4. Pitfalls

Evaluating Pitfalls and Solutions

The goal for this lesson is to sum up the themes of the lessons in Part 3: Big Questions and transition to the next part of the course.

You might begin by reviewing the chart of pitfalls that students created in the Common Pitfalls exercise and look at the solutions they listed for each pitfall:

• Are there any common patterns in the solutions?
• Are they relevant to both scientific inquiry and biblical studies?

Offer an opportunity for students to make revisions in light of the previous class session.

Ask students to journal silently on this prompt: “Evaluate your life in terms of isolation and community.”

• Where do you have healthy connections to others?
• Where are they less healthy?
• When do you take opportunities to learn from others and constructively help them learn?

Allow some time for discussion, and ask if any students are willing to share what they wrote. If you are journaling with the students, which is encouraged, share your own response to this prompt—this can create an atmosphere of safety and vulnerability.

Let students know that the course is about to shift to a new topic. For students to understand where the course is headed, they will have to understand the biblical idea of “Shalom.” Find out from students if this is a familiar word and whether anyone has ideas about what it means.

This conversation will lead into Chemistry and Shalom, which guides students to consider the concept of shalom and how it may be related to studying chemistry. The relational theme is continued and expanded beyond the classroom context into a wider setting in the next part of the course.

Finally, let students know that the next part of the course focuses on Ethics, within which one avenue of exploration will be the God/Self/Neighbor/Creation matrix.