Scriptures Through Science

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...

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 ...

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 ...

This week's lesson is on the Book of Joshua, and in my previous post, I outlined the content in the key scriptures that are selected for this lesson by the Come Follow Me Primary manual . In this post, I'll summarise the ideas I've had about linking the scriptural content to science ideas. In Joshua 1 it says "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." This evoked an image of the moon landing and the iconic photo of the astronaut's footprint on the moon's surface . Maybe there's some way to link the two, since they're both bold steps into a new world, which took great acts of human endurance to reach. Photo by George Evans on Unsplash In Joshua 3  it says "And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." This could link to a topic on optical magnification...

This week's lesson is on the Book of Joshua, and according to the  Come Follow Me Primary manual , will be based on Joshua 1-8 and 23-24. The first task is to understand what's in these scriptures, and this scripture review post aims to do that. These videos do a nice job of explaining the narrative: These Saddleback Kids videos are aimed at young children. They treat the story of Joshua in several pieces: Joshua Leads (Joshua 1) - YouTube Rahab and the Spies (Joshua 2) - YouTube The Israelites Cross the Jordan (Joshua 3-4) - YouTube The Walls of Jericho (Joshua 5) - YouTube The Bible Project does a great job of summarising whole books in the Bible through clever comic strip style animations. YouTube The Book of Joshua seems to break down into the following parts: The first part picks up from Exodus and Deuteronomy, where Moses has brought the Israelites to the cusp of the promised land before passing away. The mantle thus falls upon Joshua, who sends spies into the Promised La...

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 mea...

My next LDS primary lesson, on Sunday 15th May, will be on a section of the Book of Numbers from the Old Testament. The LDS Primary Come Follow Me lesson plan recommends focusing on Numbers 12 (where Moses' siblings expressed discontent at what Moses was doing), Numbers 21 (the story of the brass serpent) and Numbers 22 (the story of Ballam, the priest who was asked to curse Moses, but who refused to do so). I've been thinking about a different take on this lesson, which focuses on a story from Numbers 20 . It's going to involve some messy water play... Photo by Lubomirkin on Unsplash It tells the story of Moses carrying out a command from Heavenly Father: Crucially, whilst Moses was instructed to talk to the rock, he instead hit it, thus disobeying HF. The way this event unfolds is in contrast to an earlier, similar episode in Exodus 17 , where Moses is instructed to hit a rock, does so, and water emerges. The question is why did a seemingly small difference in Moses...

 After a lengthy hiatus, we're back! This week's lesson is based on the section of the Come Follow Me manual about D&C 67-70 ( link ). We're going to work with D&C 70 , which talks about the early days of the Law of Consecration.  Back in 1831, the church assigned 6 people to starting a set of church businesses. I found a nice article that explained the history in detail ( link ), but in brief, Prophet Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris,  Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer and William W. Phelps were all involved in the "Literary Firm", which was responsible for publishing the Book of Mormon, the church hymn book, and a church newspaper. D&C 70:7 reads 7 Nevertheless, inasmuch as they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their wants, it shall be given into my storehouse I thought that we could structure a lesson that talks about (a) the reasons why a storehouse was set up, to help provide for the needy, and (b) a bit of maths relatin...

In my earlier post , I talked about how I'd started brainstorming for possible science connections which I could use to teach the next Come Follow Me Primary lesson , on D&C 41-44 . I've now decided to opt for the idea around trumpets. I noticed that the word "trump" came up twice during this section: D&C 42: 6 And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump , declaring my word like unto angels of God. D&C 43: 18 For the day cometh that the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven; the heavens shall shake and the earth shall tremble, and the trump of God shall sound both long and loud, and shall say to the sleeping nations: Ye saints arise and live; ye sinners stay and sleep until I shall call again. The way that brass instruments like trumpets create sound is really interesting. (Disclaimer - this is my best attempt at providing a simple explanation, but thi...

This is the second in a series on how I prepare LDS primary lessons using scientific principles. The first part, which talked about finding the initial science inspirations, can be found here . This part will continue by discussing how to take that initial set of ideas and mould them into a lesson plan. From theory to application Whilst I've found that primary age kids are receptive to new science ideas, it really helps if there's a practical element I can use to demonstrate them, and even better if it's something interactive that they can do themselves. The next task is to figure out which of my initial ideas lends themselves to easy demonstration. This involves another round of brainstorming and research, and searching online for kid-friendly resources (such as videos or experiments) related to the topic I have in mind. Earlier this year, I taught a lesson based on D&C 20:72-74 about baptism and receiving the holy ghost. To draw an analogy, we talked about baby sea t...

My next lesson will be from this chapter of the Come Follow Me manual, which talks about D&C 41-44. I've read through the references and the manual chapter, and have started working up some ideas on how to teach. (If you're not familiar with how I approach planning lessons, this post provides some details .) The core of D&C 41-44 is about revelations given to Joseph Smith during his early days in Kirkland, Ohio, in February 1831. Chapter 41 is fairly short, and covers a decree regarding where Joseph will be housed. Chapter 42 is the longest. It starts by calling upon the brethren to go and teach, and also touches upon a reminder of the Commandments (twice), and what will later become the Law of Consecration , where Joseph exhorts his followers to pool their property in the name of the church in order to share more equitably amongst everyone. It also touches upon the idea of receiving personal revelation.  Chapter 43 deals with the issue of false teachings, and makes cl...