Last week's lesson on Deuteronomy was about Heavenly Father teaching the Israelites to care for others with an open heart, and we linked this to animal altruism, where there have been cases of animals willingly helping others (in their own or other species) without any apparent self-interest involved. I introduced the hormone oxytocin and said that it had been shown to play a role in regulating the ability of animals to express complex caring behaviour. In experiments where scientists removed this hormone from voles, a species which is known for being monogamous and bonding for life , the affected vole partner would suddenly lose all interest in their mate. We used this idea of removing something important, and analysing the effects it would have, in our lesson, where we imagined that we had been commanded by Heavenly Father to NOT care for others, and we thought through what this would mean in our day-to-day lives. The hormone removal experiment invited several questi...
A blog on teaching primary children about LDS scriptural principles from a science-based perspective. Offers resources for other teachers and parents to teach with and gain inspirations from.