Title: The Teaching of Evolution | NSTA
Headings: The Teaching of Evolution
The Teaching of Evolution
Introduction
Declarations
Within this context, NSTA recommends that
NSTA Offers the Following Background Information:
The Nature of Science and Scientific Theories
Evolution as a Unifying Concept
Creationism and Other Non-Scientific Views
Legal Issues
References
Additional Resources

Content: Scientific conclusions are tested by experiment and observation, and evolution, as with any aspect of science, is continually open to and subject to experimental and observational testing. The importance of evolution is summarized as follows in the National Academy of Sciences publication Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science: “ Few other ideas in science have had such a far-reaching impact on our thinking about ourselves and how we relate to the world” (NAS 1998, p. 21). Creationism and Other Non-Scientific Views
The National Academy of Sciences observes in Science, Evolution, and Creationism that “arguments of creationists reverse the scientific process. They begin with an explanation that they are unwilling to alter—that supernatural forces have shaped biological or Earth systems—rejecting the basic requirements of science that hypotheses must be restricted to testable natural explanations. Their beliefs cannot be tested, modified, or rejected by scientific means and thus cannot be a part of the processes of science” (NAS 2008, p. 43). Because science limits itself to natural explanations and not religious or ultimate ones, science teachers should neither advocate any religious interpretation of nature nor assert that religious interpretations of nature are not possible. The word creationism has many meanings. In its broadest meaning, creationism is the idea that the universe is the consequence of something transcendent. Thus to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, God created;