Print and Video Resources

The following collection are either referenced in this module, or good general references. Some of the items below could fit into more than one category. Graphic at left from 29+ Evidences for Macroevolution (more info) .

Activities, Approaches, and Material for Addressing Creationism and Pseudoscience

• Teaching Evolution in Higher Education. Alters and Nelson, 2002 The authors recommend teaching evolution using constructivist approach (getting students to describe their prior beliefs and then test them) and interactive lectures to deal with prior misconceptions. (citation and description)
  
• Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution. Dobzhansky, 1973 This essay by one of the major contributors to the Modern Synthesis summarizes some of the evidence for evolution and emphasizes that compatibility of Christianity and evolution. (citation and description)
  
• The Great Evolution Trial: Use of Role-Play in the Classroom. Duveen and Solomon, 1994 This article describes the design and implementation of a role-playing exercise dealing with a fictional blasphemy trial of Charles Darwin after the publishication of "Origin of Species". (citation and description)
  
• Project Atlantis- An Exercise in the Application of Earth Science to a Critical Examination of a Pseudoscience Hypothesis. Earle, 2003 This exercise has students who have just gone through a unit on plate tectonics examine the "crustal displacement" hypothesis which accounts for the fate of Atlantis. (citation and description)
  
• Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science. Farber, 2003 The author suggests a historical and case-study approach to the teaching of evolution in which the instructor starts with the problems that Darwin and other investigators were trying to solve. (citation and description)
  
• Scientists Confront Creationism. Godfrey, 1983 This collection includes essays on the history of Young-Earth Creationism and debunking particular "Creation Science" arguments. (citation and description)
  
• An Activity to Introduce the Geoscience Perspective. Havholm, 1998 This role-playing exercise introduces students to geology by having them examine rocks from the perspective of a child, a sculptor, a geologist or someone from another walk of life. (citation and description)
  
• What is right with 'teaching the controversy'?. Langen, 2004 The author stresses the nature of science in his basic biology class. He has his students apply scientific standards to creationist ideas and discuss whether these qualify as scientific theories. (citation and description)
  
• Regional geology as a unifying theme and a springboard to Deep Time. Miller, 2001 Miller has his students work out how long it would take to deposit various formations, given modern deposition rates, then asks why rocks of a given age are thicker in one area than at another. (citation and description)
  
• Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. National Academy of Science, 1998 This is a summary of the scientific evidence for evolution. (citation and description)
  
• Better Biology Teaching by Emphasizing Evolution and the Nature of Science. Nickels et al., 1996 The authors advise stressing the nature of science, using evolution as an organizing principle for biological topics, focusing on human evolution, and promoting critical thinking in biology classes. (citation and description)
  
• The Use of Critical Thinking Skills for Teaching Evolution in an Introductory Historical Geology Course. Rankey, 2003 In this exercise, students rate themselves on an evolutionist-creationist continuum and write a paper incorporating at least three books or articles summarizing the view that opposed theirs. (citation and description)
  
• Science and Earth History: the Evolution/Creation Controversy. Strahler, 1987 This is basically an earth science textbook. Each topic has chapters describing the scientific and creationist points of view with refutation of the creationist arguments. (citation and description)
  
• Using Melting Ice to Teach Radiometric Dating. Wise, 1990 This article describes a laboratory activity in which the melting of ice in a funnel is used as an analogue for radioactive decay. The physical setup of the lab is described as well as talking points for the instructor to use with the class in discussing the various analagies that can be drawn between the two processes. (Full Text Online)
  
• What is Deep Time and why should anyone care?. Zen, 2001 A field approach invites student inquiry into Deep Time. Students work out the relationships of features within and between sites and determine the overall chronology for the whole landscape. (citation and description)
  

References on Creationism and Creationists

• Substantial Numbers of Americans Continue to Doubt Evolution as Explanation for Origin of Humans. Brooks, 2001 More Americans describe themselves as "Creationists" with respect to human origins than as "Evolutionists". (Full Text Online)
  
• Pseudoscientific beliefs of Utah State University students. Crapo, 1989 A survey of public-university students from several states revealed widespread belief in Young-Earth Creationism and Cult Archaeology beliefs. (citation and description)
  
• Intelligent design and the future of science education. Drummond, 2002 Intelligent design is a non-scientific idea because it is not testable. It plays down the uncertainties and challenges that science still hasn't dealt with, and the need to work to deal with them. (citation and description)
  
• Religion as belief versus religion as fact. Dutch, 2002 This article contrasts science with religion, specifically with dogmatic beliefs about the role of scripture and the belief in miracles from which Young-Earth Creationism springs. (citation and description)
  
• Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Forrest and Gross, 2004 This book deals with the history and the politics of the Intelligent Design creationist movement. The authors also analyze and debunk the major ID scientific attacks on evolution. (citation and description)
  
• Finding Darwin's God. Miller, 1999 The author, a biologist and devout Christian, reviews the scientific and philosophic evidence against Intelligent Design, Young-Earth Creationism, and scientific atheism. (citation and description)
  
• The Creationists. Numbers, 1992 This history of Young-Earth Christian Creationism describes its origin (in response to Darwin's Origin of the Species) through its popularization in in the 1960's. (citation and description)
  
• A Biblical Critique of Creationism. O'Leary, 2003 This article is about the history of biblical interpretation, specifically of reading Genesis 1 as literal fact. (citation and description)
  
• Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics. Pennock, 2001 This book contains a collection of articles and essays written by Intelligent Design proponents and their neo-Darwinian critics. (citation and description)
  
• Creationism's Propaganda Assault on Deep Time and Evolution. Wise 2001 This article summarizes the Flood-Creation timeline and the efforts of the ICR (the Institute for Creation Research) to spread their beliefs. (citation and description)
  
• Creationism's geologic time scale. Wise, 1998 This is a detailed description and debunking of the entire Flood Creation timeline supported by most Creation Scientists. (citation and description)
  

Research on Learning

• Role of educational factors in college students' creation worldview. Deckard et al., 2003 Creationist educators found that the number of Young-Earth believers doubled after a required Christian apologetics course taught from a Young-Earth Creationist perspective. (citation and description)
  
• How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. National Academy of Science, 1999 A summary of educational research indicating general ways in which we can improve our teaching from kindergarten through university. (citation and description)
  
• A Private Universe. Schneps and Sadler, 1988 When asked what causes seasons, Harvard seniors consistently gave wrong answers. Schoolchildren taught the right answers may try to blend their old and new ideas or revert to the old ideas entirely. (citation and description)
  
• Taking Learning Seriously. Shulman, 1999 Any new learning must connect with what learners already know. Students manifest amnesia, fantasia, or inertia with respect to poorly learned material, generally after the exam. (citation and description)