One of the best things a teacher can hear from students as they engage in a learning activity is, “WOW, that’s so cool!” What’s even better for a science teacher in Christian education is hearing students say, “WOW, that’s so cool. God is really cool!” Meaningful biblical integration in science makes the “God is really cool!” statements happen much more often.
Science from a Biblical Worldview
Science is a way of knowing and exploring God’s creation. Science allows us to see God’s magnificence, sovereignty, and wisdom. It helps us see how all systems, abiotic and biotic, work together in God’s good creation. The application of science helps humans understand how the world works, so that we can fulfill our role as earth keepers.
Science is a subject that can easily evoke wonder and amazement about the creator of the universe. As with language arts, science is a big subject that encompasses the study of matter and energy, living organisms and processes, and the earth and its processes. It is important for students to understand that science is not a belief, but rather is a way to discover and explore the universe and how it works. The interpretation of the information produced by science depends on one’s worldview. Interpreting scientific information from a biblical worldview allows students to see God’s nature and wisdom.
Biblical Integration in Science Essential Question Examples
Here are examples of biblical principles science teachers addressed as they planned their regular curricular units. The essential questions listed below are specific to the science content provided by individual teachers.
How Does Stewardship of Water Quality Relate to Loving People?
One high school biology teacher was preparing to teach the curricular content about water quality and its effect on communities. She wanted students to understand when considering water quality, we must recognize that the well-being of people is directly impacted by the quality of water they have access to. Clean water is a fundamental human need. We can love other people and put our faith into action by seeking to meet the needs of these people in a practical way (James 2:14-17). When we look at the history of major water pollution events, we see that the effects of water pollution are typically experienced more in lower socioeconomic groups. The Bible specifically calls us to care for the poor (Psalm 41:1, Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 22:16, Isaiah 41:17), and we can do this practically by ensuring good water quality.
The teacher planned learning opportunities where students were guided to think about how to apply what they learned about water quality in their lab experiments to ideas around bettering their community. Using data gathered from the local water supply and scriptures about caring for others, students were to answer the essential questions.
How can I Design a Good Experiment?
A middle school STEM teacher wanted his students to understand that a biblical worldview provides ethical guidelines regarding experimental procedures. This teacher provided students with scripture passages that showed how human life and creation are valued, and how honesty and glorifying God are important. Ultimately, the teacher wanted the students to see that an ethical experiment is one where humans are respected as image bearers of God, the natural world is cared for by humans, and God is glorified in work that is done honestly.
The students were paired and first asked to respond to the essential question from their background knowledge alone. This initial response served as a preassessment of the students’ prior knowledge and to see if they connected faith beliefs with the work of a scientist in any way. Secondly, the initial student responses served as a cognitive activator—building interest and anticipation. From there, student pairs were assigned a selection of Bible passages to analyze and propose a connection to a good experimental design.
Why do we Need to Take Care of our Natural Resources?
For littles in kindergarten, ecology and conservation is a common curricular topic. Did you know that the answer to this essential question can be found in Genesis 2? That’s right!
After teaching much of her science curriculum on natural resources and conservation, one kindergarten teacher shared Genesis 2:15 (NIV) with her class of 5-year-olds: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Just as a kindergarten teacher would help the students comprehend any other written sentence, this teacher facilitated comprehension of the scripture. First, the students did some echo reading. Then, the teacher underlined key words with the verse on the whiteboard. Next, the teacher had a few students share the meaning of this verse. Lastly, the teacher guided the students to understand that God gave people the job to take care of His creation. Here’s an important note: all of this took place in several 10-minute segments, over the course of a few days. By the end of her multi-day unit on conservation, most students were able to tell that we need to take care of our natural resources because God gave people the job to take care of the earth.
Integrating a Biblical Worldview of Science in Your Classroom
These essential questions are samples of what’s possible in teaching science from a biblical perspective. Teachers have used these questions to prompt and guide students’ biblical thinking to apply scientific information to serve others, ethically perform research, and fulfill our role as creation caretakers. As you plan your own curricular units, think about how God’s nature is revealed within scientific evidence or how scientific evidence can be used to glorify the Lord.
About Transformed PD
The mission of Transformed PD is to nurture the thinking and expertise of Christian school educators through relational teaching. We offer biblical professional development services and train educators on best practices for biblical integration in the classroom setting. Contact us to learn more about partnering with your school. Stay up to date with all that Transformed PD is doing and learn more about biblical integration in science and other subjects by subscribing to our monthly newsletter!
Be sure to visit our other posts in this series on biblical integration within each subject: Biblical Integration in Language Arts, Biblical Integration in Social Studies, and Biblical Integration in Math.
