Purposeful Design sent us their book Purposeful Design Understanding the Creation by Jay Schabacker for review. This hardcover book has approximately 91 pages and is designed to appeal to readers of all ages. The book is full of colorful photographs as well as several charts and illustrations. The book starts out with an introduction and then each chapter corresponds with one day in creation…so chapter one covers creation of the heavens and the earth which lays a foundation for the rest of creation. In the Epilogue, Jay makes a case for Purposeful Design rather than the well known Intelligent Design using a cookie analogy. I won’t give that away as he words it so well. The back of the book contains a Bibliography and Recommended Reading list.
There is a lot of science packed into these pages. Chapter one mentions Albert Einstein who believed in Intelligent Design and talks about the earth’s and the moon’s orbits. Chapter two delves into rain cycles and how much of earth’s surface is covered by water. . . and what a perfect balance that is. Chapter three gets into how important plants are for a variety of things such as food, medicine and more. It also talks specifically about the apple.
Chapter four discusses how the earth’s tilt creates our seasons, and goes into the specifics of the different seasons. It also talks about sunrises and sunsets and how their schedule shows how the earth’s speed remains constant, how it keeps the same distance from the sun, and how it’s angle never changes. And what would happen if the tilt was 0 or 50? Jay talks about that, too. You will learn about Stonehenge, England, phases of the moon, ocean tides, stars, and more all in chapter four.
Chapter fives covers the birds and the fish and how man has learned to use what it observes in creation to create things like submarines. You will learn why ice floats, and how God must have a sense of humor to create things like the Piglet Squid. Chapter six discusses domestic animals, the camel, cattle, and human beings. You’ll learn about blood clotting, the cell, the brain, and more. Finally, chapter seven shares about the need to give thanks to the creator and the need to rest at least one day on a weekly basis.
Jay has also created a Purposeful Design Young Explorer’s Club workbook that goes along with the book. You’ll find thought provoking questions, questions related to the material learned and some verses for reflection. Then there are more exercises plus activities such as sketching or a crossword puzzle. The questions are fill in the blank or multiple choice. Plus, there is an answer key for the teacher.
I read the book out loud to the kids and showed them the pictures as I went along. Due to some crazy events that caused us to travel quite a bit unexpectedly, we didn’t get to use the curriculum really. But all you’d need to do is print a copy for each kid and have them work through it at the end of each chapter. If you wanted to, this book would make it easy to plan some in depth learning based on each chapter by getting more resources to add to the various subjects covered. This isn’t necessary to get a lot from the book and workbook, but it is another possibility.
The pictures are gorgeous! The kids and I loved the scriptures overlaying the photography. The book layout is pleasing to the eye and the content is great. We found the charts and illustrations useful and interesting. Simply put, we all loved this book, and it is nice enough to leave sitting on the coffee table.
The workbook is also easy to use and has some really good questions to make students think more deeply about this amazing creation. And, of course, the answer key is very handy although some answers will vary based on the type of question asked.
Purposeful Design Understanding the Creation is available for $18.95. The curriculum is provided free on their site.
Jay can also be found on his blog, Facebook and Twitter.
