The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

of the creation, devoting ourselves to the service of both God and God’s creation. Given the responsibilities believers have to the creation, Devotional Biology ends most of its chapters with Christian responsibilities that arise from the study of that chapter. This includes topics like hunting and harvesting, gluttony and hoarding, pollution and global warming, recycling and landfills, land and water use and community development, animal research and animal care, curing and preventing disease, extinction and exotic introductions, antibiotics, insecticides and herbicides, mining, breeding, abortion, genetic engineering, cloning, birth control, IVF, and fertility drugs. These include priestly responsibilities of how to use the biology of that particular chapter to learn more about God’s nature, and how to allow that increased knowledge of God to induce worship, and bring others into that worship. Devotional Biology also includes kingly responsibilities such as how to preserve and enhance creation’s glorification of God. The reader of Devotional Biology learns how to use the creation to better know God, and learns how to better take care of and improve the creation that God has given us. THE TEXT’S IMPLEMENTATION KPW wrote Devotional Biology while employed at Truett McConnell University. In the Fall of 2012, BI 101, one of two biology courses at Truett McConnell for non-majors, was revised. Devotional Biology was adopted as the only required textbook for the course and the course name was changed to ‘Concepts in Biology’. In the Fall of 2015, BI 101 was made the only required science course in the general education requirements at Truett McConnell. Consequently, since the Fall of 2015, every undergraduate student matriculating into Truett McConnell must take BI 101 where Devotional Biology is the only required text. BI 101 is offered in traditional classroom settings on campus, with different sections taught by three different Truett McConnell faculty (this paper’s KPW, AJF, TH). BI 101 is also offered online, with video lectures by KPW. As an approved course for dual enrolment in Georgia, upper-level high school students also take BI 101—some taught by Truett McConnell faculty on the Truett McConnell campus, and others taught using KPW’s video lectures in either online or high school settings. By ICC 2018, BI 101 will have been taught with this textbook by KPW for thirteen semesters (Fall 2011 through Spring 2018, less Fall 2017), by TH for ten semesters (Summer and Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014 through Spring 2018), and by AF for four successive semesters (Fall 2016 through Spring 2018). By ICC 2018 something on the order of 850 Truett students and 450 Georgia dual enrollment students will have been taught using the Devotional Biology textbook. At Bryan College, Devotional Biology became one of two required texts for ‘Introduction to Biology’ (BIO111) in the 2014/15 academic year. Beginning in the Fall of 2017, BIO111 was modified, renamed ‘God’s Revelation in Biology’, and Devotional Biology became the only required text. By ICC 2018, BIO111 will have been taught with this textbook by SH for eight successive semesters (Fall 2014 through Spring 2018) and ND for one (Fall 2015). By ICC 2018 something on the order of 200 Bryan students will have been taught using the Devotional Biology textbook. At The Master’s University, Devotional Biology is the primary text for ‘Essentials of Biology’ (LS 150), the non-majors biology course required for all students. By ICC 2018 this paper’s author, JF, will have taught LS 150 with this textbook for 6 successive semesters (Fall 2015 through Spring 2018). By ICC 2018, something on the order of 600 Master’s University students and 40 California dual enrollment students will have been taught using this textbook. In August of 2017, a home school course using the Devotional Biology textbook and a new set of KPW’s video lectures were offered for sale by Compass Classroom. By the ICC 2018, several hundred high school students will probably have been taught using this textbook. THE TEXT’S EVALUATION In the 2013/2014 academic year, Truett McConnell faculty adopted a general education program with BI 101 as its only science course (and Devotional Biology as its only science textbook). At the end of the Fall semester of 2013, KPW included a question on the final (essay) exam in his sections of BI 101 that provided student evaluation of the course and its textbook. The students were asked “Imagine that you encounter an entering Truett student who is disgruntled about having to take BI 101 (because he or she doesn’t like science and/or he or she ‘can’t do science’). Compose an essay that encourages such a student to see the advantages of taking BI 101.” All the questions on the exam, including this one, were provided to students one week prior to the exam. KPW was expecting an answer that used the reasons Christians should study science as enumerated in chapter one of the Devotional Biology text. However, most students offered reasons of a different nature—many of which provided unexpected course evaluations and feedback. From that point forward, KPW offered the same question on the final exam for all sections of the course he taught. These student opinions are included in Table 1. The reader should be reminded while examining Table 1 that none of these particular answers were prompted, and almost none of them were expected. Thus, the expected number of student responses in most cases is zero . Receiving one or more positive responses on any given point is strong support of the text’s success on that point. In the spring of 2017, JF developed a set of student evaluation questions and had students in the ‘Essentials of Biology’ course (LS 150) at The Master’s University fill out the questionnaire. The same questionnaire was given to students in the ‘Concepts of Biology’ course (BI 101) at Truett McConnell University in the fall of 2017 (sections taught by TH and AF) and the spring of 2018 (sections taught by TH, AJF, and KPW). Most of the same questions were given to students in the ‘God’s Revelation in Biology’ course (BIO111) at Bryan College (taught by SH). The results of all these surveys are given in Table 2. In contrast to Table 1, students were prompted for answers, so here strong support of the text’s success only comes with large percentages of the students scoring ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly Agree’. CONCLUSION Students at three different institutions (Truett McConnell University in Tables 1 and 2 and Bryan College and The Master’s University in Table 2), under five different professors (KPW in Tables 1 and 2, AF & JF & KPW & SH & TH in Table 2), during ten different Wise et al. ◀ Devotional Biology ▶ 2018 ICC 259