that creationism has absolutely no place in the public school system, especially in a science class. All of the tenets of creationism and intelligent design have been disproven by the entire scientific community, so teaching it to children would be teaching them lies intentionally.

4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?

I know about the history of the struggle between teaching evolution or creationism in school. I followed a case just a year ago about a public school trying to get intelligent design taught in school, fortunately the court deemed it unconstitutional. One thing I'm curious about is how is it possible this argument is still going on, at least in the United States, Europe has almost universally accepted evolution. With all of the knowledge we have obtained in the past one hundred and fifty years about earth and life on it, it's almost hard to believe it is still going on.

6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?

The three main scholarly disciplines I will focus on are biology/science, theology and education. Biology because of evolution, theology because of creationism, and education to decide which one should be taught.

7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?

I could go to the Field Museum which has a whole section on evolution, and talk to the scientists there and get their views on creationism. I guess to be fair I could talk to a cleric and get his views on the topic.

Part 2: Focusing
Astronomy is taught in schools, not astrology; chemistry is taught in schools, not alchemy; just as evolution should be taught in schools, not creationism. The reason astronomy, chemistry and evolution are taught in schools, is because all three use scientific inquiry to gather observations and facts, and then are agreed upon by the scientific community at large. Science books in classrooms are then written based on these findings. On the other hand, astrology, alchemy and creationism are all based on ancient superstitions which completely lack anything resembling scientific data to back them up. Now, no one is arguing that astrology and alchemy should be taught in schools anymore, so why should creationism have any place in the classroom either?

Monday, October 15, 2007

Research Paper Ideas

What place should "creationism" have in the public education system?

1. A history of the clash between the teaching of evolution and creationism. (Education, Science, Theology)

2. Since creationism has never been supported by any respected scientist, and everything supporting it has been disproven, it has no place in a science class room. (Education, Science)

3. Teaching creationism in school violates the constitution, and other obvious problems with teaching creationism and intelligent design in public schools. (Education, Sociology)