The Utah State Board of Education greenlit plans Thursday to begin drafting new school science standards, a process likely to touch on divisive issues like climate change and evolution.
The state last approved new middle school science standards in 2015, which were based partially on the Next Generation Science Standards, a series of education benchmarks developed by a consortium of national experts.
But what is taught in Utah classrooms for grades kindergarten through five, and nine through twelve was unaffected by that change, and those guidelines for science curricula remain between seven and 15 years old.