This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Steve Mursky.

Got a minute?

So what does rafting down the Grand Canyon

have to do with science education?

Anne Reed, former research biologist and current executive director of the National

Center for Science Education.

She spoke to me July 7th at the Fern Glen Canyon campsite the morning of our penultimate day rafting down the Colorado

River in the Grand Canyon.

Well for NCSE, it's one of the most powerful places on the earth to show the difference between religious

thinking and scientific thinking because for a very small

minority of Christians who believe the earth is 6,000 years old.

The Grand Canyon is the best evidence they have of Noah's flood.

Creationists run multiple raft trips down the Colorado each year.

A website touting some says the trips, quote, will encourage your faith as we reveal

the truth of God's creation found in this gigantic remnant of the biblical flood

end quote which creationists believe occurred some 4400 years the figured out that the canyon is much older than that. There's the rocks, there's the biology, there's the

hydrology. It's just a fantastic place to learn how scientists explain the world around us.

The annual NCSE Colorado River trip holds about two dozen guests and features talks by a geologist and an evolutionary biologist. This year two public school teachers received all expense paid scholarship trips so they could bring their experiences and learning back to the classroom.

And I recorded lots more audio, which I'll be posting as Scientific American Science Talk

podcasts in the coming weeks.

Thanks for the minute.

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