creationist essay winners versus true

Creationist Essay Winners Versus True Young Scientists

Answers In Genesis has announced its winners in the creationist essay

contest for young people. Zeno and Bay of Fundie provide appropriate

evaluations of these essays, which meet the predictions we would all

expect from homeschoolers and the religiously educated who have been

successfully sheltered from actual science. Zeno sums up the expected

content of the essays:

While it's not fair to expect teenagers to write purely original

essays, all of the winning papers suffer from the suffocating effects

of their reliance on recycled creationist propaganda. Time and again

the writers make demonstrably untrue statements (and they probably

don't know any better). In this, of course, they simply mirror their

elders.

Through random chance (or should I attribute it to divine

intervention?) the very antithesis of an Answers In Genesis sponsored

essay contest also published their winners this year. In my current

issue of Natural History (arriving the day I first learned of the AIG

essay winners) the American Museum of Natural History also announced

its 2007 Young Naturalist Awards winners. From the article:

Every year scientists from the American Museum of Natural History

travel far and wide on expeditions to learn more about the natural

world. The Young Naturalist Awards, now in its tenth year, invites

students in grades 7-12 throughout the United States and Canada to

follow in those footsteps, embarking on their own expeditions in areas

of biology, Earth science, or astronomy. Their research can be

conducted as to home as their backyard or a local pond or stream.

This year's Young Naturalist Award winners are:

Ashley Hunt (Grade 7) - Algae in the Weiva River: Is it Helping or

Hurting Water Quality?

Noah McDonald (Grade 7) - The Toads of Delaware County

Alexandria Day (Grade 8) - An Analysis of Water Quality on the Severn

River over Two Years

Ryan Wham (Grade 8) - Lighter, Brighter, and Cooler: An Analysis of

the Effects of Roofing Albedo on Ambient Temperature

Alex Nagler (Grade 9) - Investigation of Water Quality in Mercer

County Lake

Jon Atkinson (Grade 9) - Barn Owls on the Side of the Road

Viola Li (Grade 10) - From the Desert to the Subalpine Forest

Nikola Champlin (Grade 10) - Thigmomorphogenesis in Pisum Tendril

Development

Anastasia Roda (Grade 11) - Human Factor IV: The Impact of a Boiling

Water Nuclear Reactor on the Plankton, Benthic, and Biofouling

Communities in the Reactor's Intake and Discharge Creek

Arjun Potter (Grade 11) - A Survey of the Birds of Indroda Nature Park

in Gujarat, India

Joanna Nishimura (Grade 12) - More Than Meets the Eye: Do Himasthla

sp. B Cercariae Use Chemo-orientation?

Jeremy Koelmel (Grade 12) - Lichens as Indicators of Vehicle Pollution

More on the contest winners may be found here.

The distinction betwee these kids and the winners of the AIG

creationist contest is quite clear. The Young Naturalist winners

followed the dictates of science by asking questions, gathering data

and then reporting on where those data led them in their

interpretation. The ground rules of the contest made this quiet clear:

After identifying a question, students plan how they will gather

information, conduct outside research to learn more about their topic

and possible methodologies, observe their subjects, and record their

findings. Finally, their data analysis results in conclusions that

either answer the original questions or lead to further inquiry.

By contrast, the AIG essay contest winners had already determined

their conclusions before even beginning any research. Research was

largely confined to those sources that already agree to their position

and anything presented in alternate sources was either falsified,

mischaracterized or the data ignored so that the biblical mythology

could be upheld.