A colleague in our field of experimental design told me today that he will be making a big career change by moving out of industrial research to teaching high-school science. He may think twice about this after seeing this thread from TheScientist Community that educators’ caution is killing science fun. Actually, being a bit squeamish about blood and guts, I like the idea of dissecting a jellybean rather than a frog. That’s sweet!
The blog stemmed from this TimesOnline article detailing how School lab health and safety rules ‘could stop future scientists’ . I like their picture of students in a high school chemistry lab who are clearly thrilled by their production of a huge flame-ball. That seems very educational! Unfortunately, this sort of thing, such as making volcanoes, can no longer be tolerated. That’s a pity, I think.
On a brighter note, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, an independent charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science, report that kids are keen to do more experiments, according to this SchoolGate blog.
“When things are taught without true experimentation, students don’t understand it. And that needs to change. Children can do science at school, but they don’t necessarily learn what a real scientist is – planning an experiment, needing to repeat things, having a clear hypothesis and testing it.”
— Baroness Susan Greenfield. Director of the Royal Institution
I enjoyed many fun and educational experiments in my school career, back when the teacher ruled supreme. All of them impressed on us the importance of being safe and we learned first-hand how to handle hazardous chemicals and biological materials. My favorite in-class experiment, which I doubt would be allowed nowadays, was a fermentation reaction that my team of high-school honors students ran as our final project for senior biology class. The alcoholic product, albeit not of vintage quality, served very well, we judged. I do not exactly recall the consequences, but they must not have been too bad, because the teacher gave us a pass.