Today in school, I used flame tests to teach about electrons and modern atomic theory. A flame test is a tool used by chemists, in which they burn the salts of various metals and use the color of the flame produced to help identify the type of metal involved. This was cool because it was the first time I hooked up the new bunsen burners to the recently repaired natural gas line in my classroom. Also, playing with fire is fun...for a man of any age.
It worked great, but the reaction of my different chemistry classes was very symbolic of their general attitudes towards learning. They ranged from pushing each other out of the way to get in a good position to video tape it with their camera phone while "ooooooing" and "ahhhhhhhing"......to using my distracted attention as an opportunity to send some texts to friends in other classes......to expressing passive disinterest at the colorful glowing flames and remarking when I was finished, "Can I spray some Axe [Body Spray] on that now?"
Oh, for all children to show a thirst for knowledge....
-alan
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