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Glaze assists Perot Museum staff and community with preparing for tough conversations about evolution

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is currently host to what has been described as “one of the greatest fossil discoveries of the past half century.” On display until March 2020 are fossils discovered by Georgia Southern University alumnus Lee Berger, Ph.D., in South Africa, that include remains of ancestors dating back to the oldest of over 1.97 million years of age.

“Located in Dallas, Texas, the Perot Museum is found in the deep south known for its anti-evolution sentiment and legislation,” said Georgia Southern College of Education’s Amanda Glaze.

This posed an interesting challenge for museum staff and an opportunity for Glaze to share her passion and research on evolution education in the south.

“Museum leadership wanted to ensure that those who were working in the exhibit could have conversations about the exhibit with everyone, especially those whose culture or beliefs might be in conflict with what they were learning,” said Glaze.

In addition to the staff workshop, Glaze met with team members of the Center for the Evolution of the Human Journey to provide guidelines for their interactions with others and address how to engage in online settings (particularly social media) when there might be a conflict. She also led a session with local teachers to provide culturally competent and inclusive curriculum on human evolution education and instruction.

“With a Creation Museum opening just down the road, the museum wanted to make sure that teachers and local organizations were prepared to help people navigate their thinking about evolution and take extra steps to bridge gaps and open doors for those conversations to occur,” said Glaze.

For more information about the Origins exhibit at the Perot Museum, visit https://origins.perotmuseum.org/#intro

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Posted in Faculty Lectures and Informative Videos

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