Hi All,

Here's my "flame" story. I did many outreach activities that include various demos that used combustibles =E2=80" flaming water, alcohol link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ilpi.com, whoosh bottle, flame test, etc. up until the mid-90s. I always told the audience to never try to replicate these demos because they didn't know the needed precautions. I also tried to make any apparatus look more complicated that it needed to be to discourage replication.

Well, after doing demos for a combined group of jr high and senior high students, I got a call a couple days later from one of the teachers. A couple the students tried to replicate one of the flame demos I did. They ended up getting severely burned and hospitalized. My activities were reviewed looking for evidence by lawyers that I had provided information on how to do the activity. No luck there, so the parents were left with a huge medical bill.

At that point I quit doing any flame/combustion demos. Every thing I did used water. It was just as engaging. I could have fun with the students and they learned many of exact same concepts I was trying to do with flames.

I will also add my voice that if you must flames and explosions to engage students, then you really don't know how to teach. (My tongue-in-cheek editorial but a level of honest seriousness!) Demos can be fun and safe and not put anyone in harms way.

My only caveat is that the janitors didn't like me because I tended to splash water around. So, I just brought my own tarp and clean-up kit. Problem solved.

(Oh, I=E2=80™ve got more horror stories!! But that's for later.)

Kirk Hunter

214-693-8179

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

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