Stephanie Keep, National Center for Science Edu., 1st Wed Dialog

Stephanie Keep is the Editor of Reports of the National Center for Science Education; NCSE Strategic Outreach Coordinator.

Stephanie will speak to us about "evolution misconceptions that keep the waters muddied, so to speak, making it that much easier for denial and doubt to take hold. I [will] also touch on the state of evolution acceptance in America, and NCSE’s current efforts to improve things."

Education: A. M., Harvard University (Organismal and Evolutionary Biology); B.A., Wellesley College (Paleobiology)

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Before joining NCSE, Stephanie Keep was a science curriculum and assessment specialist for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and an editor of secondary science textbooks (including Biology by Ken Miller and Joe Levine) and curriculum materials. Stephanie strives to build a career that has one foot in academia and one foot in education while enabling her to talk about fossils and evolution whenever possible. Through her work with HHMI, WGBH, and others, she has collaborated with academics, educators, and scholars on projects that combine clear and effective communication and up-to-date and accurate science to produce thought-provoking and enriching learning experiences.

This is our Darwin Day (http://darwinday.org) celebration as well! There will be birthday cake in honor of the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.

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General Information

Our First Wednesday Dialog series brings in outside speakers to share interesting topics related to Humanism -- kind of like Ted Talk. We socialize and enjoy refreshments until about 7:15, at which point the speakers presents for as long as they choose, usually until 8:00 or so. At this point we pass the mic around and have a group discussion about the topic. When the discussion wraps up, we continue with more refreshments and socializing until around 9:00 when all attendees are welcome to join our open steering committee meeting.

We take donations at the door to cover the cost of the meeting ($5 is suggested). Half of the donations (after we pay the rent) are given as an honorarium to the speaker. All regular attendees are encouraged to bring refreshments to share.

Note that we have a large mailing list outside of Meetup.com so the RSVP numbers are generally much lower than the actual attendance.