Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Pennsylvania Parents Fight Teaching of 'Intelligent Design', 09/14/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec05/design_9-28.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What does "separation of church and state" mean?

2. What are the differences between theory and fact?

3. Why is there a strong debate over where human beings came from?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why are some parents taking the Dover School District to court?

Parents of public high school students in Dover, Pa. have taken the school district to court because, alongside of the scientific theory of evolution, teachers are including a discussion of "intelligent design" -- which argues that some unknown force must be involved in the creation of more complex creatures like humans.

The lawsuit filed by 11 parents charges that the policy violates the principle of separation of church and state, arguing that intelligent design is little more than a modified "creationism" which says a divine being created life. It is the latest legal struggle in a national debate over how the origins of human life should be taught in public schools.

2. Who wrote about the theory of evolution? What is it?

Charles Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution in the 1859 book, "Origin of Species." Darwin argued a theory of natural selection, under which living organisms adapt genetically over time in order to thrive in their own environment. Evolutionary theory also suggests that humans evolved from apes in a slow and random change over a long period of time.

3. What has the Supreme Court said about teaching evolution and creationism?

In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited laws banning the teaching of evolution in public schools in Epperson v. Arkansas, citing that it was a violation of the separation of church and state. The court further ruled in 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard that school districts cannot require that equal time be given to the teaching of creationism when evolution is taught.

4. What is intelligent design?

Proponents of intelligent design assert that Darwin's theory cannot explain the incredible intricacies of complex life forms, such as humans; therefore, they must be the work of an intelligent cause, rather than an undirected process.

5. What do critics say about intelligent design?

Critics of intelligent design, which include a majority of scientists, argue it is merely another name for creationism, the belief in the literal Genesis story of the Bible. According to the critics, teaching intelligent design in public schools would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment which states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Many scientists also denounce intelligent design as being a theory without any actual science behind it.

Kenneth Miller, a Brown University biology professor and author of a high school science textbook, testified in Harrisburg, Pa.: "To my knowledge, every single scientific society that has taken a position on this issue has taken a position against intelligent design and in favor of evolution."

6. What have public opinion polls shown about intelligent design?

Public opinion polls have consistently shown that much of the American public does not agree with the scientific community. In a March 2005 poll conducted by NBC News, 57 percent of respondents believed that the "biblical account of creation" was the most likely explanation of the origin of humans; only 33 percent believed it was evolution.

Opponents of evolution use surveys like this to make their case that school boards have the right to require that other theories be taught. The courts, on the other hand, have regularly argued that teaching theories such as creationism and intelligent design would violate the Constitution.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Should teachers be required to discuss intelligent design in the classroom when the topic of evolution is discussed? Why or why not? Explain your reasoning.

2. Who should decide what curriculum science teachers use in the classroom? Should it be a local school board, state or federal governments, scientists or teachers themselves? Explain your reasoning.

3. Why do you think the American public has a different view on the origins of human beings than scientists?

4. Is evolution taught in your school? How is it taught? Do you agree or disagree with this method? If not, how would you change this?

Write a 300-500 word essay on either of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.