Jonah

Science Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Hear the story of Jonah, and then have the students do science experiments that provide an analogy to illustrate the love of God. [Note: 1st – 3rd graders visited this workshop.]

For scripture, objectives, and background- see above.

Leader Preparation:

• Read the scripture for this lesson.
• Read and reflect on the overview material provided for this lesson.
• Gather the materials.

Supplies List:

• The storybook: Jonah, the Inside Story
• Story paraphrase and 3 x 5 cards (see the video post above)
• For 3rd graders: Bibles; One purple Adventure Bible with tabs (Law, History, etc.); Bible tab writing kit: tabs, fine-line Sharpie pen
• Baking soda (not baking powder) – one 16 oz box
• Vinegar – one jug (you will not need more than 3 fl oz per student even if they want to repeat the experiment)
• 1 spoon (for transferring baking soda into Dixie cups)
• 2 Dixie cups per student (medium size; not the small cups used in home bathrooms, as the experiment could overflow too small a container)
• Paper towels/wet sponges in case any spill cleanup is needed
• A lidded container to pour the vinegar experiment into when completed (or a sink if one is available).
• Large lemon
• Nails, screws or wires – one copper and one zinc (each about 2” or 5 cm long)
• Voltmeter
• One working battery, any size - to demonstrate voltmeter operation.

Before Start of Class:

• Familiarize yourself with where Jonah appears on the timeline.
• Test the experiments to see how they work.
• Print out the story paraphrase and cut it into pieces according to the pages indicated. Paste the parts of the story onto 3x5 cards. If desired make a pocket on the back of the book in which to store the cards.
• Place 2 Dixie cups by each child’s place. Spoon about an inch of baking soda into each student’s Dixie cup and have the vinegar nearby (but don’t pour it yet, since it does have some smell to it).

Presentation

Opening- Welcome and Lesson Introduction:
Greet your students warmly, welcoming them to the Science Workshop. Introduce yourself and any other adults.

Today we are going to head out to the painting of the Bible timeline to look for our story, read the story of Jonah, and then do a couple of fun science experiments. Let’s begin!

Head out to the time line:
Remind students not to touch the art work.

Say: This is what we call a “time line.” It is a way of seeing events that happened as time has passed. There are thousands of years of events pictured here. We can see events are listed on the bottom of the wall along with the dates of their approximate happening. [Point this out.]

Have students find the stories depicting Jesus.

Say: The New Testament portion of our Bible starts with stories of Jesus’ birth. So all of the pictures on this part of the wall (point to the left of the Jesus pictures) depict stories from the Old Testament. That is a big hint on where to find the artist’s drawing of Jonah.
Have the students find the depiction of Jonah.
In later weeks of the Rotation, you may ask what portion of the story the picture depicts (after Jonah was thrown up by the big fish).
Head back to the classroom.

Dig- Main Content and Reflection:
For 1st and 2nd grades:
Ask: Where would we find a story in the Bible that takes place many years before Jesus was born? (Old Testament)
Say: The Old Testament includes stories about events that happened before Jesus was born. Besides being divided into 2 testaments, the books in the Bible are further divided into collections. We find the book of Jonah in a collection known as “Prophets.”
Ask: What is a prophet?
Say: A prophet is a messenger of God.

For 3rd grade:
Make sure that everyone has a Bible to use. Have them find the book of Jonah in the Table of Contents. Point out how the list of prophets starts with Isaiah. All of the rest of the Bible books in the OT are about prophets - messengers of God.
Show the purple Adventure Bible with tabs…
Say: Besides being divided into two testaments, the books in the Bible are further divided into collections. Because Jonah was a prophet, we find the book of Jonah in the collection known as “Prophets.” If you have your own Bible today, be sure you receive the tab for the Prophets section of your Bible.
[Have the Shepherd do tabs for students who bring their Bibles. Use the classroom Bible with tabs as an example.]
Say: This is too long of a story for us to read all of it. Do read this story at home this week. In order to have enough time to do our experiment, I’m going to read you what is called a paraphrase; it’s a shortened version of the story from the Bible. I will show you the pictures in this storybook while I read the paraphrase.

Read them the story on pages 2 – 23 of Jonah, the Inside Story, using the cards in the pocket on the back of the book (which are labeled with the corresponding page numbers) instead of the text in the book. Show the pictures as you read the story. In later weeks of the Rotation, show the pictures and ask students to tell you the story.

Say: Since we have read a Bible story we are going to say what is said in church after the scripture is read. Be ready to say “thanks be to God!” For the Word of God in scripture, for the Word of God among us, for the Word of God within us,
The class says: Thanks be to God!

Discussion & Experiments:
Say: First, let’s talk more about the story of Jonah. Let’s think about how God and Jonah behaved toward each other in this story. Let’s talk first about how Jonah treated God.

Ask: How did Jonah behave toward God in the first part of the story, before the sea creature swallowed Jonah? [Accept a number of responses, such as – “he ran away from God”, “he didn’t obey God”]

Ask: And when Jonah was behaving like this, what did God do for Jonah? [Accept a response such as (or supply the response if you don’t get this) “God had a plan to save Jonah – he sent a big fish to swallow him.”]

Say: So God’s behavior to Jonah was loving and kind. He saved Jonah even though Jonah did not listen to God and ran away from him. God gave Jonah a second chance!

Ask: How did Jonah’s behavior toward God change after he was inside the big fish, and after the fish spit him out? [Accept responses such as, “he prayed to God inside the fish”, and “he obeyed God and went to Nineveh”.]

Say: So Jonah did as God asked, and the people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and to God.

Ask: How did Jonah feel about this? What was Jonah’s reaction? [Accept responses such as, “he was mad!”, “he didn’t want the people of Nineveh to be forgiven”].

Ask: And how did God feel about the people of Nineveh listening to him? [Accept responses such as, “God was happy”, and “God wanted to forgive them.”]

Say: So Jonah was mad about something that made God very happy. Despite this, God sent Jonah a vine for shade and spoke kindly to Jonah.

Ask: How would you describe God’s behavior toward Jonah? [Kind, generous, gentle…try to draw out “surprising”, or suggest this word yourself – please do use this word, as we will draw a link between God’s love and the surprising nature of the fizz generated in the first experiment.]

Ask: How would you describe Jonah’s behavior toward God? [Mean, naughty…]

Say: So even though Jonah’s behavior toward God really stunk (please do use “stunk” – we are foreshadowing on the use of vinegar here), God’s behavior toward Jonah was really surprising. please do say “surprising" – he treated Jonah with love and gave him a 2nd chance.

Say: Now we are going to start in on our first experiment!

Pour a small amount of vinegar into each child’s cup (not more than half an inch full).

Say: Today we are working with vinegar and baking soda. Please sprinkle a little baking soda – NOT THE WHOLE CUPFUL – into your vinegar. What happens? [Don’t tell them that it will fizz – let them be surprised.]

[There will be fizz created when the baking soda touches the vinegar, like a lot of carbonation. There will be more fizz if more baking soda is added to the vinegar. Encourage the students to add baking soda, a little at a time, to the vinegar until they no longer see any fizz. Explain that the vinegar is an acid and the baking soda is a base. When they are combined, it releases a gas called carbon dioxide and turns the vinegar into water. The reaction is complete when fizz is no longer being produced.]

During the experiment, discuss how the properties of God and Jonah are like the properties of the baking soda and vinegar, as follows.

Say: We talked before about how Jonah did not act very nice to God, how his behavior really stunk. We also talked about how God acted in a surprising way toward Jonah. Let’s think about Jonah as the vinegar – pretty smelly! And let’s think of God as the baking soda.

Ask: What happened when the baking soda touched the vinegar? [it bubbled/fizzed]

Say: When we act in a way that would turn others away – think of our vinegar - God doesn’t do what we would expect. God acts in a surprising way. Think of our bubbles! God loves us always, even when we don’t act in a way that God finds appealing. When we ask for God to forgive us, God will always forgive us, even when the thing we have done does not smell so good to God. We can smell like a whole case of this vinegar, and God will still love us and forgive us, if we just ask him. It can be hard to believe that God could be this good, but remember that our God doesn’t react the way we expect him to – he is a surprising and loving God!

Ask the students to throw away their vinegar/baking soda mix, down the sink or in the large coffee can.

Show the students the lemon.
Ask: How do lemons taste? [sour]
How could the word “sour” relate to Jonah’s attitude? [could be described as sour]
What do you suppose could be surprising about this lemon?

Show them the voltmeter and explain how it works – it measures electric potential.
Connect the battery to the voltmeter to show how it works.
Say: The voltmeter shows us that we can expect this battery to power something like a flashlight.
Ask: I wonder if this lemon could work like a battery?

Roll the lemon on the table with your palm to get the juices moving inside. “Insert the zinc and copper nails into the fruit so that they are about 2 inches apart. You don’t want them to be touching each other. Avoid puncturing through the end of the fruit.” (Helmenstine) Connect the positive (+) wire from the voltmeter to the copper nail and the negative wire (-) to the zinc nail. Show the students the voltmeter.

Say: The lemon is acting as a weak battery! If we had a lot of lemons we could connect them all together and it would be enough to light a light bulb!
Ask: Was that surprising?
Has God ever surprised you? How?
Say: It actually shouldn’t surprise us but somehow it always does, that God loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die for us so that our sins could be forgiven. In our Jonah story God loved to the people of Nineveh and to Jonah, even though they had both acted in a sour manner.

Closing:
Say: Let’s have a time of prayer.
Ask for any prayer requests. Ask if anyone would like to lead the group in prayer. Use the Lord’s Prayer as the ending. A suggestion: God, you love us no matter what we have done. You will always give us a second chance, and you will always forgive us if we just ask. (End with the Lord’s Prayer) Amen.

If you have extra time:
Play a game of Duck, Duck, Goose except play it a couple of times as “Nineveh, Nineveh, Tarshish” then switch it to “Storm, Storm, Overboard” then as “Big Fish, Big Fish, Pt-tu-ii.” then as “Nineveh, Nineveh, Repent” then as “vine, vine, worm” then finally as “Jonah, Jonah, God loves.”

Go into the puppet workshop to be the audience for the puppet skits.

Resources:

• Helmenstine, Anne Marie. “Fruit Battery.” 2009. http://chemistry.about.com/od/...e/a/fruitbattery.htm
• Petach, Heidi. Jonah, the Inside Story. Cincinnati: Standard Publishing,1995. (ISBN 0-7847-0351-5)
• The NIV Adventure Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zonderkidz, 2000.

A lesson written by Lynne Pauer for First United Methodist Church
Ann Arbor, MI

Copyright 2009 First United Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, MI. 
Permission to copy materials granted for non-commercial use provided credit is given and all cited references remain with this material If you use this material, even in a modified form, please include the following reference:
Pauer, Lynne. "Jonah: Science Workshop." Jan. 09. Place URL where lesson found inside angle brackets<>.

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.

Why are we sending kids out to look at our timeline? Well, we are mighty proud of our time line! It is a work of art! For pictures view the artist's web site.

An after-the-fact note: This workshop needs at least one more science experiment, preferably one that the kids can do. With these two quick(!) experiments the class is out of material at least 15 minutes before the end of class.
The lemon battery thing was written (see resources) to light up a small Christmas light. But the workshop leader couldn't get that to work. (After the fact I found out via this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_battery as to why this doesn't often work.) Research by our workshop leader found that getting lemon batteries to work is tricky. So he brought in the equipment as noted above. So all was not totally lost. We spent our extra class time having the kids go to be the audience for the puppet workshop. (For more info on the lemon battery see: http://hilaroad.com/camp/proje...n/lemon_battery.html )