Prior to teaching at Chapman,Alters taught at McGill University,where he was the head of the science department. His class "Evolution,Religion and Education" won an award conferred by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. He refers to himself as a "Walt Disneyaficianado" and has a popular course at Chapman called "Darwin and Disney" that uses Disney stories to teach evolution. In 2025,he launched the Walt Disney Studies Think Tank to academize Disney similarly to William Shakespeare.
He has written six textbooks,hosted a Canadian science television show,and given expert witness testimony in important federal cases about teaching evolution and pseudoscience in classrooms.
After graduating from USC in 1981,[8] Alters took a teaching position at his high school,[9] which had been relocated to Newport Beach,California,and renamed to Newport Christian High School.[10] While there he taught oceanography for four years,and science and physics.[9][11] He was the Chair of the science department and managed the school's marine science program.[12] The program,started in 1971 by the school's founder and administrator Willard May,had its own mini-submarine,an 82-and-a-half-foot Yacht (RV Conqueror),offered scuba diving certification,[13] and took students on field trips for whale watching and conducting oceanographic research on the islands of Santa Catalina and Guam.[12] The program was nationally recognized for a marine program of its size.[13] May and his wife founded the Long Beach Marine Institute after their retirement and the school's closure in 1988.[14][15]
He then returned to academia,where he began published papers in science education as a doctoral candidate at USC in 1994,[18] where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1996.[2] While working towards his PhD,he conducted a study in 1995 to determine the importance of high school physics classes and counseling in preparation for university physics coursework which was published in The Physics Teacher and was influential in the field.[19] His dissertation study was reported on by Scientific American,[16] which surveyed more than 1,200 students at 10 institutions on why many college freshmen in the United States reject biological evolution,showing that nearly half of those who doubt evolution do so not only for religious reasons but also because of widespread misconceptions about genetics,fossils,radiometric dating,probability,and the scientific method.[20]
Academic career and research
Harvard University
Alters' first postdoctoral teaching position was at Harvard University,where he taught for a year.[21] While there,a paper he wrote while a graduate student,Whose Nature of Science?,was published in Journal of Research in Science Teaching and became his most highly influential work.[22] In the paper,Alters argued that widely used science education tenets about the nature of science lack consensus among philosophers of science,highlighting the plurality of philosophical perspectives and urging more critical reflection in defining what is taught as the nature of science. The paper was both praised for initiating critical reflection on philosophers’views of the nature of science,rather than assuming consensus in the field,and criticized for methodological limitations and for drawing conclusions stronger than its data support.[23]
Alters founded the Evolution Education Research Center (EERC) in 1999 as a joint initiative between McGill and Harvard to conduct research on the teaching and learning of evolution,including public understanding,classroom practice,and the social controversies surrounding evolution education.[25] He received a grant of CA$650,000 in 1999 from the Lucent Technologies Foundation to improve science teaching quality,expand science education research,and support the EERC.[25] While at McGill,Alters also served as the Chair of science education and was a Sir William Dawson Scholar.[26]
He was appointed to the board of directors of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in 2005.[26] The following year,Alters applied for grant funding of CA$40,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to study the effects of the popularization of intelligent design. His application was rejected on the grounds that it lacked "justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of evolution,and not intelligent-design theory,was correct," leading Alters to assert that the committee doubted the theory of evolution.[27] Janet Halliwell,the SSHRC's executive vice-president,said that Alters misunderstood the rejection and that the rejection was not due to any "doubts about the theory of evolution."[28]
Chapman University
When the EERC expanded in 2010 to include Chapman University,Alters joined the university to serve as the branch's Director and as a professor with dual appointments in the College of Educational Studies and the Schmid College of Science.[29][30] He said that his decision to leave Canada was due to homesickness.[1]
Upon joining Chapman,Alters created the undergraduate course "Darwin and Disney." He developing it around the parallel study of Charles Darwin and Walt Disney and grounding the class in both scientific and cultural analysis. Although new courses at Chapman typically enroll few students,demand for Alters' course quickly exceeded capacity,leading to a cap of 95 students per section and eventual enrollment of more than 3,000 students.[2] Alters uses Disney examples to illustrate scientific concepts such as correlation versus causation while alternating discussions of evolutionary theory with material drawn from Disney history. The course also incorporates guest speakers such as Kevin Rafferty and Jack Lindquist,who discuss aspects of design,storytelling,and the cultural influence of Disney's work.[1] Alters uses the course to explore whether humans are evolved to pursue happiness,drawing on scientific discussions of dopamine,escapism and the brain's response to fantasy.[31]
In 2012,he was appointed President of the Board of NCSE,[32] which he served as until 2016 when his term expired.[33]
Alters developed a free lecture series with Disney historian and Presidential Fellow at Chapman Jeff Kurtti in 2025.[34] Alters also launched the Walt Disney Studies Think Tank to bring scholars and industry figures together to support research,public events,and curriculum development focused on Disney’s legacy.[35] He said his goal is to "to academicize Walt Disney to a similar acceptance level of William Shakespeare."[36] He believes that there are public misconceptions about Disney that he hopes to correct by sharing details about Disney's life like that he was a high school dropout from a farm.[35] He compares the founding of Disneyland to the founding of the United States,arguing they share the same premise of "life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness."[37]
Science communication and consultation
Alters is the author of six books on biology and intelligent design,a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of a deity.[38] In 2001,Defending Evolution in the Classroom:A Guide to the Creation/Evolution Controversy was published by Jones &Bartlett Learning,which Alters co-authored with his wife,[39] Sandra (néeGottfried),[40] a biologist and former tenured professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.[41] Of his 2005[42] book Teaching biological evolution in higher education:methodological,religious,and nonreligious issues,Glenn Branch characterized the book as a valuable,practice-oriented guide for teaching evolution and addressing student misconceptions,while noting shortcomings in its treatment of creationist typologies.[43]
In 2008,Alters became a co-host of CBC Television's Project X,a science television series that examines a wide range of scientific concepts and natural phenomena through themed episodes featuring exploratory segments and explanatory demonstrations.[47] Alters compared it to PBS educational programming.[7]
Awards and honors
Outstanding courses in science and religion award,Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences,1998[24]
Alters, Brian J.; Alters, Sandra (2005). Teaching Biology in Higher Education. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. p.107. ISBN0-471-70169-6. OCLC86082160.
Alters, Brian J. (2005). Teaching Biological Evolution in Higher Education: Methodological, Religious, and Non-Religious Issues. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett. p.136. ISBN0-7637-2889-6. OCLC56103806.
Alters, Brian J.; Alters, Sandra (2001). Defending Evolution in the Classroom. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett. p.261. ISBN0-7637-1118-7. OCLC46343269.
Personal life
Alters visits Disneyland 40 to 50 times per year,[1] and calls himself a "Walt Disney aficionado."[38] In 2015, Alters skippered a Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.[53] He and his wife Kimberly live in Newport Beach,[2] where he bought a home that was designed by a French architect that he says his neighbors say resembles a castle. He has incorporated extensive Disney-inspired elements, including remote-controlled bookshelves that reveal Disney displays, a Jungle Cruise-themed guest room with original ride artwork, a rotunda equipped with a ceiling and portrait mechanism modeled on The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, and an “endless hallway” mirror effect. He also collects Disney artifacts.[1]
↑Alters, Brian J.; McComas, William F. (1994). "Modeling Modes of Evolution: Comparing Phyletic Gradualism & Punctuated Equilibrium". The American Biology Teacher. 56 (6): 354–360. doi:10.2307/4449851.
12T324Admin (2019-03-13). "Course Award Winners 1995-2002". Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Retrieved 2025-11-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑Gottfried, Sandra; Lord, Thomas (1993). "College Biology Teaching: A Literature Review, Recommendations & a Research Agenda". The American Biology Teacher. 55 (6): 340–348. doi:10.2307/4449678.
↑Alters, Sandra (2000). Biology: understanding life (3rded.). Boston: Jones and Barlette Publishers. ISBN978-0-7637-0837-5.
↑Alters, Brian J. (2005). Teaching biological evolution in higher education: methodological, religious, and nonreligious issues. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. ISBN978-0-7637-2889-2.
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