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School Plans May Include `Intelligent Design'

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Board to review state's upcoming science curriculum

COLUMBUS - Proposed science lesson plans for Ohio classrooms are drawing fire from some critics who say at least one lesson introduces "intelligent design."

Two years ago Ohio made international headlines when it considered teaching intelligent design alongside evolution. Intelligent design - the idea that life is so complex a higher being must have created it - is not part of the state's new science standards. The standards, adopted in December 2001, outline what Ohio's 1.8 million students need to know for proficiency tests, graduation and the real world.

But now the state Board of Education is in the midst of approving 160 lesson plans to guide teachers in how to cover the science standards. The lesson plans are expected to be completed by June so they can be used in the upcoming academic year. The 19-member board will meet Monday and Tuesday to approve some of the science lessons.

Some scientists say creationists are quietly pushing to get their foot into Ohio science classrooms by slipping intelligent design into lesson plans.

But State Board of Education member Deborah Owens Fink, a proponent of intelligent design, is quick to say there is no such hidden agenda. "That's a ridiculous comment. There is nothing in there that is not about science," she said.

Lynn Elfner, executive director of the Ohio Academy of Science and a band of scientists have been pouring over the lesson plans, in part, to make sure intelligent design isn't included. The task is cumbersome and state education officials don't make it any easier, Elfner said. He had to file a public records request to get all the lesson plans and wait five weeks for the data - 1,200 pages with no index.

"This sport is not for the casual observer or faint of heart," he said.

So far, scientists are upset with one proposed 10th-grade biology lesson plan, "Critical Analysis of Evolution." The plan cites at least two intelligent design sources in the bibliography and calls for students to describe how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze evolutionary theory, Elfner said.

"It is a real disservice to all the other sciences to imply that evolutionary theory is the only one critically analyzed," said Professor Steve Rissing, director of introductory biology at Ohio State University, who is helping to review the material. All scientific theory is subject to analysis and revision.

Board of Education member Carl Wick of Centerville, said, "I am concerned if that opens the door to intelligent design as some have called it to be."

Wick, a former high school science teacher and retired NCR Corp. worker, said, "We should not introduce intelligent design in biology or any science course."

Owens Fink said with the new standards, Ohio students will learn more about evolution than ever before. Only one of 10 items students must learn about evolution aims to expose them to both sides of the issue, she said.

"I think that the lessons that we have will really excite students about science and I think it's a model for the nation on how other states can deal with controversial issues as we go toward the standards-based reform model," Owens Fink said.

While Ohio's struggle with evolution and intelligent design has been quiet lately, Georgia is making headlines for removing "evolution" from its standards and cutting back on evolution concepts that are to be taught to high school and middle school students.

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