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Brainstorming - OT - Deuteronomy

The next LDS Come Follow Me primary lesson covers the whole of the Book of Deuteronomy, which relates the story of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness for 40 years in search of the Promised Land, as led by Moses, and which is mostly told in sermon form by Moses. It ends with Moses finally being able to see the Promised Land shortly before he passes away.

Moses gazes upon the Promised Land from atop Mount Nebo. From Wikipedia.

Rather than try to teach the story of the whole book though, I think it'll be nicer to focus on one specific lesson that we can take from a small part of it. My preferred brainstorming approach is to think of some ideas about how we can use science to connect to the themes from the scriptures, and then work up the best ideas into lesson plans. Here are some of the ideas that came to mind as I read through Deuteronomy:

  • Deuteronomy 6 talks about "frontlets", which are intended to mean ornaments worn on the head. However they can also mean the forehead of an animal, in particular birds. There could be some interesting tie-ins with plumage development on birds.
  • Deuteronomy 15 talks about how the Israelites are encouraged to help others with an open heart. 



    This brought to mind the topic of animal altruism, where animals help each other out. It could be interesting to see some examples of this and discuss what we can learn.
  • The food source "manna" comes up in Deuteronomy 8. This was a substance that the Israelites had to survive on as one of their primary means of sustenance during their period in the wilderness. Apparently it refers to a substance called honeydew which is a sugary substance secreted from insects (Wikipedia). 
  • In Deuteronomy 15, the Israelites are urged to forgive debts. Perhaps there's a maths topic here on calculating interest and seeing what forgiveness of debts means in numerical terms.
  • Deuteronomy 34 tells of Moses seeing the Promised Land for the first time, before passing away. I found a PDF on VisualUnit.Me which charts the path that Moses led his people across before they reached Israel. It's beautifully done, and perhaps could be the basis of a geography lesson that teaches the kids about the types of terrain that the Israelites had to survive on their long journey.


    Screenshot of the PDF on VisualUnit.Me depicting Moses' journey.



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