From: "Wilhelm, Monique" <mwilhelm**At_Symbol_Here**UMFLINT.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Teacher Makes Chemistry Fun With Exploding Experiments
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2017 18:37:50 +0000
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 1109037139E1524980CF9CBEB2476618010B0214A1**At_Symbol_Here**UMF-EX10EMB1.umflint.edu
In-Reply-To <6EA0F063-F8D5-4AAC-9796-8E27B5B7899E**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com>


Ditto to Rob.  Thank you.

 

Monique Wilhelm

Laboratory Manager

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

University of Michigan - Flint

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of ILPI Support
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 1:20 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Teacher Makes Chemistry Fun With Exploding Experiments

 

And they will be tempted to do similar "experiments" on their own.   

Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist

 

Bam, nailed it.

 

I did an outreach at an elementary school years back and I said "Hi, my name's Rob and I'm a chemist.  Does anyone know what a chemist does?"  Many hands went up, and the kid that answered said "Blows things up."

 

That is precisely what we don't want kids to answer.  Just like when I'm in a non-professional setting etc. and I say "Hi, my name's Rob and I'm a chemist" and I get the answer "Ooh, chemistry. I hated chemistry in high school/college."  More on THAT challenge another time.

 

As much as I love doing the classic explosion/fire demos, I would NEVER EVER do them with an elementary audience for the reason Monona stated.  You can do all sorts of great non-exploding/burning demonstrations at the elementary level that require students to pose hypotheses and then test them.  And the students will have fun AND learn.  From what I saw on the news report, we have a very enthusiastic and eager young scientist who believes that the former inspires the latter and has yet to grasp that they go hand-in-hand.

 

With a little mentorship, she could no doubt master that balance and achieve her stated goals much more effectively while simultaneously diminishing the probability of a copycat situation turning out wrong.

 

Rob Toreki

 

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