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How to Use Current Events to Make Science Relevant

January 21, 2016 by Justin

You’ve probably heard in the news about the massive skyscraper fire that erupted in Dubai on New Year’s Eve. A 1,000-foot 63-story hotel was engulfed in flames so large that they dwarfed the fireworks display going on nearby. Hundreds were inside, but no one died.

You may not have heard of the Winecoff Hotel, a 15-story hotel located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. It burned in 1946, killing 119 people.

The difference between the two outcomes could be attributed largely to the fact that the Dubai hotel was equipped with smoke detectors, fire alarms, and fire suppression systems, while the Winecoff had none.

As BJU Press’s Physical Science textbook discusses, Henri Becquerel discovered nuclear radiation in 1896. His discovery led to a huge number of inventions and innovations that improved the quality of human lives. One of those inventions was the smoke detector, which became widely available in the 1950s. Common smoke detectors use nuclear decay in the process of sensing smoke. Becquerel’s discovery has helped save thousands, if not millions, of lives.

The Daily Post CourierWhat does this event have to do with teaching science?

It involves interest and motivation. You’ve just been introduced to a major science concept and probably want to know more. Your teen will too. It’s interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, the example about the hotel fires links a science concept to a current event and then shows how the two relate, taking a normally dry lesson and making it relevant and interesting by giving it purpose. A science lesson using this example would then go on to include a deeper study of nuclear radiation and decay, but now your teen would be approaching the topic with an understanding of its value.

In addition, this example makes it clear that God has given us a powerful tool in science, one that enables us to serve Him by carrying out His commands to love our neighbors by improving the lives of others around us. Motivation to learn comes from a desire to serve in this way.

Just about any scientific concept can be made more accessible by relating it to something that interests your student.  The end result is that you as the teacher get to be creative and your teen isn’t bored with memorizing endless facts without purpose.

Here are some steps to get you started.

  1. Find a current (or historical) event or problem that was changed or solved using science.
  2. Ask your student to explain what role science played in the event. (Doing so encourages his critical thinking skills.)
  3. Ask your student to research why science worked that way in relation to the event and to explain the associated concepts that influenced it.
  4. Finish the lesson with a discussion of why using science in this way would please God.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: current event, fun, how to, lesson, science

We Are God’s Pottery

March 12, 2015 by Eileen

A few years ago, I got to experience a different kind of classroom. I sat in a large sun-filled studio for my first-ever lesson in pottery making. After throwing my clay into the center of the wheel and molding it into a cone shape, I waited with my hands poised, listening to the instructor explain how to start the wheel. “You’re going to find that the clay wants to spin off the wheel,” she said, “but it has to stay right there in the center.”

clay pots on shelvesSure enough. Only a few seconds after I started my wheel, I realized my clay had a mind of its own. I was trying to focus on pressing the cone tip down to become the base of my pot, but my lump of clay seemed intent on sliding out from under my hands. Two or three times in the process of forming the pot, I felt that obstinate clay go slightly airborne, inching its way off the wheel, and I had to exert extra pressure to bring it back. Why does clay act that way?

Granted, I lacked skill as a potter and really had no idea what I was doing, so the fault was probably mine. But I couldn’t help noting the spiritual analogy and pondering it for days after I left the pottery classroom. Why do I act like that clay when I’m on God’s wheel? Why do I try to maneuver myself out of the “molding” situations His providence puts me in for my own good? Why do I inch away from His hands when He points out a sin I need to confess? Why do I often try to “slide out from under” His loving work of making me more like Christ?

I guess the process of pottery making is anything but comfortable for the clay. But if only that recalcitrant lump could see the beautiful vision of what the Potter has for it, the last thing it would want to do is “spin off the wheel.” It would draw a figurative breath of joyful wonder and say, “Have Thine own way, Lord! . . . Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”

Reference

Adelaide A. Pollard, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” Rejoice Hymns (Greenville, SC: Majesty Music, 2011), 494 (emphasis added).

Filed Under: Devotions Tagged With: classroom, clay, lesson, molded, Potter, pottery

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