Teaching Chemistry:
https://www.chemedx.org/
A number of chemistry investigations, as distinct from experiments, for high school students: http://seniorchem.com/
A requiem for amateur chemistry
61–70 of 156 posts
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#62Amateur chemistry may be dead but you can still experience it vicariously on YouTube. For example Explosions&Fire has documented playing around with many chemicals. There are probably a lot more channels but I haven't delved too deeply into this area.
NileRed/NileBlue is another example.
Periodic videos and Alex Szydlo are good if basic channels. Alex is to me the Cliff Stoll of chemistry:)
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#63It's a pity that governments have deemed 'interesting' chemistry an illegitimate hobby. Many chemists and biologists I know were inspired as kids by potentially risky chemical reactions - they were fun :). My boss grew up in the UK, relished those experiments growing up, and said they led him to eventually complete a PhD in chemistry. He later went on to win a Nobel Prize (as a molecular biologist, though). Maybe we've made the world safer, but I wonder how many potential great chemists will never get inspired and avoid the field.
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#64As a child (age ~10) I had a "Young Chemist" set, which included dry NaOH, some acids, potassium permanganate, magnesium metal and a lot of various colourful salts. It came with a book that listed experiments, specifying which required adults and I had to promise to stick to that rule.
Long before that I had a pocket knife (everybody did) and we played knife games with the lads (throwing knives into the ground in various ways, no I don't remember any injuries).
Today's children are much more deprived of the chance to be dangerous to themselves or others and therefore have much less scope to decide to not do harm.
Do your children a favour, give them the option to do bad things and teach them not to.
Apropos chemistry itself, it's still what it was 40 years ago and all of the chemicals the old sets had are available on Ebay, and scans of old BoMs and manuals are available online, so you can get your kids all the excitement of yesteryear without breaking bank (on par with an AAA game title).
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#65Another aspect of this issue is the apparent difference in intellectual preparedness of kids today. I think this is partly due to educational environment and partly a result of selection bias (in that accounts of the past focus on the "smart" kids).
When I was a teenager, rummaging around the attic at grandma's house I stumbled upon my dad's old scientific stuff. I was shocked at the sophistication of what a high schooler did in the 1950s. For example, there were projects to build radio circuitry, with the expectation you would have a mathematical understanding of the function of every component. By my time in the 1970s, home electronics projects aimed at teenagers had devolved to "Stick this here, and that there, and connect the battery, and gee whiz isn't that neat!"
He also did what would today be college level chem experiments, without aid or supervision. A batch of nitroglycerin was one of his less wise projects. I think it was memories of his own near-disasters that caused him to watch over me like a hawk during my own youthful experimenting.
The level of ability and initiative in a high school student as shown in the movie October Sky (1999) was certainly not typical in the 1950s, but I think it was more common than modern experience would lead you to expect.
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#66The state I live in, Queensland in Australia, literally bans ownership of most useful glassware. Amateur chemistry is well and truly dead and buried here, and yet drugs (their reasoning for the ban) are still widely available.
Australian law seems to be very aggressive in eliminating perceived materials of misbehavior. I'm thinking of how the laws against guns were extended to even BB-guns and slingshots. Is this an extension of the English legal tradition or is it uniquely Australian?
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#67>The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (1960)
This is my go-to. "Hey, kids - let's learn how to cut glass tubes and produce gases like Hydrogen and Chlorine!" Most parents recoil.
But it's not really that dangerous in a well-ventilated, adult-supervised setting. The Hydrogen will make a nice "pop", and the chlorine might rust a few screws.
The important thing is to make the kids feel like they are learning about dangerous, forbidden knowledge. That'll help them stay safe, and encourage them to learn more.
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#68The state I live in, Queensland in Australia, literally bans ownership of most useful glassware. Amateur chemistry is well and truly dead and buried here, and yet drugs (their reasoning for the ban) are still widely available.
Australian law seems to be very aggressive in eliminating perceived materials of misbehavior. I'm thinking of how the laws against guns were extended to even BB-guns and slingshots. Is this an extension of the English legal tradition or is it uniquely Australian?
Uniquely Australian. I do love this country, and love living here, but the “larrikin” culture we put forward is frankly a facade — we’re a culture of rules and rule followers. Laws on laws on laws, for better or worse.
It’s not inherently a bad thing, either, but can have some somewhat absurd outcomes at times.
And it’s state-by-state. Queensland where I live is a fascinating mix of extremely wide reaching laws banning all sorts of things for perceived possible harm, as well as being less strict than some other states. “Gel blasters” being legal here and banned elsewhere are an interesting example of that.
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe you can do okay just looking for chemicals via Amazon. You have to source them individually, of course. Chemistry sets for kids are, as the author states, pretty much junk. Someone a decade or so ago had a web site that would sell you a decent chemistry set. I have forgotten the link. I believe it was sort of targeting home-schoolers.
Probably this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742632993/heirloom-che...
That's very nice, but it wasn't that fancy, ha ha. It was a kit (box) that came with your dozen test tubes, drying rack, alcohol burner and stand, thermometer, a few beakers, droppers, pipettes ... that sort of thing. And quite a few chemicals as well! I believe too there was a book/PDF that went through a course on basic chemistry that paired well with the set.
Re: A requiem for amateur chemistry
#70Of possible interest: Experiments without explosions