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From: Ralph Stuart <ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Teacher resigns after lighting student's hands on fire in science experiment
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2022 15:07:31 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: 145DA3EB-3978-4873-8C0E-00A62E7FADD0**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org
In-Reply-To <724089714.223158.1649434119130**At_Symbol_Here**mail.yahoo.com>

Demystify: 

> >I agree whole heartly about the woeful lack of training, but what this also demonstrates as a lack of understanding of physical chemistry, flammability and a number of basic principles.

The thing that stops me about this event is I don't understand what the educational point of the exercise was. I presume that the idea was demonstrate the technical point that not all chemicals burn at the same temperature, but is that message delivered by this exercise? I guess the cultural lesson that might be imparted is that magicians have a scientific basis for their illusions. This could potentially arouse some junior high students' interest in learning science, but I see a high risk of misuse or misinterpretation of this lesson by students of that age.

What is the upside of this demonstration besides the fact that social media delivers a convenient video of the demonstration to anyone who poses a semi-related search inquiry?

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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