Today's show biz mentality and attractive TV chemists cause some teachers to develop an entertainment style and to incorrectly assume that the interest in them personally and requests for their "show" are affirmations of the validity of what they are doing.  They are not.  

If you are truly successful at this, you will hear the real applause years after the demonstration when the students, now an adults, realize how they still use the principles they learned from you.

Theatrical methods are, however, important in relating to your student audience and finding your personal communication style and humor.  Going to acting class never hurt a chemist.  But these methods, again, must be used in the service of the teaching objective. 

Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart, Ralph <Ralph.Stuart**At_Symbol_Here**KEENE.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Fri, Oct 20, 2017 8:30 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] FW: [DCHAS-L] Teacher Makes Chemistry Fun With Exploding Experiments

> >I have personally seen that the most effective way to get the people I have worked with interested in science is by targeting them in 4-8th grade AND using hands-on or visual (demos) activities that make them think "how does that happen?" and then explaining how.

Someone recently pointed out an article on this topic to me that was written for college physics labs but seems likely to apply to chemistry labs as well. The key Lesson Learned was that having the students predict what will happen before the demo or experiment is the most important learning element, whether they are right or wrong with their prediction.

See "Role of physics lecture demonstrations in conceptual learning"
Kelly Miller, Nathaniel Lasry, Kelvin Chu, and Eric Mazur
Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research 9, 020113 (2013)

Key findings:
"First, roughly one out of every five observations of a demonstration is inconsistent with the actual outcome. Second, students who understand the underlying concepts before observing the demonstration are more likely to observe it and remember it correctly. Third, students are roughly 20% more likely to observe a demonstration correctly if they predict the outcome first, regardless of whether the prediction is correct or not. Last, conceptual learning is contingent on the student making a correct observation. This study represents an initial step towards understanding the disconnect reported between demonstrations and student learning."

>These things that many people think excite the students scare just as many away.

I have had this experience personally and observed it with pre-college students as well.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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