Follow Up - OT - 1 Samuel

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 that idea to use by grabbing some nearby scriptural texts of sufficient heft, and propping up the rollercoaster with them. That did the trick, and so spiritual potential was indeed used to power the rollercoaster, if not quite in the way I had originally intended!

Our rollercoaster in action. We built it within 20 minutes with a solid team effort (5 kids working on it).

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Idea Workup - OT - 1 Samuel

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'

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Brief update

For the time being, I'm going to switch formats for future lesson plans, and post my thoughts and plans on Twitter instead. Twitter's terseness makes it much quicker to write, which is ideal as I don't often have time to write the more expansive blog posts. (It's also perhaps a bit more readable too, for anyone with a cursory interest but who doesn't have time to digest the lengthier posts here.) At some point I'll come back and revisit this, with a view to having detailed lesson plans and explanations for as much of the scriptures as I can. In the meantime, you can find me over at https://twitter.com/bobby_science .

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