Bertha Vasquez retired in 2023 after spending 34 years in the classroom teaching middle schoolers in Miami-Dade County. After retiring from teaching she took on the role of Director of Education at the Center for Inquiry. It was founded in 1976 by the likes of Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov to investigate what they called ‘extraordinary claims’ being made about things like paranormal activity and UFO abductions — things that fall into the category of pseudoscience.
As Director of Education, Ms. Vasquez heads up the center’s Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science which provides teachers with materials to teach the theory of evolution; as well as their programs Science Saves and Generation Skeptics which help younger people understand the positive aspects of scientific advancement, and help them remain skeptical in the face of extraordinary claims — especially now that we’re flooded with new information that may very well fall into that category.
She was in Southwest Florida last weekend to give a talk at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples called 'Science Saves!' that took attendees on a time-travelling journey from the late 1700s to present day, highlighting the scientific discoveries that have improved people’s lives. Things like municipal water systems, germ theory, antiseptics, hand soap, antibiotics, smallpox vaccines, etc. — all things that came out of scientific inquiry.
We discuss the role of science in our lives, and the crucial need for a skeptical mind in the face of information overload.
Click here to listen to our conversation with Ms. Vasquez on Feb. 21, 2024.
Guest:
Bertha Vasquez, Director of Education at the Center for Inquiry
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