I just caught an article in the LA Times, mentioning that President Obama will be making a guest appearance on the Television program Mythbusters this coming December. (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/sns-news-obama-mythbusters,0,5120428.story)
I love that program. It’s fun but uses a lot of good science in ways that attract kids interest.
In this case, the program will be tackling the ancient Greek story about the Greek scientist Archimedes using mirrors and sunlight to destroy a fleet of enemy ships. So viewers will also get some great mythology lessons along with the science and the explosions!
It was the first line of the article that really got me, though.
“It is a truth known to chemistry teachers the world over: If you want to get kids interested in science, blow something up.”
Wow! Is that ever true!
And we have been practicing that for thirty years. Mobile Ed’s school assembly program - “Chemistry! It Really Matters!” - is the most recent incarnation of a string of chemistry related school assembly programs going all the way back to the creation of Mobile Ed.
We have been blowing things up in the name of science for three decades! And kids really do love it! Nothing gets kids more excited than a huge boom, or a giant flash of flame. And nothing gets teachers more excited than seeing their students just as interested in learning the why and how behind the explosion! Although, the rest of the program, with demonstrations of all manner of chemical reactions including a very “cool” segment on the freezing, sub zero characteristics of liquid nitrogen, also offers many exciting moments, too!
There is no question that science assemblies are real kid pleasers!