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This
two-hour program is divided into 12 chapters. Choose any chapter below and
select QuickTime or Windows Media Player to begin viewing the video. If you
experience difficulty viewing, it may be due to high demand. We regret this and
suggest you try back at another time.
Technical Help | Feedback | Program Credits | Program Transcript
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watch chapter 1 in
QuickTime
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National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
local, national, and global challenges
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A TOWN DIVIDED
This segment:
- traces how the
issue started in the rural community of Dover, Pennsylvania, and progressed to
become a federal court test case for science education.
- defines
intelligent design (ID) and explains how the Dover school board was the first
in the nation to require science teachers to offer ID as an alternative to
evolution.
- explains why
many creationists see evolution as incompatible with their faith.
- chronicles the
history of legal efforts involving the teaching of evolution, beginning with
the Scopes Trial in 1925 and culminating in 1987 when the Supreme Court ruled
against teaching creationism.
running time 10:50
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watch chapter 2 in
QuickTime
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National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Life Science
• Diversity and adaptation
of organisms
History and
Nature of Science
• History of science
Grades 9-12
Life Science
• Biological evolution
History and
Nature of Science
• Historical perspectives
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WHAT IS EVOLUTION?
This segment:
- explains how, after studying a number of
different Galapagos finches, Darwin developed his concept of natural selection,
a process by which the forces of nature select organisms best suited for their
environment.
- notes that Darwin further reasoned that
over time, natural selection could give rise to new species through what he
termed "descent with modification."
- illustrates how Darwin pictured the
relatedness of all living things as a great tree of life, with each twig a
different species ultimately descending from a common ancestor.
- reports that currently between one-third
and one-half of the U.S. population does not accept evolution.
- describes how a 16-foot mural depicting the
evolution of humans from an ape-like ancestor was stolen from a Dover science
classroom and burned.
running time 7:04
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watch chapter 3 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
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National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
local, national, and global challenges
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INTRODUCING INTELLIGENT DESIGN
This segment:
- chronicles how one school board member came to learn about intelligent design.
- provides an example from ID literature illustrating the central tenet of ID that some aspects of life must be the product
of an intelligent designer.
- describes how the ID movement began.
- recounts how members of the Dover school board drafted and passed a policy
mandating that all students in ninth-grade biology be read a statement
asserting that Darwin's theory is not a fact and that ID is an
alternative explanation for the origin of life.
running time 8:47
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watch chapter 4 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
local, national, and global challenges
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THE TRIAL BEGINS
This segment:
- reports that 11 parents of Dover students filed a federal lawsuit on December
14, 2004, alleging that the Dover school board was violating the parents'
constitutional rights by introducing religion into science class.
- shows the school's assistant superintendent reading the board's
mandated statement to students after Dover science teachers refused to do so.
- presents opening statements from lawyers in courtroom recreations based on
trial transcripts.
- points out that to win, the plaintiffs' lawyers would need to show that
the Dover school board statement promoted religion or that board members had
religious motivations.
- reports that both sides also asked the judge to rule on whether ID was science.
running time 9:32
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watch chapter 5 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Life Science
• Diversity and adaptation
of organisms
History and
Nature of Science
• History of science
Grades 9-12
Life Science
• Biological evolution
History and
Nature of Science
• Historical perspectives
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THE FOSSIL RECORD
This segment:
- recreates biologist Ken Miller's courtroom testimony that defines
evolution and reviews Darwin's contribution to the theory.
- illustrates Darwin's tree of life showing the connection, by evolution,
of all forms of life on Earth.
- illustrates how ID depicts a history of life in which organisms appear abruptly,
are unrelated, and are linked only by their designer.
- reports on the discovery of a transitional form between primitive fish and
terrestrial amphibians, and reviews the characteristics of both species found
in the fossil.
- reviews some of the transitional fossils presented as evidence of evolution
during the trial.
running time 8:36
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watch chapter 6 in
QuickTime
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National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Life Science
• Reproduction and heredity
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of science
Grades 9-12
Life Science
• The molecular basis for
heredity
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of scientific
knowledge
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A VERY SUCCESSFUL THEORY
This segment:
- recreates paleontologist's Kevin Padian's courtroom testimony that
defines what the term theory
means in science and Miller's testimony as to why no theory is regarded
as absolute truth.
- reports on how the field of genetics has revealed the biological mechanisms
that give rise to new traits in a species.
- illustrates how DNA can mutate during reproduction to produce a benign,
harmful, or occasionally beneficial new trait in a species.
- recreates Miller's testimony detailing evidence for chromosome fusion in
the human genome that would explain why humans have one pair fewer chromosomes
than the other great apes.
running time 9:26
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watch chapter 7 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of science
Grades 9-12
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of scientific
knowledge
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THE NATURE OF SCIENCE
This segment:
- recreates Miller's testimony pointing out that supernatural causes cannot
be tested scientifically.
- presents an interview with Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National
Center for Science Education, who says ID is a negative argument that states
that because evolution does not work, an intelligent designer is responsible
for life.
- recounts the struggles Dover science teachers and plaintiffs faced for their
stance against ID.
- reports that defense lawyers aimed to show that there are credible scientists
who believe that the empirical data is supportive of ID.
running time 8:24
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watch chapter 8 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of science
Grades 9-12
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of scientific
knowledge
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EXAMINING INTELLIGENT DESIGN
This segment:
- recreates biochemist Michael Behe's testimony defining intelligent design
and explaining what is meant by design in this context.
- reenacts Behe's testimony in which he provides an example of irreducible
complexity—the bacterial flagellum, a system that provides propulsion for
some bacteria.
- shows a structure similar to the flagellum, but less complex, that functions in bacteria as an apparatus for transmitting disease.
- recreates
Miller's testimony that demonstrates how a mousetrap can be modified to
work as a tie clip.
running time 9:11
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watch chapter 9 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of science
Grades 9-12
History and
Nature of Science
• Nature of scientific
knowledge
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FAITH AND REASON
This segment:
- recreates Behe's testimony claiming that natural selection fails to
account for the immune system and that there is no scientific literature
showing how the immune system evolved.
- shows the prosecuting lawyer presenting a large stack of books and journal
articles containing explanations for how the immune system evolved.
- recreates microbiologist Scott Minnich's testimony explaining Behe's
assertion that ID could be tested if a scientist subjected a bacterial species
without a flagellum to a selective pressure such as motility and grow it for
10,000 generations to see whether it evolved a flagellum or any other complex
system.
- reports on how the trial affected some of the Dover residents.
- presents differing views about evolution's compatibility with religion.
running time 7:25
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watch chapter 10 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
local, national, and global challenges
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SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
This segment:
- notes that to prevail, the prosecution needed to prove that the school board
acted for the purpose of promoting religion or that its policy had the effect
of promoting religion.
- recounts how the prosecution found evidence showing that the text referred to
as a resource for ID, Of Pandas and People, had originally been a creationist text.
- describes evidence indicating that one of the leaders of the ID movement was
aware that ID did not yet have a general theory of biological design.
running time 9:49
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watch chapter 11 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
local, national, and global challenges
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A CULTURE CONFLICT
This segment:
- notes that the prosecution introduced The Wedge document, which spells out the
ID movement's goals.
- shows a news video clip in which a school board member uses the word creationism to describe what should be taught alongside
evolution.
- recounts that testimony revealed that two school board members
knew—contrary to sworn depositions stating otherwise—who donated copies
of Of Pandas and People to the
school.
running time 8:52
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watch chapter 12 in
QuickTime
Windows Media: hi |
low
National Science Education Standards
Grades 5-8
Science in Personal
and Social Perspectives
• Science and technology in
society
Grades 9-12
Science in
Personal and Social Perspectives
• Science
and technology in local, national, and global challenges
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CLOSING ARGUMENTS
This segment:
- presents closing arguments.
- reports how anti-ID candidates were elected for eight of nine open Dover school
board seats.
- relates the judge's decision finding
both that members of the school board had religious motivations for introducing
intelligent design into the classroom and that ID was not a scientific theory.
- provides reactions to the trial.
running time 10:38
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