KU professor recognized for efforts to reinstate evolution in Kansas schools

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas professor recently was honored for his part in helping reinstate the teaching of evolution in the Kansas public school science curriculum.

Adrian Melott, professor of physics and astronomy at KU, received the Joseph A. Burton Forum Award from the American Physical Society, a scientific society with more than 40,000 members. The $3,000 award recognizes "outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society."

Melott played an active role in voicing opposition to the Kansas State Board of Education's decision to de-emphasize evolution in its science curriculum in 1999. Throughout that year, he met with teachers and school administrators, attended state education board meetings and joined several other KU faculty members in writing the book "A Kansan's Guide to Science." The book, published by the Kansas Geological Survey at KU, clearly spells out the basic understanding of scientific discoveries and the scientific process.

Although he was honored to receive the award, Melott said he became an evolution advocate by default.

"It kind of sneaked up on me," he said. "It started about four years ago when there was an attempt in Lawrence to suppress evolution in our local schools. Then it became a state issue and even a national issue."

Any initial reluctance he had was long gone by the time the state board of education chose to de-emphasize evolution. Even though he didn't teach evolution in his physics classes, Melott felt strongly that the integrity of all science education was at stake.

"Trying to teach biology without evolution is like trying to teach physics without gravity," he said.

The APS award also recognized Melott for supporting the retention of global warming and cosmology in science curriculum and for helping create a Sunday-school kit that bridges science and religion by explaining the big-bang and evolution theories. Some 100 Sunday schools across the nation currently use the kit.

"The Sunday-school curriculum wasn't designed to tell people what to believe, it was designed to tell them about the science in a positive, non-threatening way," said Melott, who was a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church for seven years.

Melott said he appreciated that the award demonstrated a sign of solidarity between physicists and biologists.

"It shows that the physicists value protecting the independence of biologists -- it's not just a case of scientists looking out for their own," he said.

Things seem to have settled down in Kansas, but Melott said he would remain vigilant, especially now that it is an election year.

"The whole thing could be reversed within this coming year if we don't stay awake," he said. "I'm really hoping to see people run in both major parties who want to protect mainstream science."

Meanwhile, he can't help but keep an eye on the situation in Ohio, where intelligent-design advocates are lobbying to have their theory taught alongside evolution in science classes. The intelligent-design theory states that everything in the universe was designed by an intelligent being and was not the result of natural processes.

As he watches the situation unfold in Ohio, Melott sees obvious similarities with what happened in Kansas; he also can't help noticing the differences.

"They've got intelligent design dressed up as if it were a scientific theory and they want to add that to the curriculum to make it appear that there is a raging debate within biology that evolution didn't happen -- which would be false," he said. "Ohio is facing a tougher battle, but it goes both ways. There is more money behind the intelligent-design cause. On the other hand, the scientific community in Ohio has gotten involved much earlier than the community in Kansas did, so they are ahead of us."

The debate over teaching evolution is likely to spring up across the nation from time to time. The bottom line, Melott said, is to keep students, parents, educators and policy makers informed on the science behind evolution.

"A lot of times children are taught the results of science but not where those answers come from, so they get the idea that it's some kind of fashion or fad," he said. "It is subject to change, but it also is based on evidence."