By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 The operations of most cycles of nature are well understood. The use and re-use of water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen in our world depends on…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Our discussions of major natural cycles have highlighted the big four of elements in living things: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The water cycle also describes…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 To catch the attention of high school students beginning their study of the carbon cycle, I may recycle one or two simple demonstrations they might remember…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 For 50 years I was privileged to observe a master agronomist firsthand. My father was a regional agent for a hybrid seed company in the 1940s…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 As we study the cycles of nature—the water cycle and numerous other cycles and processes in nature, we sometimes experience some uncertainties about the goodness of…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 When one wishes to convey the idea that something vital has been lost, he sometimes uses the imagery of “removing the oxygen.” We may ask, “What…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Hugh Ross of the Reasons to Believe organization has witten a new book entitled Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job (Baker Books, 2011). In one…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 One of my temptations as a science classroom teacher was to devote unequal time to curricular topics for which I had a special fondness. The district…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 When the restaurant waitress inquires if we would care to have something to drink, I sometimes reply, “I’ll just have plain water.” My reply belies the…
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Charles Dickens is credited with initially offering the proverb “Tis love that makes the world go round.” In a poetic sense this may be true. A…
