Dr. Jamie Jensen, Associate Professor of Biology at Brigham Young University, will discuss the intersection of faith and science in the undergraduate classroom. She will give an overview of the current state of major religious groups on the acceptance of evolution and then offer a 30-year longitudinal view of the transition toward higher acceptance amongst members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the ‘Mormons’). Jensen will describe a classroom intervention geared toward offering students a ‘road to reconciliation’ between science and religion, and show its dramatic effects on students’ acceptance of evolution amongst highly religious Christian students. How might this lesson learned transfer into other classrooms and broader audiences across the United States?

Moderator: Dr. Connie Bertka, Science and Society Resources

Panelists:
Dr. Betty W. Holley, Payne Theological Seminary
Dr. Wes McCoy, North Cobb High School (retired)
Dr. Lee Meadows, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Briana Pobiner, Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program