Good news: US classrooms are warming to evolution, thanks in part to scientist outreach

Good news: US classrooms are warming to evolution, thanks in part to scientist outreach

How we boosted evolution in US classrooms

A decades-long effort, aided by the scientific community, to support the teaching of evolution in US schools is bearing fruit, writes Ann Reid, the executive director at the National Center for Science Education in California. The proportion of US secondary-school biology teachers who present creationism as a scientifically valid alternative to evolution fell from 32% in 2007 to 18% in 2019. And the amount of class time devoted to human evolution shot up by almost 90%. Reid lays out how scientists helped to make it happen, and how we can tackle the next challenge: climate science.

Nature | 4 min read