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...

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...