Teaching Principle 1: First the Physical, then the Theoretical (Spiritual)

The first teaching principle that I’d like to cover is that, regardless of age, for both science and math, you should introduce the physical phenomenon of interest first, before discussing the various theories and concepts about the phenomenon.

For instance, introduce your child to magnets and let them play with them before talking about theories of magnetism. Show your children the sky, sun, moon, stars, and other planets before talking about various theories of the solar system. Let your children play with manipulatives (e.g., Math-U-See) before trying to teach them numbers, fractions, etc.

I draw this principle from the process of how God revealed Himself in the Bible. In the Old Testament, God introduced the sacrificial system as a precursor to Jesus Christ and his atonement for our sins. God introduced the Passover before the Lord’s Supper. In order to better understand the more abstract ideas of atonement, propitiation, sacrifice, etc. God normally starts with a related physical phenomenon with His people, and then introduces the more abstract ideas later on.

Typical textbooks and courses for teaching science include introducing the student to the idea or concept to be learned - before the student has had the chance to familiarize themselves with the phenomenon in question. Young children are typically taught about various (current) theories of phenomena without any historical context. Students should have the opportunity to become familiar with a given phenomenon before they are introduced to the associated theory/theories associated with that phenomenon.

Let your children wonder about magnetism, electricity, motion, astronomy, etc. How would you go about discovering what “is behind the appearances”? Draw your children into the wonder of what is going on, then, explore how that idea developed historically.

For instance, if you wanted to teach about magnetism, you would start with just showing your children magnets of various strengths and what they can do. There are lots of magnetic toys these days. Clearly there is something going on in the attraction of one magnet to another. Look for a good liberal arts textbook which teaches about magnetism.

One such textbook is “Physics - The Pioneer Science” by Lloyd William Taylor (1941). This book can be hard to find, but an electronic copy is available to borrow for free at this link if you sign up for a free account: https://archive.org . If you want to go deeper on the history of magnetism, you could reference a book like “Hidden Attraction - The Mystery and History of Magnetism” by Gerrit Verschuur. This book is also available to borrow at archive.org

Then, you could cover the topic of “static electricity” from an historical perspective using Taylor’s “Physics - The Pioneer Science” text. Be sure to look for simple demonstrations of the phenomenon in question and discuss with your child what they think might be going on before diving into the topic. A simple demonstration of static electricity is in the winter, when you rub a balloon on a piece of clothing an the let it cling to the wall or ceiling. Then, you could cover the topic of “current electricity” using the same text. You could discuss the Galvani-Volta controversy on animal electricity, and perhaps replicate Galvani’s frog experiments. For a more extended discussion, see Marcello Pera’s “The Ambiguous Frog - The Galvani-Volta Controversy on Animal Electricity.” I encourage you to make your own simple batteries.

Then, you could cover the relationship between magnetism and electricity - electromagnetism. Be sure to go over the discoveries of Oersted, Ampere, and Faraday. These are also covered in the “Physics - The Pioneer Science” textbook.

To be continued. …