Bill Nye FTW!!!!

Bill Nye may have been my favorite show when I was growing up, must prevent urge to buy DVDs. Over the last few years he has been making the rounds as one the the biggest proponents for science education here in the US. His comments made headlines when he said denying climate change was unpatriotic and now he has moved on to attacking evolution deniers. In response to a recent study saying that ~60% of teachers in the US ignore evolution to ignore the potential debate, Bill Nye was interviewed by Popular Mechanics. This interview is a good read and he includes some good ideas for teaching good science in US classrooms.

Well the longest journey starts with just a single step. Science education: We should support it. Especially elementary school science. Nearly every rocket scientist got interested in it before they were 10. Everybody who's a physician, who makes vaccines, who wants to find the cure for cancer. Everybody who wants to do any medical good for humankind got the passion for that before he or she was 10. So we want to excite a new generation of kids—every generation—about the passion, beauty and joy—the PB&J—of science. These anti-evolution people are frustrating in two ways. The first way is, almost certainly they know better. Those people really do believe in flu shots. They really do understand that when you find fossil bones of ancient dinosaurs, you are looking at deep time, not just 5000 years. And secondly, and much more importantly, having raised a generation of kids who don't understand science is bad for everyone. And with the United States having a leadership role in science and technology, having a generation of kids not believing in science is bad for the world.

Let's hope we can get this fixed!