Science education is in the news again in Kansas. The Kansas State Board of Education has changed the language in the science standards suggesting that basic evolutionary concepts were controversial and being challenged by new research. Now this statement is out, and the definition of science has reverted to its earlier version limiting science to the search for natural explanations of what is observed in the universe.

The reversal is the result in the composition of the Kansas Board of Education. Now dems and moderates outnumber conservatives, resulting in the shift away from “creationism,” “intelligent design,” and the notion that evolution is a controversial concept, and therefore should be scrutinized in classroom discussions. One might wonder why science educators would disagree with this last notion—isn’t discussion in science class a good thing. Yes it is. Yes, it should happen. Yes, it does happen. However, in the Kansas case, a clever group (the Discovery Institute—and excuse me, this is an oxymoron) has used the notion of “controversy” to claim that students should have directed discussions showing the “research” and “controversies” surrounding evolution. The problem is that there is no scientific support for these “research findings” or “controversies.

All concepts in science should be discussed, not simply evolution. In fact, a powerful teaching strategy in science classrooms is debate—the setting up of opportunities for students to debate ideas in science. One specific way to do this is the “case study” method. You can explore many science cases by visiting a collection of cases at The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. A brief scroll down the list of cases shows the breath of topics in science class that should be discussed.