Category: Concepts

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Fireworks, Math, & the Creator

fireworks

As we celebrated our nation’s 250th birthday last week, many went out to see fireworks. Now’s a great time to stop and think about all the math that goes into planning a firework display, along with the wonder of how God governs creation consistently enough that fireworks are even possible (which math helps us see).

Let’s start with planning the display. Here are a few examples of some math involved!

  • Costs – Say a city has a $100,000 budget for a firework display. That cost might need to include paying a band, bringing in police officers, and other general costs in addition to the costs of the fireworks themselves. Basic math would help compare different options. For example, say they’re selecting different fireworks for a certain 30 seconds of the show.
    • How much would ten $50 fireworks cost (Answer: 10 x $50 = $500)?
    • How much more would it be to get 8 of $75 larger fireworks? (Answer: 8 x $75 = $600; $600 – $500 = $100)
  • Comparing – If one firework show shot off 100,000 fireworks altogether and another did 25,000, how much more did the one do than the other? (Answer: 100,000 – 25,000 = 75,000)
  • Buying Fireworks on Clearance – If you buy a $50 firework on a 40% off clearance, how much would you spend? (Answer: 40% of $50 is $20, or 0.40 x $50 = $20. Thus the final price is $50 – $20 = $30.)

Math is indeed a useful tool that helps with real-life tasks. Now let’s stop and think about the fireworks themselves, as fireworks not only require lots of math in their development and deployment, but our ability to put on firework displays points to our amazing Creator.

Fireworks contain carefully measured mixtures of chemicals. Different compounds containing metal produce different colors when heated, and manufacturers must mix them in just the right proportions (which we study in math!) to create bright, reliable colors. Manufacturers can only declare with confidence that a firework is red, blue, etc., because the same combinations of chemicals consistently produce the same reactions. And why do they do that? Because God created and sustains a consistent world!

Fireworks also include a fuse—a material that burns while the firework travels up so that the shell bursts safely high in the air and not near the ground. Manufacturers have to observe how quickly different materials they could use as a fuse burn up, and then select the right material and length to make the explosion at the desired point. Designing a fuse involves math, and again relies on materials burning in a consistent fashion.

Example: Suppose a fuse burns at 24 seconds per foot. How many feet of fuse are needed for it to burn for 6 seconds? (Answer: 24 sec/ 1ft = 6 sec/? ft24 sec. was divided by 4 to get 6 sec.; 1 ft. divided by 4 is 0.25 ft. Answer is 0.25 ft., or 3 in.)

How do we know what angle to launch a firework? Or how high it will travel before bursting? Again, we observe the consistencies God created and sustains in creation, such as gravity and the predictable path of a projectile. These consistencies can be described algebraically. Computers use lots of advanced math to calculate when to launch each firework and at what angle so the burst occurs at the desired place and exactly the right moment in the music. This is only possible because of the consistent way God governs creation! If He were not holding this world together in a consistent fashion, we’d have no reason to expect fireworks to go off in a consistent way.

fireworks

There’s much, much more we could talk about with fireworks, such as the lift charge needed to get the firework off the ground or the arrangement of stars in a shell, but hopefully that gives you a glimpse into how math helps us with fireworks…and how our ability to use math like this relies on God’s faithfulness in holding all things together. As you think back on the Fourth of July with your children, remember to praise the great Creator and Sustainer of all. And know that the math you learn applies outside of a textbook!

Looking for next year’s math curriculum? Check out our middle and high school courses that show students the purpose to math and how it points to the Creator at every turn! And don’t miss our supplemental resources that you can use with younger ones to bring math to life for them.

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Math and Weddings

weddings

In helping a friend plan her wedding, I was recently reminded of how math applies in planning an event. Here are a few ideas to share with your students.

A. Total cost given per-person cost: If the caterer charges $29.50 a guest, and you have 80 guests, how much will food cost? If you increase to 90 guests, how much will your catering cost go up?

B. Total with tip: If your total caterer bill is $2,500, and you add a 20% gratuity off the $2,500, how much would the total with tip be?

C. Here is what you’ve spent on center table decorations: $41.23, $32.12, $20.15, and $50.60. If all that decorates 5 tables, what is the cost per table?

D. The baker charges $356 for a cake that feeds 50. What is the cost per person?

Always remember, math is a useful tool that helps us with real-life tasks!

Solutions: A. $29.50 x 80 =$2,360.00; if increase to 90, total is $29.50 x 90=$2,655.00; difference is $2,655.00-$2,360.00=$295.00.
B. 1.20 x $2,500 = $3,000 (Multiplied by 1.20 to include the 20% tip, as 100% + 20% = 120% = 1.20; could also have found 20% and added that to $2,500).
C. $41.23+$32.12+$20.15+$50.60=$144.10; $144.10/5=$28.82
D. $356/50=$7.12

Algebra 2 eCourseNeed a curriculum that shows students every concept as a useful tool? Check out Kate’s Middle School and High School curriculum, along with elementary supplements that can enrich whatever curriculum you use. Enjoy 30% off most materials through the end of April!

 

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Why High School Math? (Plus AI, Logic, & the Creator)

Does algebra even matter?

As I released my new Consumer Math course, I kept hearing how excited moms were for a high school math that was actually practical. While Consumer Math certainly is that, other high school math should be too!

In all of my math courses, I’ve striven to show students why they’re learning what they’re learning. Granted, algebra might not be something students incorporate into their daily life. However, they use technology based on it daily. For example, how fast will a metal pan heat up? We can use an algebra equation to figure that out.

formulawhere

formula

We can write formulas like the one above because of the consistent way heat transfers into pans based on their heat capacity. And why is creation so consistent? Because a faithful God governs creation in a predictable way! Algebra should be something students finish up with a deeper wow at our amazing Creator.

Now, high school math problems can get challenging and involved. Some multi-step problems can make your head spin. These problems not only prepare students for real-life math problems, but they also teach them to look at a situation where they don’t know what to do and think of different ways they could potentially approach it. That’s a skill we need with real-life non-mathematical problems too!

And then there’s logical thinking skills. If a > b and b > c, we can conclude that a must also be greater than c…but we couldn’t conclude that it’s greater than h, for instance. Why do we care? Learning how to draw logical conclusions helps us think through real-life scenarios.

I’ve put below a video Answers in Genesis recently released that shows an AI, when prompted to answer “according to strict math, logic, and mathematical probability” agreed a biblical Creator makes sense and evolution is foolish. Logic matters…and algebra and geometry help students develop it.

Looking to Help Your Students See Math’s Purpose This Year?
Check out these high school and junior high school programs, complete with optional eCourses that will walk students through the lessons. Also check out the Big Book of Math timeline, usable to add in math’s application and purpose to any curriculum. It is possible for students to see God in math while developing skills that will last a lifetime.

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Math Moment: Math & the Human Body

cells

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Our bodies are remarkable. We can eat, see, move, smell, and so much more. We’re clearly incredibly designed! But when we use math to see how our bodies work, we get a deeper appreciation for how amazingly God knit us together.

Notice that a child’s head is bigger in comparison to the rest of its body than the adult’s head. A big head helps protect a child when they fall. However, if we kept growing with that same ratio between our head and body, we wouldn’t be able to walk as adults! God gave us just the body proportions we needed for each stage of life.

While we’re talking about our heads, let’s zoom in on our ears. It takes advanced math, including trigonometry, to record sounds digitally so hat we can listen to them. But our bodies constantly collect and interpret sounds for us…all without us thinking about it!

Now take a look at these cells from a human body. Notice that the cells are approximately spheres. Using math, we can explore the surface area and volume of cells as they grow. Here are the formulas for the surface area and volume of a sphere. The ratio between them would be the division of one over the other, which we can show using a fraction line and which simplifies to 3/r, where r is standing for the radius of the sphere. The radius, or r, is going to get bigger as the cell gets bigger. What happens to the surface area? Well, let’s say this cell has a radius of 1 and this one of 3.

Notice that if we plug those values into 3/r, the ratio gets smaller as the radius gets bigger. That means that in comparison to the volume, there’s less surface area. This would be problematic if our cells just kept growing, as the cell absorbs nutrients through its surface area. If the cell gets too big, it will die, as it won’t be able to get enough nutrients. But don’t worry–our great Creator designed cells to divide into smaller cells before they get too big. Once again, math helps us see His design.

Next, let’s talk about the viscosity of our blood. I know viscosity is a big word, but it basically describes the thickness of a liquid. Water has a lower viscosity than the orange liquid shown here.

Here’s the formula for viscosity. God put special proteins in your blood that makes these values just right for your blood to flow around your body…and to change when you get a cut so the blood becomes thicker and we don’t bleed to death. God sure thought of everything, didn’t He?

Now there’s a lot more we could say about our bodies, but hopefully that gives you a glimpse into how incredibly designed you are. God knit you together in your mother’s womb. He knew all that would take place in your life before you took your first breath. You can trust Him and cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you.

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Math, Our Finely Tuned Bodies, & the Creator

blood pressure

Every time we go to the doctor, the nurse takes a few key measurements: our blood pressure, weight, height (if we’re still in growing years), and temperature. Depending on our issue, they might run some blood work. They do this because our bodies God finely tuned our bodies to operate just right, and these numbers—as well as many others—can clue us in to if something is out of place.

Blood Pressure

Stop and marvel at your heart for just a moment. All without your thinking about it, it pumps blood at just the right pressure through your body, adjusting that pressure automatically based on your activity level. If it beats too high or low, your body stops functioning correctly. Ask someone who’s had that happen and they can tell you what a gift a working heart really is.

Height & Weight

Your height and weight can be used to calculate what we call a BMI (Body Mass Index). Simply divide your weight by your height to find yours. That simple ratio gives us a way to compare if we’re at a healthy weight…and to see if children are growing appropriately.

Temperature

It’s no fun when we run a fever, is it? God designed our bodies to operate within a certain range, and when our immune system has to raise the temperature higher to fight off an infection, we feel it. We don’t often stop to think, though, about how amazing it is that our bodies can control our temperature in the first place. Yet a functioning body temperature is a daily gift from God.

Blood Work

Doctors sometimes need to draw blood work. If you’ve ever looked at blood work results, you might have noticed that it’s filled with numbers of what was in the blood analyzed, as well as normal ranges for that value. If you’ve ever had anything show up abnormal on your blood work, you may know how something simple being off in our blood can cause major problems. For example, if our blood sugar is off as is the case in diabetes, we can experience major health issues.

Stop & Praise

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV)

When we use math to measure the quantities and operations in our bodies, we see that we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We’re finely tuned on so many levels, from blood pressure to temperature to sugar levels to hormones to oxygenation—the list could go on and on and on. Our amazing bodies should cause us to praise our great Creator!

At the same time, the reality that our bodies don’t always work right should remind us that we live in a fallen world—a world gone wrong because of sin. In God’s original creation, Adam and Eve’s bodies worked just right all the time. Sin changed that. Now we’re all in the process of dying, and our bodies often don’t stay perfectly tuned. Sin is serious, and we’ve all sinned. We desperately need the Savior, Jesus Christ; through faith in Him, we can look forward to a perfect world again with new bodies that do work perfectly.

Next time you think about math, remember that it helps us explore God’s creation—including our bodies. As it does, it points us to God’s amazing design—and reminds us of the seriousness of sin. Pause and praise the God who both knit you together and chose to become a human to save you from sin and bring you to Himself and a perfect world again.

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Math, Electricity, & the Creator

electricity

I’m excited to have just finished the draft of a full-color, 8.5 in by 14 in by 15 ft math timeline, on which students will be able to watch math in action throughout history—and see how math points us to the Creator in the process. Below is a sneak peek into just a few of the facts students will learn. Stay tuned for publication information!

Electricity—we take it for granted and use it countless times a day. Turning on lights, using a computer, microwaving those leftovers, looking at a digital clock, cranking down the AC, opening the refrigerator, doing a tub of wash—the list of daily uses of electricity or electrical devices could go on and on.

But did you know it’s math that helps us explore electricity and design devices like lights and computers? A glance back at history reveals a lot of math—and points us to the Creator.

Back in 1785, A man named Charles-Augustin de Coulomb discovered a mathematical relationship between the force and distance between electric charged particles by doing experiments. His result can be expressed algebraically like shown below.

In other words, the force produced by electricity can be described mathematically!

Michael Faraday

Later, many other men would do experiments and discover more of the ways electricity works. One key discoverer was a man named Michael Faraday, who realized that magnets can generate electricity and invented the first electric generator. Once again, math was used in this design. In fact, the relationship between the electrical voltage, the number of coils of wire, the change in something called magnetic flux, and the time can be described like shown below.

Faraday, like many other great scientists/inventors, saw creation (which math helped them explore) as pointing to God. Faraday wrote,

“The book of nature which we have to read is written by the finger of God.”

Sit back and think about it for a minute. Even at the microscopic level, electricity (which later scientists would realize is the flow of electrons) operates in a consistent enough fashion to describe it with formulas that we can rely on to work to such a degree that devices like light bulbs and computers can be built around it. Why is creation that consistent? Because a faithful, consistent Creator governs all things.

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Math, Christmas Lights, & the Creator

Christmas Lights

Watching Christmas light shows has become a holiday tradition for many. But few stop to think of all the math that goes into these spectacular displays.

Strands per Outlet or Lights per Circuit

When hanging a lot of lights, you want to make sure you don’t blow a circuit! Bonfe offers this formula to help you figure out how many strands can go in each outlet: # of strands = circuit amperage ÷ strand amperage. We could also use algebra to write this same thing like this: n = c/s or y = z/x. We’re just using letters to stand for the different values, and a fraction to stand for division. Another site says to only use up to 80% of what your circuit can handle as a safety factor. Notice the percents!

Timing

Some light shows include timing with music. Syncing music with a light show requires precision that can be accomplished through various software programs that use math to determine when different effects and lights turn on and off at different moments in the show. In this case, programming the time in seconds that the lights sync with the music includes math!

Cost & Number

The financial cost of Christmas decorations can add up fast! Setting a budget and keeping track of how much money is spent uses addition and subtraction…as well as some rounding skills to keep an approximate total in the store. And how many lights do you need to decorate that garage anyway? Math can help you answer that!

Remember…

    As you drive by light displays this year, remember that math applies outside of a textbook. It even aids with Christmas lights.

    More importantly, think about why math applies. Why can we even know how many amps a string of light will require? It’s because electricity operates in a consistent fashion. Why? Because God created and sustains an orderly universe.

    And that same Creator and Sustainer became a man to make a way for us to know Him by paying for our sin Himself.

    Now that’s something to remember this Christmas and always.

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    Math, Fireflies, Light Bulbs, and the Creator’s Design

    fireflies

    Many of us have been fascinated at one time or another by tiny lights dotting the backyard on summer nights. Fireflies, lightning bugs, or whatever you call them are fascinating to watch…and perhaps try to catch. What many don’t stop to think about, however, is how amazingly designed these creatures are.

    Light Bulbs

    To better understand the marvels of fireflies, let’s pause and take a look at light bulbs for a minute. If you’ve ever put your hand near a light bulb while it’s on, you know that in addition to light, light bulbs produce heat (most of which is infrared radiation). We can use math to measure what’s called the efficacy of the light bulb—that is, how much light they produce compared to how much power they use. The higher the efficacy, the less power is being wasted in heat.

    To find the efficacy, divide the lumens produced (a lumen is a unit of measure for light) by the watts (a watt is a unit of measure for power). We could write that as a formula like this:

    Efficacy = Lumens divided by Watts

    Or if we wanted to save our hands and use letters, we could write it like this:

    E = L divided by W

    We could even use a fraction to represent the division:

    E = L/W

    Note that we just used algebra! We’re simply using letters as symbols to stand for the efficacy, lumens, and watts of any light bulb. We can write formulas like this because God created and sustains a consistent universe.

    If you run to your closet and pull out a package of light bulbs, you can measure the efficacy by inserting the lumens and watts listed on the bulb into the formula. For example, let’s consider a bulb I have in a lamp in my office. It says it is a 53 W (W is an abbreviation for watt) bulb that produces 850 lumens. Leaving units off for simplicity and inserting these numbers into the formula, we’d get this:

    850/53 approximately equals 16.04

    Fun assignment: Find the efficacy of the light bulbs listed in the table on step 6 of this page. Notice that some bulbs are more efficient than others! Then take a look at this chart showing the efficacy  of different bulbs.

    The higher the efficacy, the more the power is going into making light and less into making heat/non-visible radiation. Some bulbs produce more light with less power than others, but they all end up wasting a good deal of power. According to what I could find, an ideal green light that doesn’t waste power in heat would have an efficacy of about 683. That’s a much greater number than the 16.04 efficacy of the light bulb in my office!

    What percent of the power is actually used to product light? To find that, we need to find the efficiency, which we’ll define “as the ratio of the total light power to the total power.”[i] The efficiency can be rather tricky to figure out, as light bulbs don’t come labeled with how much power goes towards light, but one way to approximate it is to divide the efficacy (in lumens per watt) of the bulb by 683 (the efficacy of ideal green light, which is the highest efficacy possible and thus can be used to approximate the total power while we use the efficacy to approximate the power used to produce the light).

    Efficiency = efficacy/683

    Plugging in the efficacy we found for my office light bulb would give us the following:

    Efficiency = 16.04/683 approximately equals 0.0235

    If we express this as a percent by multiplying by 100 and adding a % sign, we’d get approximately 2.35%. That means only about 2.35% of the power this bulb uses goes towards making a light; in other words, the other 97.65% goes toward making heat/non-visible radiation. We would say this light bulb is about 2.35% efficient.

    Fun assignment: Check out this table to view the efficiency of various lights…and calculate the efficiency of some lightbulbs in your closet by first finding the efficacy, then dividing that by 683, and finally expressing that result as a percent. Notice all the math you’re using!

    Fireflies

    Now, fireflies don’t plug into an electrical outlet or battery to produce light. Instead, a firefly produces light using chemicals. Yes, that’s right: God created these little bugs to have a mini chemical factory on board! These chemicals prove useful to man as well—one of the chemicals used has been useful in “biomedical research.”[ii]

    The chemical reaction in the firefly produces energy…which is what powers their lights. When we talk about the efficiency of the lights fireflies produce, we’ll talk in terms of energy. Note, though, that power and energy are related–power is the rate of use of energy. We could say that efficient bulbs use less power and less energy.

    Unlike man-made light bulbs, the firefly produces light without wasting much energy at all—sources indicate almost 100% of the energy turns into light[iii]—in other words, it’s almost 100% efficient. Compared to the 2.35% efficiency we found for the light bulb in my office, that’s amazing! Yet if the firefly didn’t produce light efficiently, they’d heat up and burn to death.[iv] Instead, God designed them to produce “the most efficient light in the world.”[v]

    Conclusion

    Next time you head outside and see the light from fireflies, ponder God’s magnificent design. Think about the wisdom and care God took with His creation, even giving us light displays at night made from tiny living chemical factories. And remember that math helps us explore, describe, and better appreciate His amazing world…as well as to improve inventions (like light bulbs). We’re able to explore and design because God made us in His image. That same God wants each of us to know Him and live in His presence forever.

     

    [i] Debbie Hadley, “How Do Fireflies Light Up?” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/how-do-fireflies-light-1968122 (accessed June 13, 2022).

    [ii] Yong Xu, Plant Factory Using Artificial Light, 2019, 2.1.6.1, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/luminous-efficacy

    [iii]National Pest Management Association, “The Science Behind Fireflies: 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Lightning Bugs,” https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/the-science-behind-fireflies/ (accessed June 13, 2022) and Debbie Hadley, “10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies,” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-fireflies-1968117  (accessed June 13, 2022).

    [iv] Debbie Hadley, “10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies,” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-fireflies-1968117  (accessed June 13, 2022).

    [v] National Pest Management Association, “The Science Behind Fireflies: 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Lightning Bugs,” https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/the-science-behind-fireflies/ (accessed June 13, 2022).

     

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    Einstein’s Birthday and Pi Day

    March 14, or 3/14, was both Einstein’s birthday and is also known as Pi Day, as the irrational number Pi (π) starts 3.14.

    There are a lot of different ways you can use the day to build a biblical worldview of math in your upper elementary (or students who’ve learned about decimals) through high school students.

    Ideas for Pi Day

    Make a circular pie and talk about how π is the ratio between the circumference (distance around the pie) and the diameter (the distance across), or π = C/d . (Note that this is just rearranging the formula for the circumference you may be more familiar with of C = πd to solve for π.) This ratio is one we can’t even calculate all the digits of! There are parts of God’s creation we can’t even fully describe. You could also explore more applications of π and discuss it further; see the ideas and links in this previous Pi Day post.

     

    Ideas for Albert Einstein’s Birthday

    Explore (or have your students explore and give you a report on) the life and work of Albert Einstein and talk about his view of God. Here are a few fascinating highlights from his life and work:

    • Einstein flunked some things in school[1] and actually dropped out[2] at one point. We are all gifted differently—fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) for a purpose.
    • Einstein is famous for his Theory of Relativity, which explores the speed of light and its relationship to time and space. We’re still studying and learning about something God simply spoke into existence (Genesis 1:3)!
    • Einstein also derived the relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of light, or E = mc2. Consistent relationships like this remind us that this universe is consistent, held together by a consistent God.
    • Some of Einstein’s work was used in developing the atomic bomb. As we learn more about God’s creation, we need to make sure we use that knowledge in ways that honor the Creator. An atomic bomb was used to stop a war…but also to kill many lives. This reminds us that we need to seek God and His Word for wisdom as we apply math.

    Sadly, Einstein was not a Christian, although he acknowledged that there had to be a God.[3]

     I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages.…The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.[4]

    Einstein realized that creation proclaims that there has to be a Creator, or at least, according to the quote below, something miraculous. He recognized an order throughout creation and acknowledged that it doesn’t make sense why men can develop theories that end up tying so beautifully with that order—something that makes perfect sense if the same God created both us and creation.

    You find it surprising that I think of the comprehensibility of the world . . . as a miracle or an eternal mystery.  But surely, a priori, one should expect the world to be chaotic, not to be grasped by thought in any way.  One might (indeed one should) expect that the world evidence itself as lawful only so far as we grasp it in an orderly fashion.  This would be a sort of order like the alphabetical order of words in a language.  On the other hand, the kind of order created, for example, by Newton’s gravitational theory is a very different character.  Even if the axioms of the theory are posited by man, the success of such a procedure supposes in the objective world a high degree of order which we are in no special way entitled to expect a priori.  Therein lies the “miracle” which becomes more and more evident as our knowledge develops. . . .  And here is the weak point of positivists and of professional atheists, who feel happy because they think that they have not only pre-empted the world of the divine, but also of the miraculous.  Curiously, we have to be resigned to recognize the “miracle” without having any legitimate way of getting any further.  I have to add the past point explicitly, lest you think that, weakened by age, I have fallen into the hands of priests.[5]

    We know from Romans 1 that deep down, we all know there’s a God. Creation, as Einstein recognized, proclaims God’s existence.

    For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:20-23 (ESV)

    But while Einstein’s exact views varied some throughout his life,[6] rather than heading God’s revelation to us in the Bible,[7] Einstein made up a god he was comfortable with, essentially worshiping the creation (his own intellect) instead of the Creator. Einstein didn’t want a God who would hold him responsible. He recognized something miraculous about creation, just like Romans 1 says we all do, but decided to worship a god of his own shaping instead.

    The God Spinoza revered is my God, too: I meet Him everyday in the harmonious laws which govern the universe. My religion is cosmic, and my God is too universal to concern himself with the intentions of every human being. I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes. My God speaks to me through laws.[8]

    Einstein’s birthday provides a great opportunity to point out to your students how creation declares God’s praises. There is a God—and we need to acknowledge Him and recognize that we’ve all broken His holy Law and need a Savior, Jesus Christ. Otherwise, no matter how smart we may be, we’ve become foolish in what matters most.

    Key Reminder

    As you remember both Pi Day and Einstein’s birthday, remind your students to lift their eyes from God’s amazing Creation to the Creator of it all. Encourage them that creation’s very complexity/order and our ability to explore it scream out His existence.

    Please share!

    If you enjoyed these ideas, please share with others so they can too.

    [1] Kaku, M.. “Albert Einstein.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein and “Albert Einstein,” Star Child Team, https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/einstein.html

    [2] “Albert Einstein,” History.com, May 16, 2019 update, https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/albert-einstein

    [3] You can view some more quotes about his view of God here: https://libquotes.com/albert-einstein/quotes/god

    [4] Kaku, M.. “Albert Einstein.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein.

    [5] Albert Einstein, Lettres À Maurice Solovine (Paris:  Gauthier-Villars, 1956), pp. 114-115; quoted in Nickel, p. 210, quoted on http://www.christianciv.com/Atheists_Confess.htm.

    [6] John Brooke, referenced in “Einstein Letters Show Views on the Bible and Christianity,” Answers in Genesis, May 17, 2008, https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/einstein-letters-show-views-on-bible-and-christianity/.

    [7] “Einstein Letters Show Views on the Bible and Christianity,” Answers in Genesis, May 17, 2008, https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/einstein-letters-show-views-on-bible-and-christianity/.

    [8] Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 89. Found on https://libquotes.com/albert-einstein/quote/lbs0n1m

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    Math with Little Ones: Discovering the Joy of Numbering God’s Creation

    Numbers

    When we think of learning, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking of an official lesson. Sometimes, though, the best learning might seem more like play. Little ones especially may not be ready to sit and do an official math lesson. But that doesn’t mean they can’t begin to discover the joy of numbering God’s creation!

    Here are some ideas on how to get started teaching numbers to young learners. Keep in mind they can all be adapted to fit your child.

    • Playing ball with your child? Count the number of throws. Slipping counting into play is a subtle way to help a child begin to think about numbers.
    • Is your child more attentive in the morning? Try pulling the calendar down each morning and counting through the days of the month during breakfast or snack time. Maybe have paper or a dry erase board handy so he or she can help write today’s number. You could also let him or her put a sticker on the date once they’ve counted up to it.
    • Have a snack of crackers or raisins? Count them out together. Or use the raisins as manipulatives to help a child understand 10-20. Form a pile of 10 raisins, and explain we write 10 as 10—1 pile of ten and zero more. Then add a raisin next to that pile of 10. Explain that now we have 1 pile of ten and 1 more, so we write 11. The 1 to the left means 1 pile of ten.
    • Have a child afraid of writing the numbers wrong? Use a dry erase board or chalkboard. I also once heard the idea of having children write in sand with their fingers. Get creative—numbers don’t have to be learned on paper!
    • Make a habit of point out numbers you see in life. When putting away a cheerio box, stop and have your child find some numbers on it first. (You could do letters at the same time.) When your child opens a Bible, point out the chapters and verses. Point out when you’re using numbers while cooking or driving. Count aloud whenever you count. You’re child is paying more attention than you realize!
    • Board games are great teaching tools. Have your child count the number of circles on the dice and move that many. Or get a die that has the numbers written on it. (If the game uses 2 dice, have them do one die at a time rather than trying to tell them the sum…until they’re ready for addition.)
    • When looking at books, have your child count how many ducks, dots, etc., are on the page. Or if they can’t count yet, count them yourselves. Children are great imitators—if they see you curious and counting, they’ll likely catch on.

    As you talk about numbers, remember to sometimes remind your child that numbers help us explore God’s creation. We can count because God gave us that ability. Make counting a fun part of life—learning doesn’t have to be tedious book work, especially with little ones!

    Revealing ArithmeticLooking for more ideas on teaching elementary math? I wrote Revealing Arithmetic specifically to help guide parents and teachers through the early years. There’s also an eCourse where I demonstrate teaching different concepts.