BJU Press Blog

Justin

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About Justin

Justin, who holds an MA in public relations and minored in education, was a writer and digital outreach coordinator at BJU Press for several years. He is committed to presenting the lifelong benefits of a biblical-worldview education. Justin enjoys volunteering at a local elementary school, where he and fellow church members teach Bible lessons to young children. Read more posts by Justin.

When Does a Tool Become an Idol?

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Technology is great. Computers allow us to do work not possible before. Smartphones give us access to a world of information in the palm of our hand. Even video games can be a good way to unwind or socialize. But what happens when technology becomes more like an idol than a tool?

You’ve probably seen a group of friends or family members sitting around a table without saying a word while everyone stares into his or her smartphone. Ever see a child who’s so fused into an iPad that she can’t be content without it? What about a young man who spends most of his life in a virtual game world to the neglect of his education, his career, and his walk with God?

Are these really idols?

When we think of idols we usually picture statues made by pagans that are worshiped as gods. We may not worship our electronic tools, but sometimes we give them a level of attention that only God deserves. The Bible says the greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36–40). So when does technology become an idol? When it hinders our ability to act on those commandments.

Here’s a personal example:

Last week I sat on the couch with my four-month-old son on my lap making silly faces and laughing. I usually make a special effort to limit my smartphone usage around him and give him my full attention, but my pocket vibrated.  Completely without thinking I pulled out my phone to read the notification. It was not important, but I proceeded to let it hold my attention until I noticed that the huge smile on my son’s face had become a pushed-out bottom lip. I felt terrible and convicted.

My attention to my phone was preventing me from showing my son the love that the Bible commands me to. Would I want someone to suddenly ignore me for an email? Of course not.

What can we do?

• Be aware

Sometimes the most dastardly idols are the ones that disguise themselves as a normal and necessary part of our lives. I often ask myself, “Could I reasonably live without this?”  If the answer is no, the reasoning had better be that it helps me fulfill a biblical mandate such as providing for my family, loving God, or loving others. If the thing doesn’t meet that criteria and is taking up a sizable amount of my time and attention, it might be time to cut back.

• Power down or put away

Ever since the incident with my son, I’ve been trying to be extra careful. I put my phone in my office when I get home, and it stays there until I check it for important notifications before bed. The ringer is on loud enough for me to hear it ring if someone calls. At our house, video games are an infrequent activity that we do as a family, not individually. I know many families that have successfully boosted family time and reading time by limiting device usage at the dinner table and in the evenings. Do whatever works for your family.

• Clean house

Sometimes completely getting rid of a device is the best way to remove the temptation to idolize it. This has been hard for me in the past because technology is valuable and throwing it away or selling it at a loss seems wasteful. In these cases I’ve found that the best thing to do is to stick it in a closet somewhere. If it’s a game or app, uninstall it for a while. Taking a few weeks or months off from something can be eye opening. If you don’t miss it, you may not need it at all. If you miss it greatly for the wrong reasons, you’ve identified an idol.

What steps have you taken to identify and remove potential tech idols from your home? Let us know in the comments!

What Is STEM and How Do I Teach It?

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If you’re like me, you have a hard time keeping up with all the new buzzwords in education. When you hear about STEM, it’s usually being talked about as if it’s a subject all its own—one more thing you need to worry about teaching your kids. The reality is that you’re probably already teaching it, especially if you are using BJU Press textbooks for science and math. We were doing STEM long before it was called STEM.

What STEM Is

STEM is an acronym for

  • Science
  • Technology
  • Engineering
  • Math

Technically, any lesson that falls into one of these subject areas is a “STEM lesson.” But the term is typically used when describing activities that seek to teach kids how to apply those subjects to real-world applications. If hearing about STEM brings to mind pictures of kids building robots, that’s because robotics and programming are examples of real-world applications. They are definitely STEM, but STEM isn’t limited to electronics. Exercises can also include chemistry experiments, math equations used to design buildings or vehicles, weather analysis, and more.

Why It’s Hot

The acronym actually dates back to 1998 but has recently gained a lot of popularity. Experts in the United States determined that we were behind other countries in these areas in terms of test scores and the number of college graduates holding degrees in those fields. The majority of high-paying new jobs fall into the STEM category, and there aren’t enough graduates to meet that demand.

Why It Matters

Homeschoolers usually aren’t big on educational fads, focusing instead on time-tested approaches that we know work. The acronym STEM might be trendy but the idea isn’t new. The fundamental processes used in math and science never change, but the way we apply them to the real world has to because the demands of the job market change. If we’re going to bring up our children to be good stewards of God’s creation and to love their neighbors, we have to equip them with the tools they need to accomplish those things in a modern world. That’s why BJU Press has been including these real-world applications in our science and math textbook lines from the beginning.

What to Do

One of the best things about homeschooling is that you can do what’s right for your family. I believe STEM is very important, so here are two things I plan to do with my own son:

  • I’m going to make sure that the curriculum I’m using has plenty of up-to-date STEM exercises that will help him learn.
  • I’m going to personally come at the activities with a learner’s attitude. A lot of the lessons, especially ones involving technology and programing might be foreign to parents who aren’t actively involved in fields that use them, but I’m excited about learning along with my son and certainly won’t skip over lessons that may seem unfamiliar or difficult. We’ll get through them together.

Did you find this post helpful? Would you like to share a STEM activity that has worked in your homeschool? Be sure to comment below! Also, to get you started, here are six free STEM activities from BJU Press science textbooks.

 

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Teaching Work Skills: Spreadsheet Activity

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Entering data into a spreadsheet is one of the more mundane aspects of my job, but it’s also a critical part of what I do. I’m able to take lots of data about our company and use math to figure out how we can better serve homeschool families. That’s the part that excites me.

Spreadsheets are used in just about all academic and business environments. Learning how to use them at home can give your student a big advantage in college and in the workforce.

Here’s a basic and enjoyable activity from our Algebra 2 textbook to get your child started with spreadsheets and show how math concepts relate to everyday work.  The user interface can vary depending on which spreadsheet software you’re using, but just about any should work for this activity. Here are some popular options:

• Google Sheets™ – You can use this web-based spreadsheet program for free, but you have to have a Google account. It can be used on just about any platform.

• Microsoft Excel – This is perhaps the most robust and widely used spreadsheet program. It’s paid software that you install on your Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android device.

• LibreOffice® Calc – As open-source software, this can be downloaded for free and installed on just about any desktop operating system. The interface is a bit dated compared to the other two options.

Activity: Daily High Temperature

A scientist can use a spreadsheet to track a city’s daily high temperature and to determine the weekly average temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Make a spreadsheet to record a particular location’s high temperatures daily for several weeks and construct a graph illustrating the data. Weather Underground has a great weather history tool that you can use for this.

After entering the numbers for the first two weeks in column A, highlight the cells that establish a pattern (cells A3 and A4). Then use the fill handle (the small square in the lower right-hand corner of the highlighted area) to expand the box down the column to row 6.

Now record the data for each day. Also enter the following formulas to calculate the average high temperature for the week in Fahrenheit and convert this average to degrees Celsius.

In column I row 3 (cell I3), enter =(B3+C3+D3+E3+F3+G3+H3)/7 to find the average.

In column J row 3 (cell J3), enter =5/9*(I3-32) to convert to Celsius.

Most spreadsheets include a function (for adding a series of numbers and finding their average) that can be used to simplify the first formula to something like this: =(AVERAGE(B3:H3))

These formulas can be copied into the cells for the remaining weeks by dragging the fill handle down. Notice how the cell references in the formulas are adjusted relative to each cell’s position in the spreadsheet when the formula is replicated in this manner. Most spreadsheets also allow you to quickly generate graphs from the numerical data.

Once the activity is completed, have your student think about how math was at work behind the scenes. Ask questions like these:

  • What does the data show?
  • What did the formulas help you accomplish?
  • Was using the spreadsheet easier than doing the work manually?
  • Can you think of any other industries or tasks where a spreadsheet could be useful?

The goal of this activity is not to produce a nice graph at the end, but to gain an understanding of exactly how a spreadsheet works and how it can organize data and solve real-world problems using math.

If your student enjoys this activity, consider using one of the similar activities in Algebra 2 to improve your student’s spreadsheet skills.

Microsoft, Encarta, MSN, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

How to Keep Your Kids Safe on the Web

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Safe on the WebThe idea of our kids using the internet on their own can be scary for many of us parents. Part of being a parent (and a big part of why we homeschool) is to protect them from harmful influences. There’s plenty of objectionable content on the web, but the internet itself isn’t inherently bad. Like many other tools it can be both constructive and destructive.

The internet is a doorway to knowledge. Inside, there are many powerful learning tools. One such tool is BJU Press Distance Learning Online, which has helped thousands of homeschool families keep their children’s education on track. But how do you use these tools without also exposing your children to the bad stuff?

It can be done—and probably more easily than you think. Here are ways to use both hardware and software to harness the power of the web in your homeschool while keeping your kids safe.

Hardware

Choosing the right device for your children to use to access the internet can go a long way toward protecting them online. Some are easier than others to manage and “lock down” for a controlled browsing experience.

My personal favorite device for this purpose is a Chromebook™ notebook computer. These inexpensive laptops run Google’s web-centric Chrome OS™ operating system. Though not ideal for all workloads, they’re a top choice in schools because they have built-in keyboards and can be easily managed by teachers, which also makes them perfect for homeschoolers. You can lock the laptop down to being able to display only a set of websites that you define, meaning you can limit your child’s access to only Distance Learning Online if you want to. And it can all be done with a few clicks without any special knowledge of the platform.

Learn more about Chromebook™ notebook computers here.

Software

If you already have a device that you use or want to protect your entire family, a software solution might be the best option. Covenant Eyes® is a special kind of software that can be installed on multiple devices to filter and monitor web access. It can be used to block out specific sites and stores a record of all sites visited (for accountability purposes). They do charge a monthly fee for a family subscription.

You can learn more about Covenant Eyes® here.

I hope these ideas help your family have a safe web experience. If you’ve found other ways to protect your family, help others by mentioning them in the comments below!
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An Experience That Changed Everything

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Civil War Experience

When I was about nine years old, my dad decided to take me to a local Civil War reenactment. I’m from a small town that’s famous for having one of the best reenactments around, drawing thousands of people every year. I loved history and had studied the Civil War, so my excitement for this trip rivaled that of going to Disney World.

I walked around taking it all in. Everything was just as I had read and expected it to be—men and women cooking over campfires next to their tents, sharing stories from the past; the sound of cannon blasts so loud that my ears hurt; soldiers in uncomfortable-looking uniforms carrying rifles with bayonets that made them taller than the men carrying them. It was all so epic.

Then I heard it. A man screaming in pain, or at least acting like it. I turned the corner and saw the medical tent. I froze. The pile of severed limbs covered in “blood” had probably been purchased from a novelty store, but they were all too real to my pre-adolescent eyes. A man in a once white, now crimson apron was wielding an instrument that looked a lot like my dad’s hacksaw. Then I noticed the “wounded” man surrounded by several other men holding him down. Young as I was, I could easily figure out what was going to happen next. The experience shocked me. What I had just witnessed was all I could think about for the rest of the day.

My entire understanding of the Civil War changed in an instant. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t read about the medical treatments of the time, but that was just words in a textbook that I quickly glossed over to get to the exciting battles. Now the realities of the war had become palpable for me.

Sometimes the only way to learn about something in a way that allows for true understanding is to experience it. In many cases, we think we (or our children) understand a topic only to find out that we really didn’t comprehend it at all. That’s why learning activities are so important. Actually experiencing something builds a foundation for learning that you can’t create by merely reading a book or watching a video. Not all activities and experiences need to be shocking like my example. In fact, most won’t be. But simple activities, such as this balloon craft, put skills taught in a lesson into a physical form and accomplish the same thing.

That’s why I always encourage homeschool parents to also purchase the Teacher Editions of BJU Press textbooks.  Parents typically don’t have time to come up with creative activities to reinforce each lesson. The Teacher Editions make this simple by including a large variety of activities for different learning styles.  The time you save in planning and the benefit to your child’s learning experience easily offset the extra expense.

Be sure to check out some learning activity ideas in the posts below.

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