A Sitemap-with-Descriptions for Teachers (and others)

This page contains an Overview of Educational Resources (below) plus Tips for Teachers.

ASA's website for Whole-Person Education (home) covers a wide range of ideas about:
Effective Education that improves the quality of thinking, learning, and teaching;
Science & Theology (studying God's World & God's Word) and their relationships.

In a two-level approach to effective learning (with the first level being analogous
to Cliffs Notes, used in a good way) that is explained in A Quick Education,
each page below (Creative Thinking,...) is a LINKS-PAGE that provides:
1) a quick overview of important ideas & their relationships, and
2) links to other pages that examine these ideas in more depth,

Effective Education
• Productive Thinking Skills combine Creativity & Critical Thinking in Problem-Solving Methods (for Design & Science).
• Effective Education requires Thinking Skills and Learning Skills plus Teaching Strategies and Teaching Activities.
• School Options include Home Schools (with resources to help when you ask "whether" and "how") & Private Schools & Public Schools (Religion in Public Education examines relationships between worldviews and education).

Science and Theology
• The Nature of Science is involved in both types of topics — education and science/theology — because scientific method is a thinking skill (so it's featured above in Problem-Solving Methods) and many people are interested in — and often confused about — Relationships between Science and Theology;  we also look at Stories of Science (about a flat earth, moving earth, old earth, and more) & Debates about Science (what it is and what it means, how we should do it and view it) & Christians in Science.
• Religion-and-Science for Understanding and Personal Faith is an introductory overview where we look at two reasons to care.  Is there "inherent conflict" between religion and science?  No, this portrayal is oversimplistic and inaccurate, as explained in The Two Books of God: Nature (studied in science) & Scripture (studied in theology).
• Origins Questions looks at Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design;  to see what's available (it's a lot) begin with the homepage which introduces theological and scientific Questions (about the "who, when, and how" of creation) and provides links to Educational Resources that include a Sitemap of the Topics and Two Views of the Structure.
• WorldViews are defined in a homepage and are examined in Christian Worldview Education & Christian Stewardship of Life (of our time and opportunities, our knowledge, resources, and environment) & Christian Apologetics and Postmodern Relativism.

And for ideas that may help you find resources in a specific area you're teaching, check the Areas of Knowledge in Tips for Teachers.

I.O.U. — This summer I'll have more time to work on the website, and in July and August the content will increase in many areas, but especially in Christian Stewardship of Life (including Christians in Science) and Origins Questions (mainly in Human Origins, Biological Evolution, Educational Policies, Christian Education, Design of Nature, Interpretations of Genesis, Noah's Flood), and you'll also find IOUs in other pages.
 

An Educational Website to help you learn about Many Views:  Our goal is to help you learn quickly and well (beginning with summaries of important ideas) so we have selected high-quality pages for you to read and use.  But our selectivity is not censorship, and we've adopted a multiple-views approach by explaining the views of people with different perspectives (*) so you can be well informed while you develop your own perspectives.    * In this website you'll see a wide range of views, which don't necessarily represent views of the American Scientific Affiliation, so linking to a page does not imply an endorsement by ASA.

You can explore other parts of our website — in the ASA-Homepage (which currently features commentaries about the controversial film, "Expelled") plus Science Stories in the News and more — and search the website and learn about ASA.

  

 
 
At this point you've seen an outline of "what's in the website" so you can begin searching for pages to read and use.  Or you can look at what's below, which is more information about the 7 areas — when you MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN! — followed by TIPS FOR TEACHERS and (in an end-of-page table) a compact view of the areas & sub-areas.

LINKS for areas of "science-with-faith education"

 
What's in each area?
information about AREAS (check bottom of page) 		 
 
Everything ABOVE here describes the website's content, and
BELOW you'll find tips for using the website more effectively.

        TIPS FOR TEACHERS

        Function-Based Decisions
        To make each links-page, we've searched for educational resources that fulfill a particular function by clearly explaining important ideas, from a perspective, at a level:  in the pages we link to, perspectives vary (as explained above) and so do the levels which range from introductory overview to in-depth analysis.  As a teacher you'll be making similar choices, to decide which resources (from our website and elsewhere) can serve a useful function in a course you're teaching.

        Areas of Knowledge
        You want ideas that will help you in general and also in a specific area you're teaching, so we've made tips-pages for these areas:  Natural Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics; Astronomy, Geology) — eclectic interdisciplinary studies (Environmental, Historical, ...) — Education — Psychology, Sociology, History, and other Social Sciences — Science in Arts & Sports — Mathematics & Computer Science — Engineering & Design — Philosophy &Theology and (for all areas) Science-and-Religion for Understanding and Personal Faith.   You can visit the area(s) you teach and — in a search for new ideas, or just because you're curious — other areas.  

        Using our Religious Perspective
        ASA is a Christian organization, and our perspectives — on faith, science, and their interactions — can be useful for public school teachers who want to minimize controversy (about their treatment of religion) while still providing educational information for their students, or for teachers in a private school or home school.  How?  If you're a teacher in K-12 or college, in a public or private school, you have options.  You can...
   • use the website to get a better understanding of complex issues, and then decide how to use this knowledge for teaching,
   • tell students about the website and say "here is something you may (or may not) want to explore on your own,"
   • find appropriate web-pages that fulfill a specific educational function, and assign these for students to read.

        And many ideas, especially in Effective Education but also in Science-and-Theology, will be useful for most teachers and students, no matter what their worldview is, in any school (private or public, from K-12 through college) and in lifelong learning.
 

        Improving our Website
        If you want to help us — for example, if you've discovered a great web-resource and you tell us about it so we can share it with others — your assistance will be greatly appreciated.   How can you help?
 

 
        PRINTING and LINKING

        Files to PRINT (by request)
        If you want to print a page so your students can make copies, but it's not available in easy-to-print PDF, just ask the editor (craig@chem.wisc.edu) to convert the page into a print-friendly PDF file.

        Printing (yes you can) and LINKING (can you, please?)
        Most people find it easier to read a page instead of a screen, and you have our permission to print anything in this website (it's copyrighted but you can print it for non-commercial educational use) if you also link to it in your web-syllabus.  Links in your syllabus (or other pages) are useful in the wider context of Whole-Person Education, because this will help our pages rank higher in search engines, and then other people will find the pages that you think are good enough to use in your class, that you have evaluated (re: content, quality, and function) and then selected.  Your cooperation in linking will be appreciated.   :<)

        Broken Link?
        If a link doesn't work, please email the editor so we can fix it ASAP.

        Pinpoint Links (as-is or by request)
        If you want to make a web-page open at a specific location, you can do it.
        For example, http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/critical.htm opens at the top of the page, but with #logic as a suffix (.../critical.htm#logic) it will open at a section about The Logic of Critical Thinking, and replacing #logic with #ethics takes you to The Ethics of Critical Thinking.
        Or, if you add #tips to the URL of this page and press RETURN the page will reload at the "above and below" transition to this tips-box.
        How can you know what location-suffixes (called "anchors") can be used in a link-URL?  First, open your browser's View-menu and click Page Source (or Source, View Source,...).  Second, search for "<a name=" and you'll find each of the seven anchors in this page.  Or, you'll be able to see the anchors if you use an HTML-editing program such as Dreamweaver or Front Page.
        anchors on request:  If you want to open a page to a place where there is no anchor, just ask the editor (craig@chem.wisc.edu) and he will add it to the page.
        note:  All of the links above (and most other links in this ed-website) end with #i because this prevents a page from re-loading when you move around the page using its italicized inside-the-page links and then use your browser's Back-Button.
THREE TYPES OF LINKS in this website for Whole-Person Education:
 An ITALICIZED LINK keeps you inside a page, moving you to another part of it. 
 Above, a NON-ITALICIZED LINK is page-adding, opening a new page in a new window. 
 Below, a NON-ITALICIZED LINK is page-replacing, opening a new page in this window. 

Three Types of Links (in more detail)

Search the Website

Whole-Person Education for Science and Faith
Learning Skills
 Master Skills 
Active Learning
Other Skills

this page was made by Craig Rusbult (bio-page), editor for the education website,
and is http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/areas.htm

If you move your mouse around in the left-side image above and the
yellow box doesn't change, the information you're missing is in this page.