From: Monona Rossol <0000030664c37427-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Teacher Makes Chemistry Fun With Exploding Experiments
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2017 13:51:10 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 15f309c4dd1-c14-2add**At_Symbol_Here**webjas-vaa071.srv.aolmail.net
In-Reply-To <6EA0F063-F8D5-4AAC-9796-8E27B5B7899E**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com>


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.
How kind of you. l'd just explain to her that she's being wasted in chemistry teaching and introduce her to people in special effects where she'll make a lot more money doing what she clearly loves -- which is blowing things up.


Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President:  Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012     212-777-0062
actsnyc**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com   www.artscraftstheatersafety.org

 


-----Original Message-----
From: ILPI Support <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Wed, Oct 18, 2017 1:41 pm
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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