I was in the fourth grade when I got my first one. I remember opening it at Christmas and staring with lust at the beautiful equipment. Everything was so, well, perfect. Everything glistened. There were words I didn’t understand, but when I tried to pronounce them sounded beautiful anyway.
I’m talking about a chemistry set. Test tubes, miniature beakers, an alcohol jar with a wick and countless little capped tubes with chemicals and other things. I was in heaven.
Growing up I had a knack for taking things apart to see how they worked. I loved taking a piece out and seeing how it would affect things. I’d put the piece back in and “fix” it. Most of the time my toys and early electronics would end up dead. Oh how I still mourn for my Dataman. I took that thing apart at least 10 times, but it finally died when I misplaced some of the pieces.
What got me started on this walk down memory lane was the news that the US government has effectively castrated chemistry kits for kids. In my chemistry kit in the late 70s I am sure I had stuff that was prohibited now. One time I can remember I caused some sort of reaction that shattered the glass test tube. Dangerous? Sure. But that is nature’s way of helping you out. You better believe I didn’t mix those chemicals again.
Today’s kids don’t have the chance to play with real chemistry sets and learn about the world that we did when growing up. If you look at today’s chemistry sets you’re not going to find the cool little vials of chemicals or elements. What you’ll get is some plastic doohickies with instructions on using things found in the kitchen.
This seriously lacks the boom factor needed to engage kids.
How have we gotten to this point where kids cannot experience science in their own homes? An over protective society? A over reaching government? The Wired article goes into detail, and it’s a sad state of affairs.
There are some sites, such as the Steve Spangler Science site, that still have something close to real chemistry at home, but those are few and far between.
Kids love trying things, learning things, experiencing things at home on their own. Why would we want to take that away from them?
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