Chemistry Compilation

This post needs to begin with an apology to my 2012/2013 Chemistry class. I wanted to end the year on a fun and interesting note, so after our final test I assigned a final project. I divided the class into pairs...each pair was asked to prepare a basic Chemistry demonstration of some kind to present to an audience. With the busy schedule at the end of the year, I was never able to arrange a suitable audience, so we agreed that I would video the presentations and post them to my blog instead.

I promised to upload the compilation by early summer. No excuses....my head is now firmly in the sand, so no...I can't see the leaves changing color on the maple trees.

I'm not much for video editing, so what you see is pretty much exactly as it went down. However...the preparation week has been omitted for a number of good reasons.

For example: Note the volume of smoke created by Justin and Jordan in one of the final demonstrations on the video. Then imagine that demonstration occurring in a confined space known in the settled regions of Appalachia as a classroom....of course this is only in your imagination:)

After that week I noticed that I was super sensitive to anybody working beyond the perimeter of my peripheral vision (Not really). We all learned a lot along the way. I have some ideas for making the project even more effective next time and the students learned that teaching Chemistry might actually be harder than learning Chemistry....

They all did an excellent job...enjoy the video!

No Time to Tarry Here???

I pulled in my lane this evening hoping to finally catch up on some sleep...instead I found out that a dear sister from my church took her life today. Sandy is a single lady that has been attending my church for the last number of years...wrestling through this journey...

Now a song from one of my favorite children's choirs is playing through my head over and over....I thought I would share it. Life is a big matter of perspective....when one sees his life held up against eternity, he really has little time to be shoddy here....

Asking the right question: Who is Truth?

I've often thought that finding one's way through life is about asking the right questions as much as its about finding sexy answers. Those who don't ask the right questions rarely find good answers.

A recent email flurry with some friends found us hashing teachers. The best teachers seem to be people that understand that Truth is a person (Jesus). These teachers understand that Truth is not something you google, youtube, look up in an encyclopedia, or learn from the Hardy Boys. These teachers understand that they need to know Jesus and help their students know Jesus. Intelligence, extreme knowlege, or quick wit does not necessarily promote truth...in fact, it just may inherently lead students to ask the wrong question.

So, what is the wrong question? We may need to go back to one of the biggest literal perversions of Truth. When Jesus stood on trial before Pilate (a so called intelligent and learned man), He told Pilate that the reason He came into the world was to show us Truth, and anyone that is interested in Truth should simply tune in to to His voice (John 18:37)

Pilate promptly demonstrates his lack of understanding by asking an irrelevant question (but a question that is considered highly intellectual and intelligent today)...a question that the human race has been hammering into the bedrock over and over ever since. Of course who knows what part of the conversation the story may omit, but according to the account, Jesus does not even respond to Pilate's age old, "What is truth?"

If Pilate would have understood Jesus, he would have said something like, "you mean to tell me that YOU think YOU are Truth?" Instead PIlate arrogantly/stubornly saw himself as an intelligent guardian of truth....like he could just flip the right stone and find a worm...like he could put it in a box and send it to his neice for christmas....like he could command Jesus to go google it for him....like he could demand his children to go do it...like he could put it on his oatmeal in the morning like little raisins...like Jesus could tell him what it was with one sentence. If Pilate really wanted to know Truth he was going to have to take some splinters in the kneck...throw that cross on his should and walk with Jesus up that hill. (nobody is interested in cross bearing anymore it seems)

Like Pilate, we still think truth is a "thing," and we're still asking, "What is truth?" What would happen if we started asking "Who is truth?" If we started asking "Who is truth," is it possible that our young people would begin to see Aropostale, Nike, the media, Lebron James, Starbucks, McDonalds, Ford, The Mall and Walmart for who they really are?