Shortly after I began this now-sleepy blog in 2013, I closely watched how Iowa debated the Next Generation Science Standards.

The NGSS represented a major change in how elementary and secondary students learn about the world. The standards focus less on rote learning and more on developing skills to evaluate evidence and reach conclusions – just as scientists do.

At first, I was skeptical about whether Iowa would adopt the standards without substantial changes – even though educators from the state helped develop them. I feared right-wing or religious voices would overrule sound science on issues such as the evidence that humans are causing climate change or that evolution is the best explanation for Earth’s biological diversity.

Some conservatives did attempt to influence the standards, and even urged state officials to reject them.

They failed. In 2015, the Iowa Department of Education adopted the standards with intact climate change and evolution references. Educators and the department held strong against critics who wanted to remove or rewrite those elements.

Now, 10 years later, it appears those detractors may get their way, at least partially – thanks to the Department of Education itself. Read on to learn how you can help block these alterations.

As the Cedar Rapids Gazette and KCRG-TV reported, a 27-member panel of experts was commissioned last year for a decadal review and update of Iowa’s science standards. The group submitted their draft to the state Department of Education, which released a draft for public comment early this year. Panel members said education officials told them the document would undergo only minor copyediting.

But team members who reviewed the public draft were shocked to find significant changes to  words and sections. An unidentified person or persons modified “climate change” references to “climate trends.” Other alterations dropped or downplayed evidence for human influence on climate.

Biological evolution, meanwhile, has been wiped from the document, replaced merely with the word, “change,” the Gazette reported. There are references to “how organisms evolved,” so the concept hasn’t been eliminated, but a reference to Earth as 4.6 billion years old was removed.

It appears someone wanted to delete the noun “evolution,” a word that could spark controversy, but not its verb form. Meanwhile, the idea of Earth’s multibillion-year age contradicts biblical notions that the planet is only 6,000 years old. That may upset some fundamentalist Christians.

In one example that KCRG reported, an eighth-grade Earth science standard was titled “Global Climate Change” in the committee draft. In the DOE-released version, the title is “Global Climate Trends.”

The standard in the committee document says:

Not the best grammar, especially the final sentence, but the DOE didn’t just fix that. It rewrote the entire section:

I suspect someone didn’t like the directive nature of “Humans need to recognize …” plus the mention of fossil fuels and, particularly, agriculture. But the addition of the line regarding “natural warming and cooling,” while technically correct, plays into a standard climate-change-denying narrative: What’s happening is normal and we can’t do anything about it.

I have questions: Who altered the standards? Did they do it on their own, or did someone direct them? Who approved the version disseminated to the public? I’ve written to DOE spokesperson Heather Doe to seek answers.

For now, we still have an opportunity to contest these changes.

First, take this survey to comment on the public draft. Ask department officials to restore climate change and evolution language to what the committee put forward. The comment period ends on February 3.

The survey first seeks general opinions on the standards, then lets people comment on specific items. There’s no obvious place to say you want to retain the original draft language, but here’s a suggestion: Use the survey’s first page to comment. After the demographic questions, there’s this item:

What do you think Iowa educators, schools, and districts will need to best support implementation of these standards(check all that apply)?

Mark whatever options you like, but include “other.” Use that space to comment on the climate change and evolution language. Here’s some verbiage I’ve recommended:

Please restore references to climate change and evolution in the draft to language the science standards review team put forward. We must adhere to concepts supported by the weight of evidence and the consensus of experts.

Second, the last of five public forums on the standards will be from 4 to 6 p.m. this Thursday (January 23) in Room B100 of the Grimes Building, 400 E. 14th St. in Des Moines. You can watch (and perhaps comment) via Zoom. If you’re able, please attend in person and register to speak.

I’ll either be on the scene or on line. I hope to report on what I hear – and perhaps say.