Cosmos in the Classroom

When a slick, high-tech video series hits the market to promote evolution, what can Christian parents and churches do to prepare their young people?

The 13-part series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey has finished its run on cable TV, but we haven’t seen the last of it. Evolutionist teachers on social media say they are excited about incorporating the show into their classes. One posted, “I can’t wait to buy it on DVD so that I can show it to my eigth-grade science class during our universe section!” Many others share her enthusiasm. To boost their effort, the show’s producers have provided study guides for classroom use.

Junior high and high school students will need help to discern between the show’s legitimate scientific content and its humanistic proselytizing. In addition to writing reviews of every episode in the series, Answers in Genesis has posted on its website free study guides for each episode. The guides are designed to help parents and Sunday school teachers whose children or teens will be required to see the show.

Each student guide includes several discussion questions. The teacher guides answer the questions and suggest outside reading, including links to helpful web articles. The guides also discuss the historical personalities and concepts mentioned on the show, and they answer Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s evolutionary ideas with creation science.

As a result of the study, students will learn to distinguish between observational and origins science and see how testable science supports creation, not evolution. Experiments and other suggestions for further investigation help students practice what they learn in each section.

Students encounter the humanist worldview everywhere they turn. More than general principles, they need specific answers to specific questions. With these study guides, Christian parents and educators can take an active role to expose and combat the false teachings that bombard their children every day.