Reviews the activities of the New Christian Right (NCR) related to teaching evolution in the public schools. Describes the effects of legislation and court litigation on the NCR's efforts to eliminate secular humanism from textbooks. Provides an NCR definition of secular humanism. (LS)

Describes the "special destiny-special faculty" paradigm that has dominated western thinking about the nature and origins of language and argues instead that language systems are like technologies and that language acquisition and use involves a range of capacities and skills, a view that could be called the "mosaic development…

Presents the results of two newspaper polls conducted in Kansas concerning the teaching of evolution. Finds that the majority of the state's citizens do think that evolution should be taught in the public schools. (WRM)

Many science teachers recognize that teaching aspects of the history of science helps students learn science content and the nature of science (NOS). The use of history can potentially humanize science, help students refine their critical thinking skills, promote a deeper understanding of scientific concepts, and address common student…

Although most high school students want their biology classes to include evolution, most high school biology classes in Minnesota do not emphasize evolution. This lack of an emphasis on evolution defies state educational standards and is associated with most students (high school and college) having serious misconceptions about evolution. The…

Evidence from developed Western societies is reviewed for the claims that (a) physical attractiveness judgments are substantially based on body size and shape, symmetry, sex-typical hormonal markers, and other specific cues and (b) physical attractiveness and these cues substantially predict health. Among the cues that the authors review, only…

Be it metaphysics, theology, or some other unifying framework, humans have long sought to determine "first principles" underlying knowledge. Larry Arnhart continues in this vein, positing a Darwinian web of genetic, cultural, and cognitive evolution to explain our social behavior in terms of human nature as governed by biology. He leaves it to us…

In this paper, I describe the action research I conducted in my third-grade science classrooms over the course of two years. In order to gain an understanding of my third-grade students' ideas about animal adaptations and how the teaching of a unit on crayfish influenced these ideas, I used clinical interviews, observations, and written…

Studies of the biology of music (as of language) are highly interdisciplinary and demand the integration of diverse strands of evidence. In this paper, I present a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of music, stressing the value of comparisons both with human language, and with those animal communication systems traditionally…

Educational administration, like many other social sciences, has traditionally followed the rubrics of classical science with its emphasis on prediction and control and attempts to understand the whole by understanding in ever finer detail how the parts fit together. However, the "new" science (especially quantum mechanics, complexity,…

The goal of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a middle school science curriculum designed to inspire students to think about science through studying the patterns of humans. The curriculum focuses on human behavior, evolution, ecology, and performance and is based on the notion that pattern recognition is highly correlated with…

Designed to explore the complex spectrum of motives and perceptions underlying contemporary criticism of science as expressed in the arena of public education, this study presents a comprehensive account of the struggle between creationists and scientists from the 19th century to the present. Part 1 briefly portrays the historical context of…

This is one of a series of 14 instructional components of a semester-long, environmental earth science course developed for undergraduate students. The course includes lectures, discussion sessions, and individualized learning carrel lessons. Presented are the study guide and script for a learning carrel lesson on processes and changes that have…

A review of the twin literature and analyses of two large twin samples found identical twin correlations higher than fraternal twin correlations by about .20 for a variety of traits of ability, personality and interests. This was interpreted as indicating that about half of the variation among people in a broad spectrum of psychological traits is…

Provides an index to all major articles and "Noted in the Current Journals" columns published in "Mercury" during 1977-1986. Articles are referenced under subject categories, listed in chronological order starting with the most recent. (TW)