<p>I noticed a few threads here on CC discussing chemistry as a tough and boring subject. Chemistry is a hands-on science; unfortiunately, I think our high schools do not offer much in terms of exciting experimentation for many reasons. Here is an educational website which proves that chemistry is really a whole load of fun when experimentation is allowed :):</p>
<p>Check out the adults having fun with a chunk of sodium (please note that these are trained professionals observing appropriate safety precautions!)</p>
<p>I will always say that the best job I ever had was as a chemistry camp counselor in high school and college.</p>
<p>It was more like chemistry for junior high kids, and it was incredibly fun. Every exciting, explosive chemistry demonstration that there is out there I’ve gotten to do. I’ve burnt off my arm hair more times than I can count. I can make four different types of slime. I don’t flinch at explosions. I can win at Periodic Table Bingo. I have met Bill Nye.</p>
<p>All that chemistry theory I learned while I was teaching the “whys” and “hows” of chemistry to those kids makes me better at what I do, too. It’s incredibly useful, and helps with everything from cooking to home maintenance to the structural design stuff I do now.</p>
<p>A sodium fire is how I ended up teaching chemistry… my HS chem teacher, very smart but not always as careful as she should be, actually dropped a slice of sodium about 1/4 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter (at that time sodium came in tubes) into a pan of water as her first chemistry demonstration. It was her first year of teaching. </p>
<p>The sodium exploded and a chunk stuck in the ceiling tile. The resulting fire evacuated the building. It made quite an impression on me. </p>
<p>She did GREAT demos. That was only the beginning.</p>
<p>Just have to say, Bunson Burner, every time I see your name on a post, I think of high school chemistry lab. Mainly ruining my clothes. I wasn’t very careful with the acids.</p>
<p>In HS, I didn’t really like chemistry. Then I took a college chemistry class and fell in love with it. Not only are the experiment more fun, it seems like the professors know more and are more enthusiastic about it and the topics dicussed are completely different.</p>
<p>Just like dmd’s, my interest in chemistry was, err, sparked by a great HS chemistry teacher who showed us the sodium experiment and told a story about her very first “sodium plus water” HS demo. Explosion launched the sodium chunk into the air, and she could not locate it untill her students yelled that it had landed onto her head! Thank goodness she had a Palin-like hairstyle!</p>
<p>My younger D had trouble with chem, as math does not come easily to her, however, she had a very good teacher for her first class & she thought about majoring in it for a time.</p>
<p>I am surprised by “chemistry as a tough and boring subject”. D. is not very interested in Chem. but always considered it very easy and definately not boring, the same as she thinks about math. She is Sophmore in college and taking Org. Chem. now and is anticipating for it to get harder. She is actually working as supplemental instructor for Chem. prof. which is a fancy name for paid tutor. I quess, it would be boring for someone who does not understand it.</p>
<p>my d is taking organic chem now as a high school senior (it’s a 1 semester course, but taught by a PhD, and it’s apparently rigorous). </p>
<p>She loves chemistry, all thanks to her fantastic 6th and 8th grade science teacher (same man, a former Air Force pilot turned teacher). I’m not sure they had many labs, but the teacher made it fun and challenging–and had little sayings/jingles that he repeated all the time in class when appropriate about key concepts and formulas that stuck in the students’ memories and have come in handy ever since.</p>
<p>In fact, she wants to major in chem in college, she discovered this year. It was her idea to take that organic chem class over my mild objections. She’s probably only going to get a B in it, but that’s okay. I would rather she aspire and be challenged in a field she enjoys and have a bit lower grade than settle for a class that is a safe A. I just was concerned because I have had organic and I KNOW what it’s like. But she really wanted it, so I stepped out of her way.</p>
She is a first yr grad student in chem. But, she has always enjoyed chemistry…</p>