On Jun 13, 2020, at 5:14 PM, DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG> wrote:

From: Monona Rossol <actsnyc**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com>
Re: pumpkin fire and other demos

Someone just sent that old 2018 Duluth GA pumpkin explosion video and some other horrendous experimental fluffs.  And I had a thought, well at least I think I did.  You'll tell me.

We are never going to get rid of the explosive demonstration in the science class.  It is just part of the culture and no matter how we rail against it, it is a fixed star in the firmament.  I watch the program from the U of Wisconsin most weekends and have seen there that shouldn't have been done as well.  And I still remember Aaron J. Idhe's experiments at the same University in the 1950s.  Don't tell me you haven't got some stored away you your memory banks as well.

Perhaps we need an ACS certification program for teachers who have been trained to do safe demos.  Such a program might at least take the option away from the rookies and unqualified.   Schools probably would be happy to send their teachers for this kind of certification to help protect liability.  It would work sort of like the licensing of pyrotechnic operators which I deal with all the time.

And check lists for each experiment could be worked out which would then make an investigation of any accident easier. They'd be limited to doing the experiments for which they were certified which would get people back into training when some new and attractive atrocity was developed.  And so on.

OK.  my head is on the chopping block.  Have at it.

Monona

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