Evolution: Its Teaching and Influence on Personal Opinion

Overview

Objectives/Goals This experiment had the unequivocal goal of examining the level of evolutionary teaching at Chaminade College Preparatory School. Equally important is to examine opinion regarding creationism being taught alongside evolution in public schools. Methods/Materials This experiment began with proper research regarding evolutionary teaching in the United States. After the initial research, a survey was compiled that contained an objective portion to test evolutionary knowledge and a subjective portion to relate to the statistics discovered in the objective portion. The surveys were then passed out in a controlled environment where no communication was allowed between students. The proctor then collected the surveys. The data was then correlated and the objective portions scored to give the appropriate data to answer the corresponding hypotheses. Results To begin, the average objective score was 12. The average fervency rating for those who do believe in evolution was 2.86 where as the religious fervency rating for those who do not believe in evolution was 4.16. The actual breakdown of the sample pool reveals that 48.9% of students believe in evolution but support creationism taught alongside evolution in public schools. The second largest pool was 34.4%, which contained students who believed in evolution and who did not support the teaching of creationism. Conclusions/Discussion The data received showed an above average objective score of 12 and an indefinite correlation between knowledge, evolutionary belief and whether or not creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public high schools. However,religious fervency did increase when students did not believe in evolution, and believed creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public high schools. Ultimately, religious fervency does affect evolutionary belief and whether or not creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public high schools. Also, the standard of teaching at Chaminade, while above average, is not totally flawless. Equally important is the realization that knowledge of evolution did not affect the student opinion regarding creationism and belief in evolution.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Behavioral Sciences · Entry S0322

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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