…and forbid them not, to come unto [chemistry sets]

Blog #10: how do we get kids interested in chemistry?

Who needs chemicals to learn chemistry?! The subtitle reads, "60 Fun Activities with No Chemicals, Ages 10 and Up."

How do we get kids interested in chemistry?  The short answer is “let kids blow stuff up again.”

For as long as I can remember, every so often it will come up in a conversation with a middle-aged or older adult: chemistry sets used to be way better back in their day, and kids nowadays are missing out on the fun.  Apparently the sets that came out prior to the 1960s gave you real glassware, real chemicals and thus allowed kids to conduct real reactions… which may have occasionally been those of an exothermic nature.  Yeah, they got to blow stuff up.  Awesome.

But sadly things changed, and the classic chemistry set disappeared around the 1970s, thus plunging America’s youth into three decades of chemical ignorance.  The liability of chemistry set production and distribution was too much, and the two major manufacturers, Chemcraft and Gilbert, were essentially steamrolled by America’s new self-indulgent litigious culture.  It wasn’t until the arrival of The Internets and YouTube that adolescent boys could relearn the dark arts.  (“You can do what with aluminum foil and Drain-O?!  Frick yes, I’ve got to see that!  Just let me grab my safety goggles…”)

The magazine, Chemistry World, published a piece in 2007 on what science and education have lost with the demise of chemistry sets.  Harold Kroto, the 1996 recipient of the Nobel in Chemistry, recalls from his childhood, ‘…my main memory is of distilling formaldehyde with a school friend.  The pungent aroma got in our eyes and had us running out into the back yard.’   Dangerous as well as hilarious.  That’s a two-fer.

George Porter, the 1967 Nobel Laureate sums it all up:

‘It was at the age of nine or ten that I was given a chemistry set. I am a great believer in chemistry sets..There was the magic of colour changes and bangs.. We chemists, aged 10, used to make our own fireworks. But you can’t do that now.’

1950s Chemistry Set. It's not clearly visible, but that really is a vial of uranium ore under "Atomic Energy" on the top-left.

Oh no! This young chemist seems to have misplaced his safety goggles!

~ by carbocatirony on October 12, 2009.