Scriptures Through Science

Last weekend I taught a class on David and Goliath from 1 Samuel. We talked about how potential energy gets converted into usable energy, and we tried to couple potential energy from a raised marble to do something interesting with the help of a paper rollercoaster.  We started off trying to make a loop-the-loop, which I was able to get working with my kids the evening before. However the supplies I had in the class included stiff card, which turned out not to be well suited for this, since the rollercoaster only works if it's smooth, whereas the card was prone to having sharp bends and kinks in it. We quickly readjusted the plan to make a simpler rollercoaster with a dip and a raise, with the raised part passing through the head of this picture of Hulk Goliath .  The initial version didn't work because the starting point of the marble wasn't high enough. However, the kids had been inspired by singing "Scripture Power" during singing time earlier, and we put th

A week ago I taught a primary lesson on the story of Ruth , which involved some unusual culinary treats for the kids. One of them involved having the kids taste some sliced baguette bread dipped in balsamic vinegar, which split the crowd, with half the kids enjoying it and one or two spitting it out into the wastepaper bin that I luckily had to hand.  Making sherbet was a hit though, and the kids had a blast with this. I had a couple of helpers for this class, and we made a bunch of makeshift paper bowls before the lesson started. (I tried following the instructions here but then gave up and just made one up.) Each kid was given an aliquot of sherbet in their own paper bowl, which they could dip into as they pleased. Two unanticipated side effects (which were painfully obvious in hindsight) were (a) getting icing sugar over their Sunday best (oops), and (b) having a bunch of hyper kids exit the class (double oops).  Using sugar in the sherbet experiment made for some slightly hyperact

   This post follows on from the previous few posts where: I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson. ( link ) I then brainstormed various science themes that could link to the scriptures. ( link ) Yesterday I worked up one of those themes into a potential lesson plan. ( link ) In this post, I'll provide a concise lesson plan for teachers to use if they find this useful. The first part of this post (in green) is an overview of the lesson aims, and the second part (in yellow) is the actual lesson plan that you can use.  Overview What's the lesson about? In the Book of Samuel. the Israelites are threatened by the Philistines, who challenge them to a winner-takes-all duel with their champion Goliath. The young shepherd boy David steps up, and against the odds, wins. What's the spiritual theme? If you have a strong faith, you can acheive difficult things.  What's the science topic? Potential energy can be used to do useful work. We'll l

In my last post, I discussed some ideas for teaching 1 Samuel . In this post, I'll work up some of these ideas into a potential lesson plan.  Sometimes I get weeks where I toil for ages to find the right angle to teach a lesson from. Last week's lesson was a good example of this, where I really struggled to figure out a theme and a link that I could use. Other times, the right idea just hits you, and this feels like one of those weeks. There's a lot of material in 1 Samuel that could be used for a lesson, and it would be nice to devote more weeks to it. However the David and Goliath story is the dominant story here, and when you're working with young children, then you simply have to teach it. It's the archetype underdog story, which illustrates how the seemingly impossible can be made possible with faith. We want to pass on stories that will inspire the children and give them believe that they can similarly have confidence in themselves and aim high. We haven'

In my last post , I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Primary lesson from 1 Samuel. In this post, I've jotted down some ideas that came to mind about how I could approach teaching this lesson.  In 1 Samuel 9, Saul covered a lot of ground looking for the asses, crossing over half of the Promised Land! This post on iStudyEBS has a map showing the approximate area being covered, along with an interesting justification for the size of the search area. Their idea is that Saul had to cover a large area in order to be in the right place at the right time when Samuel was looking for a potential king for the Israelites. There could be an interesting geography lesson about the areas covered. The BibleProject summary video of 1 Samuel makes a really interesting observation that the book charts a trajectory for Saul and David, which starts off with their humble beginnings, then rises to a peak where they have Heavenly Father's favour and everything's going right, but then t

This weekend's Primary lesson is on 1 Samuel. Last week's lesson also covered the first part of 1 Samuel, however this lesson goes on to look at the rest of the book. We left off in last week's lesson  with Samuel being born of Hannah, who thought she was infertile and was granted a child by Heavenly Father. Samuel goes to care for the priest Eli, but hears Heavenly Father calling him during the night, and goes on to be recognised as a Prophet. The Come Follow Me Primary manual's section for this week covers 1 Samuel: 8-10, 13 and 15-18.  When I start reading scriptures, the BibleProject is my first port of call. Their overview videos are brillianty constructed, and they summarise the whole book in just 7 minutes through illustrations. Their YouTube video of 1 Samuel is no exception, and it highlights several points about the structure and themes of the book that I would have otherwise missed. Screenshot of the BibleProject's summary video of 1 Samuel . At just 7

 This post follows on from the previous few posts where: I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson. ( link ) I then brainstormed various science themes that could link to the scriptures. ( link ) Yesterday I worked up one of those themes into a potential lesson plan. ( link ) In this post, I'll provide a concise lesson plan for teachers to use if they find this useful. The first part of this post (in green) is an overview of the lesson aims, and the second part (in yellow) is the actual lesson plan that you can use.  Fun with fizzy things. Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Overview What's the lesson about? It's about Ruth, a woman whose family moves from Bethlehem to Moab some time after the period of Judges, and experiences tragedy when her husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law all pass away. She's left with her mother-in-law Naomi, and sister-in-law Orpah. Ruth and Naomi stay close together as they relocate back to Israel, b

In my last post , I discussed some initial ideas for themes that I could use for teaching this Sunday's Primary lesson on Ruth and 1 Samuel from the Old Testament. In this post, I'll be working up these ideas to develop a draft lesson plan. The Book of Ruth is short and bitter-sweet, telling a tale of tragedy (with Naomi, Ruth and Orpah losing their husbands whilst out in Moab). Ruth takes to gleaning / foraging for scraps to sustain herself and Naomi, but ends up under the protection of Boaz, who treats her well, tries to find a suitable partner for her amongst her kinsfolk, and ends up marrying her himself. This BibleProject YouTube video summarises it well, and makes a very interesting point at the end about how Heavenly Father is hardly mentioned in this book, showing that people in the OT can be kind and generous to each other without any spiritual prompting. We could start by introducing Ruth's story, and talking through the initial events leading to Ruth gleaning on

My last post summarised the scriptures for this week's Primary lesson, which are from Ruth and 1 Samuel. In this post, we'll discuss ideas for how to teach the scriptures, including any links to scientific topics. I taught this lesson back in 2018, and I looked back at my notes on how I did so. Back then, I did a little treasure hunt where I hid clues relating to the scriptures around the church, and the kids had to go to each location, find the clue, answer the question, and then go to the next location. The clues also linked to a crossword puzzle that they had to solve. Getting the kids to move around is always a nice idea, so we might try and bring back this element. In Ruth 2, Ruth gleans corn, barley and wheat from the fields of Boaz. Gleaning ( Wikipedia page ) is an old concept where the poor were invited to collect the scraps following the harvest, since it wasn't always practical to collect every last part of the crop. It could be interesting to look more closely

Last Sunday's Book of Judges lesson went well. We opened with a quick quiz about the events of the past few lessons, then talked about the meaning of faith, and how Gideon lacked faith by asking for proof of Heavenly Father's existence several times, and not being satisfied each time.  We read the scriptures about the dew, talked about what dew was, and confirmed that the acts that Gideon asked Heavenly Father to do (cover a fleece in dew but not the surrounding land) was something that couldn't happen naturally. We then did the dew experiment, where the kids filled various water bottles with ice and water. We noticed after a few minutes that these bottles started to develop water droplets on the outside, whilst our control bottle of room temperature water didn't. This got them interested, and we discussed several ideas on why this could be the case. One of the kids suggested condensation, and we then explained how we're surrounded by water vapour, and this experim

This week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson focuses on the book of Ruth and the first part of 1 Samuel . We left off in last week's lesson with the Israelites being governed by a series of Judges who were less than ideal leaders. The chapters in this week's lesson strike a more positive theme. Ruth 1: Following on from the period of Judges, a famine causes Elimelech to leave Bethlehem with his wife Naomi and sons Mahlon and Chilon, and move to Moab. Elimelech dies, and the sons marry Orpah and Ruth respectively. The sons later die, and Naomi is left with her two daughters-in-law. Ruth stays close to Naomi, and the two return to Bethlehem. Ruth 2: Ruth takes to gleaning (collecting left over grain following the harvesting) in the field of a rich man named Boaz. Boaz becomes protective of her, and helps her to collect larger quantities of barley and wheat. Ruth 3: Naomi instructs Ruth to lay at Boaz's feet. She does so in the middle of the night, and a surprised Boaz pro

 This post follows on from the previous few posts where: I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson. ( link ) I then brainstormed various science themes that could link to the scriptures. ( link ) Yesterday I worked up one of those themes into a potential lesson plan. ( link ) In this post, I'll provide a concise lesson plan for teachers to use if they find this useful. The first part of this post (in green) is an overview of the lesson aims, and the second part (in yellow) is the actual lesson plan that you can use.  Writing down the lesson plan for this weekend's Primary lesson. Photo by  Nils Stahl  on  Unsplash Overview What's the lesson about? It's about Gideon, one of the many Judges of Israel following the Prophet Joshua, struggling to have faith in Heavenly Father, and frequently doubting his veracity and asking for proof of his existence. It's also about the unorthodox way in which Gideon selected warriors for his battle aga

My last two posts have discussed the scriptural content of Judges , and science ideas that link to the text that could be the basis for my next Primary lesson. In this post, I'll work up these science ideas into a lesson plan. There are several stories in Judges, but two of the verses that inspired ideas were in the story about Gideon , the farmer who led 300 soldiers to victory against the Midianites. Gideon was a young man who helped his father to harvest wheat (Judges 6:11), who one day lamented the repression of his people by the Midianites, and asked "Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his amiracles which our fathers told us of". An angel conveyed that Heavenly Father was impressed with him, appearing in front of him and saying "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour" (Judges 6:12). Gideon didn't immediately trust in Heavenly Father, and he asked for proof that He existed. In this case, Heav

In my previous post , I reviewed the scriptural content in the Book of Judges. In this post, I'll summarise the scientific themes that I've been able to come up with, that link somehow to the text, which I could build a lesson plan on top of. In Judges 6:15 , Gideon exclaims to Heavenly Father, "Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house ". I thought about linking this to the idea of small creatures that can do great things. Ants and beetles are great examples of small animals that are very powerful for their size . Beetles are strong creatures for their size. Photo by Weronika Romanowska on Unsplash In Judges 6:39-40 , Gideon requests of Heavenly Father to keep his fleece dry during the night and to let the dew settle on the rest of the ground. "And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground." Perhaps we could talk about what