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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
SCIENCE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Bill Nye advocates evolution
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In an Oct. 18, file photo, Bill Nye, host of television's "Bill Nye the Science Guy," arrives as President Barack Obama hosts a White House science fair in Washington. Nye recently waded into the evolution debate with an online video.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The man known to a generation of Americans as "The Science Guy" is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms.
Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show "Bill Nye The Science Guy," has waded into the evolution debate with an online video that urges parents not to pass their religious-based doubts about evolution on to their children.
Christians who view the stories of the Old Testament as historical fact have come to be known as creationists, and many argue that the world was created by God just a few thousand years ago.
"The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old." Nye said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not. And that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs."
Millions of Americans do hold those beliefs, according to a June Gallup poll that found 46 percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10.000 years ago.
Nye, 56, also decried efforts in recent years by lawmakers and school boards in some states to present Bible stories as an alternative to evolution in public schools. Tennessee passed a law earlier this year that protects teachers who let students criticize evolution and other scientific theories. That echoes a Louisiana law passed in 2008 that allows teachers to introduce supplemental teaching materials in science classes.
"If we raise a generation of students who don't believe in the process of science, who think everything that we've come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you're
not going to continue to innovate;"
Nye said in a wide-ranging telephone interview.
The brief online video was not Nye's first foray into the combustible debate, but "it's the first time it's gotten to be such a big deal."
"I can see where one gets so caught up in this (debate) that you say something that will galvanize people in a bad way, that will make them hate you forever," he said. "But I emphasize that I'm not questioning someone's religion — much of that is how you were brought up."
In the video he tells adults they can dismiss evolution, "but don't make your kids do it. Because we need them." Posted by Big Think, an online knowledge forum, the clip went viral and has 4.6 million views on YouTube. It has garnered 182,000
comments from critics and supporters.
Nye, who is prone to inject dry humor into scientific discussions, said Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
It drew the ire of the creationism group Answers in Genesis, which built a biblically based Creation Museum in Kentucky that teaches the stories of the Old Testament and has attracted headlines for its assertion that dinosaurs roamed alongside Adam and Eve.
the group produced a response video featuring two scientists who say the Bible has the true account of Earth's origins, and that "children should be exposed to both ideas concerning our past."
"What I find troubling, when you listen to these people ... once in a while I get the impression that they're
Ken Ham, a co-founder of Answers in Genesis, said dating methods used by scientists to measure the age of the earth are contradictory and many don't point to millions or billions of years of time.
"We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God," Ham said. "Time is the crucial factor for Bill Nye. Without the time of millions of years, you can't postulate evolution change."
not kidding," Nye said.
America is home to the world's biggest creationist following, Ham said, and the $27 million Creation Museum has averaged about 330,000 visitors a year since it opened just south of Cincinnati in 2007.
EDUCATION
SAT reading scores sink to all-time low
I ASSOCIATED PRESS
National reading scores on the SAT college-entrance exam have sunk to their lowest point in 40 years, and the proportion of test takers deemed fully prepared for college remains flat at 43 percent, the test's sponsors announced Monday morning.
The average score on the exam's "critical reading" section among this year's college-bound seniors dropped to 496 points, down one point from last year and 34 points from 1972. Each of the SAT's three sections critical reading, writing and mathematics is scored on a range of 200 to 800.
Writing scores also dipped one point from last year, to 488
SAT math scores remained steady from last year, at an average 514 nationwide. That score, too, was down from a peak of 520. recorded in 2005.
—the lowest result since an essay-writing section was added to the test in 2006. The average writing score in that initial year was 497.
The College Board calculated that 43 percent of SAT takers in this year's freshman class were well-prepared for studies at four-year colleges — the same figure as in 2011. That's based on the percentage of students scoring a combined 1550 points — an indication they would earn a B- average or better during their first year of college.
"When less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, that system is failing," said Gaston Caperton,
president of the Manhattan based College Board, which sponsors the admissions test.
The College Board itself has faced criticism since last year, when security lapses in SAT administration led to charges of cheating against more than 15 Long Island students. The case revolved around a graduate of Great Neck North High School, Sam Eshaghoff, who was charged with accepting thousands of dollars for taking the college-admissions tests for other students, using forged student IDs.
As a result of that investigation, the College Board has put new security precautions in place for the next round of SAT testing that begins Oct. 6. One new requirement that will take effect early in 2013 is that test-takers will have to upload photos of themselves for the tickets that are issued to those scheduled for testing.
According to SAT results released Monday, New York State's average reading score dropped two points from last year, to 478. Writing scores also were down one point, at 469. Math results rose a point, to 498.
The proportion of New York State students taking the SAT —88 percent — is one of the highest in the country. As a result, New York's score averages tend to be lower than averages in states where student participation rates are lower.
A GROCERY GAMBLE
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Cherys Eland, left, and Ashton Wilkin, right, both freshmen from Lenexa, focus on their boards in hopes of getting a blackout, a full bingo board, to win some free groceries at SUA's Grocery Bingo event at Hashinger Hall on Monday night.
The Wichita Eagle reported that Hinshaw, who lost his reelection bid in August, said 49 inmates out of the jail's average population of 1,463 would be housed in a mental health pod, if the jail had one, and there are about 225 others who are taking some form of medication for mental disorders.
"It's frustrating." Hinshaw said. "I think it's something that we do need in the Sedgwick County Jail. Right or wrong, regardless of how you feel about it, we see more people with mental illnesses being incarcerated, and we need to have the tools to provide the proper level of care."
Some counties such as Johnson and Shawnee have created pods at their jails where prisoners suffering from mental illnesses are segregated from the general population.
Of those 49 inmates, 43 are in custody on felony charges, including seven who are charged with murder or attempted murder.
STATE
Shortage of mental health facilities leaves more in jail
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHITA, Kan. — Scarce mental health resources in Kansas are boosting county jail populations with inmates who might be better served in a psychiatric ward than behind bars.
But in Sedgwick County, the state's second most-populous county, Sheriff Robert Hinshaw has tried and failed for three years to get such a pod built at the county jail.
Jails have become mental health institutions to some degree
"In the end, the more effectively we work with our mental health population while they're in custody and keep them on their medications, the less likely they are to come back. Although we invest some money up front, in the long run it's much more cost-effective," Erickson said.
Tom Erickson, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said the county's special pods helps reduce the time mentally ill inmates spend behind bars because of the attention they receive while there.
He said an inmate struggling with mental illness might get back on medications in jail, but not have the resources to stay on
Johnson County's jail has two special units for people with mental illnesses, one for men and one for women. The sheriff's office also has started a "forensic assertive community team" that tries to help people reintegrate back into society after leaving jail.
The average length of stay for an inmate is 28 days, but for the 49 inmates Hinsaw would house in a special pod, the average is 165 days. Sedgwick County spends nearly $68 per day to house one person in the jail.
because the state's mental hospitals have waiting lists, and most counties, including Sedgwick, don't have long-term facilities for people with mental illnesses.
With an average daily population of 650 to 700 inmates, Johnson County estimates about 17 percent of its inmates are mentally ill.
Richard Kline, director of the department, said one pod is for inmates on suicide watch, one is for inmates "you can't put in a general population" because of mental illness, and the third is available for inmates who may have a combination of mental and medical problems.
them after being released. He said the county works with inmates to get them help the help they need to stay out of jail in the future.
Shawnee County, whose jail is operated by the county Department of Corrections, has three pods for people diagnosed with mental problems.
"The economy is tough all over, so community resource dollars are tightening up," Kline said. "Access to the state hospitals is becoming more and more difficult. So even if someone wants to voluntarily commit themselves to Osawatomie or Larned, they've got a waiting line. If they don't have adequate support systems, well then, something happens and they end up in jail. The lack of state mental health facilities is a ripple effect. It ripples back to the community and then within the community, they end up in the jail."
Shawnee County has been using special pods since 2002, Kline said. It has an average inmate population of about 475, and about 20 percent have serious and persistent mental illnesses.
"It's a constant balancing act," Kline said. "We're the largest inpatient mental health facility in Shawnee County. We just are."
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