Growing up, I had a chemistry set. I never actually did anything dangerous with it (except break a few test tubes, and waste a bunch of unguided learning time at school trying to determine why X + Y caused color to occur in the solution), but I could have.<\/p>\n
Katherine won’t be able to do that, though, because, well … chemistry sets ain’t what they used to be<\/a>, having been watered down, neutered, and simplified for fear of enabling drug production, firework manufacture, or (gasp) possible injury to kids.<\/p>\n Not that I pooh-pooh possible injury to kids — but, damn, folks, it’s not like kids were dropping like flies back in the day. And the loss to education, imagination, and the scientific and engineering future of this country just can’t be imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not just a recall agency,\u201d explains [Consumer Products Safety Commission] spokesperson Scott Wolfson. \u201cWe have turned our attention to the chemical components used in the manu-facture of illegal fireworks, which can cause amputations and death.\u201d A 2004 study by the agency found that 2 percent of fireworks-related injuries that year were caused by homemade or altered fireworks; the majority involved the mishandling of commercial firecrackers, bottle rockets, and sparklers. Nonetheless, Wolfson says, \u201cwe\u2019ve fostered a very close relationship with the Justice Department and we\u2019re out there on the Internet looking to see who is promoting these core chemicals. Fireworks is one area where we\u2019re putting people in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past several years, the CPSC has gone after a variety of online vendors, demanding the companies require customers to prove they have a license to manufacture explosives before they can purchase any chemical associated with making them. Many of these compounds, however, are also highly useful for conducting science experiments. Sulfur, for example, is an ingredient in hydrogen sulfide, an important tool for chemical analysis. Potassium perchlorate and potassium nitrate are widely used in labs as oxidizers.<\/p>\n The CPSC\u2019s war on illegal fireworks is one of several forces producing a chilling effect on amateur research in chemistry. National security issues and laws aimed at thwarting the production of crystal meth are threatening to put an end to home laboratories. In schools, rising liability concerns are making teachers wary of allowing students to perform their own experiments. Some educators even speculate that a lack of chem lab experience is contributing to the declining interest in science careers among young people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As a nice glimpse of “before” and “after” …<\/p>\n One kid whose interest in science was sparked by the gift of a chemistry set was Don Herbert, who grew up to host a popular TV show in the 1950s called Watch Mr. Wizard. With his eye-popping demonstrations and low-key midwestern manner, Mr. Wizard gave generations of future scientists and teachers the confidence to perform experiments at home. In 1999, Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon teamed up with Renee Whitney, general manager of a toy company called Wild Goose, to try to re-create the chemistry set Herbert marketed almost 50 years ago. \u201cDon was so sweet,\u201d Whitney recalls. \u201cHe invited us to his home to have dinner with him and his wife. Then he pulled his old chemistry set out of the garage. It was amazing \u2013 a real metal cabinet, like a little closet, filled with dozens of light-resistant bottles.\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon and Whitney soon learned that few of the items in Mr. Wizard\u2019s cabinet could be included in the product. \u201cUnfortunately, we found that more than half the chemicals were illegal to sell to children because they\u2019re considered dangerous,\u201d Whitney explains. By the time the Mr. Wizard Science Set appeared in stores, it came with balloons, clay, Super Balls, and just five chemicals, including laundry starch, which was tagged with an ominous warning: HANDLE CAREFULLY. NOT EXPECTED TO BE A HEALTH HAZARD.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really something you could use to teach kids about chemistry,\u201d acknowledges Thomas Nikosey, head of Mr. Wizard Studios, which handles licensing for the 88-year-old Herbert. Kits that train kids how to do real chemistry have yielded to innocuous science-flavored toys. At the Web site Discover This, one typical product promises lessons in making \u201crock candy, superbubbles, and molding clay \u2026 without blowing up the house.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You can learn things from those items, — but, jeez, people, I’m not sure that rock candy, clay, and balloons are going to inspire many Nobel Prizewinners or Engineering Geniuses a three or four decades from now. Especially when the schools aren’t doing any better.<\/p>\n The chemophobia that\u2019s put a damper on home science has also invaded America\u2019s classrooms, where hands-on labs are being replaced by liability-proof teacher demonstrations with the explicit message Don\u2019t try this at home. A guide for teachers of grades 7 through 12 issued by the American Chemical Society in 2001 makes the prospect of an hour in the lab seem fraught with peril: \u201cEvery chemical, without exception, is hazardous. Did you know that oxygen is poisonous if inhaled at a concentration a bit greater than its natural concentration in the air?\u201d More than half of the suggested experiments in a multimedia package for schools called \u201cYou Be the Chemist,\u201d created in 2004 by the Chemical Educational Foundation, are to be performed by the teacher alone, leaving students to blow up balloons (with safety goggles in place) or answer questions like \u201cHow many pretzels can you eat in a minute?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of schools don\u2019t have chemistry labs anymore,\u201d explains CEF educational coordinator Laurel Brent. \u201cWe want to give kids lessons that tie in to their real-world experiences without having them deal with a lot of strange chemicals in bottles that have big long names<\/strong>.\u201d [my emphasis]<\/p>\n Many students are ill at ease when faced with actual compounds and lab equipment for the first time at school. A study of \u201cchemistry anxiety\u201d in the Journal of Chemical Education concluded in 2000 that \u201cthe presence of this anxiety in our students could be a contributing factor in the overall poor performance of high school students in science.\u201d (Commonly reported fears included \u201clighting the Bunsen burner,\u201d \u201cfire,\u201d and \u201cgetting chemicals on skin.\u201d) Restrictions on hands-on chemical experience is \u201ca problem that has been building for 10 or 15 years, driven by liability and safety concerns,\u201d says John Moore, editor in chief of the JCE.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A truly depressing article, as are these refs from Pharyngula<\/a> and DOF<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing up, I had a chemistry set. I never actually did anything dangerous with it (except break a few test tubes, and waste a bunch of unguided learning time at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-daze","category-science","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8895,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/28\/toy_safety.html","url_meta":{"origin":9557,"position":0},"title":"Toy safety","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Mar-06 1:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As much as folks pooh-pooh the overzealous protectiveness of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, a glance back at a 19th Century Encyclopedia indicates why such things came about: CHEMICAL TOYS,...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23488,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/05\/mt-rushmore.html","url_meta":{"origin":9557,"position":1},"title":"Mt. 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Some folks (esp. ones who were dragged there multiple times as kids) may pooh-pooh it, but one of these days ... #ddtb Embedded Link The Making of Mount Rushmore The 70th anniversary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128444,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/27\/safety-first-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":9557,"position":2},"title":"Safety First!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Oct-15 3:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I missed out on the really dangerous chemistry sets, but I'm pretty sure that I only escaped serious death and injury from the one I had because my cohort in chemistry stuff in the MGM program in elementary school, Jim Merino, was too busy goofing around with me to actually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50249,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/02\/easy-to-pooh-pooh-the-rah-rah-of-alumni-weekend-but-singing-the-alma-mater-in-a-crowded-auditorium-gives-me-chills.html","url_meta":{"origin":9557,"position":3},"title":"Easy to pooh-pooh the rah-rah of Alumni Weekend, but singing the alma mater in a crowded auditorium gives me chills","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 2-May-15 5:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Easy to pooh-pooh the rah-rah of Alumni Weekend, but singing the alma mater in a crowded auditorium gives me chills #PomonaAW15 View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2248,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/19\/todays_obligato-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":9557,"position":4},"title":"Today’s Obligatory Cute Anecdote about the Kitten","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Jul-02 4:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Katherine's been able to shout \"Pooh\" (and \"Pooh-beyah!\") for a while, regarding the Milne character of that name. 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