Speaker, SMU workshop to focus on teaching evolution

Dr. Barbara Forrest, a leading expert on the intelligent design movement, will speak at SMU about "Why Texans Shouldn't Let Creationists Mess With Science Education." Her free lecture is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 11 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom and parking will be available on Bishop Boulevard.

Forrest’s presentation follows an afternoon workshop, "Teaching Evolution in Texas Schools," presented by SMU faculty for Dallas-area teachers. Both Forest's lecture and the workshop are sponsored by the University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Center for Teaching Excellence, and departments of Anthropology, Biology and Philosophy within Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. Forrest's lecture is co-sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund.

Forrest is co-author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.

She served as an expert witness in the 2005 landmark federal legal battle over intelligent design, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District. The plaintiffs in that case successfully defeated a school district policy that required a presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, arguing that intelligent design is a form of creationism and teaching it is prohibited under the constitutional separation of church and state.

The "Teaching Evolution" workshop for Dallas area teachers is scheduled for 1-5:30 p.m. Nov. 11 on the lower level of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Teachers are eligible to earn continuing education credit through participation. The free program will include:

• Central points in evolution instruction
• Identifying misconceptions and pseudoscience
• Strategies for objective and rational inquiry

Registration for the teacher workshop is available online at http://smu.edu/cte/

Seating is limited for Dr. Forrest's lecture, and reservations are available at http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Barbara_Forrest_2008