A survey done by an ISU graduate student showed incoming ISU biology majors hold misconceptions about evolution, and even after education, some graduating seniors held fast to theistic beliefs over that of evolution.

This trend possible explanations in the fact that evolution is not primarily taught in public schools. The controversy surrounding the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case, in which a judge in Pennsylvania ruled against teaching intelligent design, shows how volatile the subject is.

The recent study done by Justin Rice, graduate in interdisciplinary graduate studies, seems to suggest students who take courses in biology – especially those who advance upward into the major itself – will have their opinions changed about whether “evolution is a just a theory.” Rice gave a seminar on his findings Friday in Room 240 in Bessey Hall.

The survey’s central focus is whether the preconceived notions or misconceptions about evolution of those taking Iowa State’s biology courses, particularly of those taking Principles of Biology lecture course (Biology 211) for majors, change with education. How has the course changed students’ opinions on a fundamental principle of natural science itself? How about attitudes after they completed the course?

Rice’s seminar, “Evolution Education at Iowa State University: Student Understanding of Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design,” deals with findings from a survey that began in spring 2006 with surveying graduating seniors in biology. In fall 2006, freshmen in biology were surveyed before taking Biology 211, and again after instruction. These three survey groups were again sampled in fall 2007.

“[This study shows an] improved attitude toward evolution, [and is] strongly correlated with instruction in evolution,” Rice said.

The 15-question survey showed that pre-instruction freshmen had a lower understanding of evolution, post-instruction students had higher understanding and the seniors had the highest understanding of evolution.

Statistically speaking, pre-instruction students answered two of the five questions right on average, post-instruction students answered 3 1/2 of the five questions right and the seniors got four of five questions right. The rest of the questions were designed to find out whether a majority believed in young Earth evolution, which is believing that the Earth is 6,000 to 10,000 years, old Earth evolution, which is believing that the Earth is older than we actually know, or agnostic or atheistic views of evolution.

Rice said the probability of this survey has a 95 percent confidence rate, meaning this is in no way a random effect.

“Overall, the students’ theistic views does not significantly change with instruction in evolution,” Rice said.

Theistic views in this survey were defined as ranging from young Earth creationism to atheistic evolution, Rice said.

The questions of the survey were designed to measure how theistic views may have changed with instruction in evolution. The study showed that even with instruction in evolution, there was no in relationship to students’ theistic views.

The study showed that since evolution is not taught in high schools, incoming students have misconceptions of how it relates to natural sciences, which is the big problem facing biology educators, said James Colbert, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology.