1. Early life

2. Advocacy

3. Selected publications

4. References

Glenn Branch is the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education. He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design and an activist against campaigns of suppressing teaching of evolution and climate change in school education.{{R|"book1"}}{{R|"climate-education-classroom"}}

Early life

Branch earned his Master of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles. He won The Rudolph and Ina Carnap Prize for excellent philosophical writing by a graduate student in 1997-98,{{R|"rudolph"}} and the Yost Prize For Excellence In Teaching in 1994-95.{{R|"yost"}} He joined the National Center for Science Education in 1999 and has served as the deputy director since 2002.{{R|"ncse-staff"}} Branch is member of editorial boards of multiple journals.{{R|"evolution-journal"}}{{R|"Bulletin of Science"}}

Advocacy

Branch is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design having published multiple papers on both.{{R|"Media Coverage"}}{{R|"Wedging Creationism"}} He emphasizes the need of appreciating creationists actions at the different levels of educational governance, and need of changing tactics in fighting against it. He believes scientists are in a unique position to defend the teaching of evolution, both by resisting creationist incursions as they occur and by helping to improve the teaching of evolution at both the precollege and college levels.{{R|"evolution wars shifting tactics"}}

Branch criticized how creationists call evolution a theory in a NPR interview. "In everyday conversation, a theory is a hunch or guess,... That's not how scientists use it. For scientists, a theory is a systematic explanation for a range of natural phenomena."{{R|"npr-new-florida"}}

Branch was involved in the campaign against "Bibliography of Supplementary Resources for Ohio Science Education" by the Discovery Institute.{{R|"analysis-discovery-institute"}}

The staff of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) analyzed the Bibliography with the assistance of many of the authors of the publications listed in it, finding that the Discovery Institute (1) misrepresents the significance of the publications in the Bibliography, (2) describes the publications in the Bibliography frequently in an inaccurate and tendentious manner, and (3) fails to present any principled basis for the selection of the publications or any pedagogical rationale for their use in the classroom. NCSE concluded that the only purpose of the Discovery Institute's Bibliography is to mislead members of the Board and of the public about the status of evolution.

He was highly involved in the effort to combat New Mexico's proposed change in Science standards in 2017. NCSE coordinated the effort to educate the public through journalists and activists and was able to successfully affect the regulators, and New Mexico's Public Education Department announced that instead of the flawed standards originally proposed, it would be adopting the Next Generation Science Standards.{{R|"new-mexico"}}

Branch is a vocal critic against the movement of climate denial. He believes one of the most effective ways to improve awareness of climate change is through school education by science teachers.{{R|"science-teachers"}} He states that this is a difficult task due to multiple issues of limited federal role, state attacks on science, local attitudes, etc.{{R|"climate-education-classroom"}} An increase of bills aimed at changing standards for climate science education introduced by state officials in early 2019 has signaled concern. "The only way to be sure they don't pass is to raise public awareness of them and to localize concerns about the integrity of public science education by speaking about them."^[1]

Selected publications

• {{cite journal|last1=Branch|first1=Glenn|last2=Scott|first2=Eugenie C|title=Evolution: what's wrong with 'teaching the controversy'|journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution|date=1 October 2003|volume=18|issue=10|pages=499–502|doi=10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00218-0|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534703002180|accessdate=24 January 2018|language=en|issn=0169-5347}}
• In 2006 Glenn Branch co-edited the book "Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools"{{R|"book1"}} with Eugenie Carol Scott
• {{cite journal|last1=Branch|first1=Glenn|last2=Scott|first2=Eugenie C.|title=The Latest Face of Creationism|journal=Scientific American|volume=300|issue=1|pages=92–99|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0109-92|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-latest-face-of-creationism/|accessdate=27 January 2018|language=en|year=2009}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Eugenie C.|last2=Branch|first2=Glenn|title=Don't Call it "Darwinism"|journal=Evolution: Education and Outreach|date=1 March 2009|volume=2|issue=1|pages=90–94|doi=10.1007/s12052-008-0111-2|language=en|issn=1936-6426}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Branch|first1=Glenn|last2=Scott|first2=Eugenie C.|title=The Latest Face of Creationism|journal=Scientific American|date=2009|volume=300|issue=1|pages=92–99|jstor=26001427|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0109-92}}
• {{cite book|last1=Robbins|first1=Richard H.|last2=Cohen|first2=Mark Nathan|title=Darwin and the Bible: The Cultural Confrontation|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317349013|pages=Chapter 10|url=https://books.google.lk/books?id=5tuoCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT145&dq=Glenn%20Branch&pg=PT145#v=onepage&q=Glenn%20Branch&f=false|accessdate=24 January 2018|language=en}}
• Glenn Branch and Ann Reid's "50 Years Ago: Repeal of Tennessee's 'Monkey Law'" was selected for inclusion in "The Science Behind the Debates," a special edition of Scientific American dated December 2017.{{R|"monkey-law"}}

References

• Terry Francona
• Terry Frost
• Terry Fugate-Wilcox
• Terry Funk
• Terry Gannon
• Terry Garrity
• Terry Gene Bollea
• Terry George
• Terry Gepin
• Terry Gilkyson
• Terry Gilleland
• Terry Gilliam
• Terry Gilliam/Brazil
• Terry Glaze
• Terry Glenn
• Terry Goodkind
• Terry Gordy
• Terry Gou
• Terry Griffiths
• Terry Griffiths (Australian policeman)
• Terry Gross
• Terry Guo
• Terry Hall
• Terry Hall (singer)
• Terry Hall (ventriloquist)