@aidan,
Im dubious because of the intro you gave to the development of such a survey course. You made it sound as if all the "information" both pro and con a subject like evolution would be discussed. Is that what you really meant? If it is, we must recognize that whatever we present to kids in a survey course that serves as a "bad example of past thinking" can often be confused with something truly scientific.There had been a teacher in the LAncaster school system who was presenting "evidence" that the earth is only 100000 years old, and he wasnt caught until the standard tests began to dribble in and the system began to find out that there were whole clots of kids that were giving these weird answers to relatively esy and basic questions. (A TEACHER WIELDS ONE HELL OF A WEAPON BY BEING ABLE TO SELECT AND COLOR THE INFORMATION THAT HE/SHE PRESENTS)
Sometimes when we write on the boards, we dont come across as we fully intend.
Im concerned that students be given the full bag of tricks in their science curricula and not have it watered down with mere speculation that is posing as "Alternative theories" > ESpecially in a survey seminar(As I infer from you posts) where there are neither course prerequisites nor any attempts to keep the students fully informed on how the scientific thought processes develop.
I certainly like seminars on subjects that could serve as useful tools to students furthering their careers. Ive often thought that an elective course on "HOW SCIENTISTS PURSUE THEIR RESEARCH". This would be a disclosure of the seminal principals that serve as the evidentiary bases of any particular subject.
OR , A course that takes F Dobznsky's statement
"Nothing in biology makes any sense except in the lighht of evolution" and puseues it through evidence and example of how STRONG the theory of natural selection is.
The above seminars and another one I call, "History of SCience" would be a good set of electives for the Ad placement kids. When such courses are planned and delivered only after a good grounding in the science, they can be valuable to the kids advanced education. When such courses are presented from a standpoint of providing a teacher with ego satisfaction, I predict major troubles.
A mini example. 15 years ago, I served on a curriculum advisory committee for 2 "Historically Black Colleges " and two private libreal arts colleges. The group of 4 colleges shared talents in specific subjects (eg genetics and advanced organic preparations). Each college did not have the specific resources to have a fulltime faculty in some of these subjects.
My committee was approached when the colleges got the idea to focus on "Environmental Management" as a career path. I was working in the periphery of environmental stuff and was admitted to this work group . The teachers all agreed that WEnvironmental Management was a way to go forward. Several of us on the committee, each one an applied science practitioner, voiced our disfavor over the lack of any scientific rigor in any one area of the sciences. So, instead of working for a degree in , chemistry, or biology, or geology, the kids were going to graduate with BS in ENvironmental Management. Most of us felt that this was doing the kids a disservice and , it turned out that such a "career path" ws the love child of the shared faculty members who had no experience in the workaday world. These career paths were entered into despite our committees split (almost down the middle we were either in support or jighly critical). The WEnvironmental MAnagement programs continued until the industry changed to become a "commodity service" At that time, the colleges, not recognizing our earlier riticisms, changed back to a discipline oriented curriculum in the sciences.
The good intentions of the faculty led to a decided decrease in the quality of education for about 10 years, when entirely new batches of faculty, mostly eager to integrate computer skills within the disciplines , rejiggered the overall direction that these colleges were going. I was , of course , elated at how the principles of evolution manifest themselves in curriculum "Adaptation"