Requirements
- What is the earliest known use of tin and how is it used today?
- Play the “Mystery Can Fun” game.
- Keep a record of how many cans your family uses in a week.
- How were things preserved in Jesus’ day?
- How was tin used in Bible times?
- Make a telephone or stilts with tin cans.
- Bring three cans of food to donate.
Answers
- The earliest known use of tin was around 3500 B.C. when the people of Ur (now Iraq) made bronze articles. Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper. Today, tin is used mainly in the production of “tin plate,” which is steel coated on both sides with an extremely thin film of tin. Tin cans are made of “tin plate.”
- Remove labels from a few cans and guess their contents.
- Share results with the club.
- Things were preserved by drying them out with salt. Dried fish, figs, and other fruits were common. Today most of the “tin plate” is used to coat the steel cans to give them an attractive appearance and protect the cans from rust. These cans are for packing food and other items that would quickly spoil.
- Bronze is an alloy of tin. Offerings were brought of bronze; (Exodus 25:3). Fifty bronze clasps for the tabernacle were made; (Exodus 26:11). Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole (Numbers 21:9).
- To make a telephone: Poke a small hole in the bottom of two empty (and clean) cans. Put one end of a long string into each can end and tie a knot. Stretch the string tight and talk. One person will talk while the other person listens to create a “telephone.” God communicates with us like the telephone. We cannot see Him, but He is always ready to listen and help us. To make stilts: Poke a small hole on the two sides at the top of two cans. Tie a string to each can to create “stilts.” For stilt safety, use cans no smaller than 20 oz. and always wear shoes. “And walk in love…” Ephesians 5:2.