ScienceDebate2008 has been carefully monitoring, and indeed, encouraging participants in supporting the passage of the stimulus bill, which will be signed into law by President Obama in Colorado, on Tuesday.

There are two broad strokes that have been taken to “stimulate” science and science education in the USA. The first was the presidential election result, and some of the appointments that President Obama made including his Department of Energy secretary (Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel prize recipient), and his chief scientific advisor, Dr. John Holdren, former President of AAAS and Harvard Professor. Many within the scientific community see these appointments as a reversal of the policies that were in place over the past eight years. Some point to Presidential comments such as the following as evidence that science will play an increasingly valid and important role in policy debate and decisions:

…promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.

The second broad stroke is that science and science education will be a part of the stimulus bill to the amount of about $65 billion for infrastructure and research, especially in the areas of energy, and health. You can see the House, Senate and Conference Committee numbers for science at this link. I think you will find it interesting to take a look that this spreadsheet, and see where some of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are going to be used.

Relevant here I think is the theme of the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting being held in Chicago. The theme of the conference is: Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures. Interestingly AAAS description of its theme recalls that 2009 is the 20th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, but also notes that 150 years ago, the first commercial oil well was built in Drake, Pennsylvania, and the discovery by John Tyndall that CO2 absorbs infrared radiation. Research was reported on biofuels, global climate change, global energy security, natural selection, threats and challenges for global ecosystems, media coverage of climate change, science for diplomacy (building scientific cooperation with North Korea) and many other topics. Link here to the full program.

As science educators, we know that teaching impacts the future of our students. As teachers we provide students with the tools to help them build their own futures. The same is true of Earth’s future, as quoted here from the AAAS site:

But we need not let this be the future that is realized. Just as advances in technology and advances in science have led both to our current condition and our understanding of its implications, the wise use of technology and scientific understanding can allow us to select a different future.