The Big Bang was a huge explosion of energy.  Some of it condensed into matter.  That set the universe in motion.  It led to the formation of atoms.  It also led to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets.   Physics is the study of matter and energy.  Atomic physics leads directly into chemistry.  Electrons are attracted to the nuclei of atoms.  What happens because of that?   That sets the stage for the evolution of life on Earth.  How did chemistry create biochemistry?   ACT I Scene 1 [72 bpm] The universe began with an extremely dense concentration of…

Math is the metaphysics of science.  Every scientific discovery is the discovery of a mathematical pattern in the world.   To tell a mathematical story of the world that people can grow up with, we need to start with games we can show to preschoolers to help them visualize the fundamental mathematical patterns in the world.  As they get older they can use what they learned from their game to understand the world better. The scientific story of the world only depends on 4 mathematical laws that you can demonstrate with building blocks.   ACT I Scene 1 Gym class…

Science is a philosophy.  The metaphysics are math.  The epistemology is the five step process of observation, self consistency, universality, reproducibility, and debate.  Those lead to hypotheses and theories.   But we could just as easily call these the underlying themes in the story of the world.   A scientific story of the world doesn’t turn the whole world into science class.  A scientific story of the world is everything fitting together at once to tell a reliable story of the world.   ACT I Scene 1 [105 bpm] Y’all know what themes are?  Telling a good story depends on…

Teachers learn eight principles of learning in the course of their certification training, which show us different ways of making information memorable.  If you compare how religious leaders use them to make their religious stories memorable to how teachers use them in public school, you can see a number of ways that religious fundamentalists are competing against public school and winning.  What can we do to turn the table and make public education more memorable than religious fundamentalism?   ACT I Scene 1 [108 bpm] What’s the best way to tell a story?  How you tell a story depends on…

Archeology shows us a lot about the origin of religion.  History and current events tell us a lot about where religions went from there.  Different religions have different stories about the world.  But all of those stories are answers to the same questions people everywhere ask about life.    Religions bring people together into communities through shared stories and shared beliefs.  That means we can bring more people together with bigger shared stories and more shared beliefs.   ACT I Scene 1 [108 bpm] Y’all know what archeology is?  It’s the science of bones and stones.   In Africa the…

Science is the systematic search for reliable information.  Religions are stories about the world that assume events have supernatural origins, but that bring believers together.  Those two seem incompatible at first.  But we can see common themes among them if we look at them both as philosophies.   ACT I Scene 1 (114 bpm) We got Christians in the house? We got Muslims in the house? We got Agnostics in the house? We got Atheists in the house? We got everybody in the house? Religion comes between a lot of people, so let’s talk about that now and get on…

People think and learn in terms of stories.  We think about how things happen in terms of a beginning, a middle, and an end.   All your classes in school tell stories.   A functional society depends on its members agreeing on a story of how the world works, because that that’s how they make plans for how they can work together.   Science and history classes tell the biggest stories in school.  So how do we fit them together, and fit all the other classes into that, to tell the biggest, most thorough story of the world we can?…

Greta Thunberg’s school strike has spread all over the world. Black Lives Matter and most other movements for inclusion have student branches. Student activists, and changes to the education system, are always a big part of every political movement.   Many scientists and educators have been finding ways to update the education system to the 21st century.  The information is readily available. But the people who keep trying to ban Critical Race Theory and books about transgender people are never going to approve of it. A 21st century public education system depends on the kind of student-led movements we already…