MOM TAUGHT US SCIENCE

Science has always been an interest of mine. Learning how things work and why still interests me. In fact, my love of this subject was nurtured early on by my mom.

One morning as we were eating breakfast, I heard a hollow pop noise from the direction of the kitchen counter. "What was that noise, Mom?" I asked.

She explained that it was the paper lid being forced out of the milk bottle by expanding air pressure. "When air is warmed, it gets bigger. It pushes against the milk bottle lid until it lets go of the top of the bottle."

I felt amazed. "Put the lid back in and let's hear it pop again?" I begged. It didn't pop the second time as the air had warmed inside the bottle. Even so, the thrill of discovery engraved the memory of the popping top in my mind.

Mom also taught Diane and me how to make balloons stick to the wall by rubbing them against our hair. She said they were held there by static electricity.  That was news to me since I only knew of the power in wall plugs and the batteries in my toys.

Mom also showed us how ice floats and forms on the top of the water. One winter evening, she took a glass of water and set it on the outside steps of the house for ten minutes. When she took it in, she showed me the thin layer of ice which had only formed on the top surface.

When she defrosted our old fridge, she let us play with the chunks of ice which came off the freezer compartment. I remember one summer day when Diane and I put the ice in a sink filled with water and pretended they were icebergs.

Of course Mom didn't know everything. I felt disappointed when she couldn't explain how the power in our plug in sockets was made. Neither could she explain how radios and TVs worked. Even so, I gave her the gift of my delight whenever I learned something new.

I wrote about my love of science in Deliverance from Jericho: Six Years in a Blind School. I also passed on a good tip regarding Christian students writing about evolution in my newest book called How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Read more about this amazing testimony of God's providence at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.