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I think chemistry is one of those subjects that should be the easiest to teach in a captivating way and yet most school/university level treatments tend to be q

I think chemistry is one of those subjects that should be the easiest to teach in a captivating way and yet most school/university level treatments tend to be quite dry. I imagine most of this is due to cost, safety and effort required but one can dream.

pstuart 1y ago
A chemist once told me the two paths that bring people into chemistry are learning how to blow shit up and how to get high. But yes, regardless of those two it should be easy to frame it as a magical adventure.
- le-mark 1y ago
  I always thought breaking bad should have brought a lot of people into chemistry, but I’ve never seen stats that support that.
  - edwardbernays 1y ago
    I'm one.
- devilbunny 1y ago
  I was a chemistry major. This is basically true. There was one guy in my class that we all pegged as a recreational pharmacologist within the first week or two of freshman year. He's a good chemist; if he offered me something, I'd trust that it was both pure and exactly what he said it was.
  - eszed 1y ago
    My chemistry professor was one of those - though he was a professional unlicensed pharmacologist, if you take my meaning. He found (literal) religion, and went on to graduate school. I wish he'd told more stories; his classes were deadly dull.
    - devilbunny 1y ago
      Apparently he managed to tell you he had been a drug dealer, so at least one class wasn’t awful?
      - eszed 1y ago
        Heh. I only knew that because my uncle had gone to high school with him - not from anything he ever said! I gathered he let slip some things to chem majors (which I wasn't) in upper division classes, but not much. He was very religious, and I think pretty ashamed of his past.
riffraff 1y ago
I heard from reputable sources that modern "little chemist" kits[0] have become quite boring, mostly for safety reasons (there's some nice single-use kits like Mel science but that's different). Still, looks like you can still make a bunch of fun experiments in school? I've tried to engage my kids in some simple experiments (ph identification with cabbage, showing how bones can become brittle or rubbery depending on which components you remove, the classic soda&vinegar experiments etc). University level treatment, dunno, seems like it should be fun but I had one chemistry class and balancing reductions is not that entertaining and that's most of it. [0] I'm not sure of the actual English name, I mean those kits with a dozen things to combine, a becher, a Bunsen burner etc.
AngryData 1y ago
Well that and both government and businesses don't make a lot of amateur chemistry that easy. Many chemicals have to either be bought second hand out of someone's bulk purchase for a licensed lab, extracted out of consumer products, or bought off shady amazon dealers at massive markups with uncertain purity standards. God forbid somebody finds you doing random experiments suspicious and calls the cops or something who are going to automatically assume you are being bad or dangerous or making meth.

pstuart 1y ago

A chemist once told me the two paths that bring people into chemistry are learning how to blow shit up and how to get high. But yes, regardless of those two it should be easy to frame it as a magical adventure.

le-mark 1y ago
I always thought breaking bad should have brought a lot of people into chemistry, but I’ve never seen stats that support that.
- edwardbernays 1y ago
  I'm one.
devilbunny 1y ago
I was a chemistry major. This is basically true. There was one guy in my class that we all pegged as a recreational pharmacologist within the first week or two of freshman year. He's a good chemist; if he offered me something, I'd trust that it was both pure and exactly what he said it was.
- eszed 1y ago
  My chemistry professor was one of those - though he was a professional unlicensed pharmacologist, if you take my meaning. He found (literal) religion, and went on to graduate school. I wish he'd told more stories; his classes were deadly dull.
  - devilbunny 1y ago
    Apparently he managed to tell you he had been a drug dealer, so at least one class wasn’t awful?
    - eszed 1y ago
      Heh. I only knew that because my uncle had gone to high school with him - not from anything he ever said! I gathered he let slip some things to chem majors (which I wasn't) in upper division classes, but not much. He was very religious, and I think pretty ashamed of his past.

riffraff 1y ago

I heard from reputable sources that modern "little chemist" kits[0] have become quite boring, mostly for safety reasons (there's some nice single-use kits like Mel science but that's different). Still, looks like you can still make a bunch of fun experiments in school? I've tried to engage my kids in some simple experiments (ph identification with cabbage, showing how bones can become brittle or rubbery depending on which components you remove, the classic soda&vinegar experiments etc). University level treatment, dunno, seems like it should be fun but I had one chemistry class and balancing reductions is not that entertaining and that's most of it. [0] I'm not sure of the actual English name, I mean those kits with a dozen things to combine, a becher, a Bunsen burner etc.

AngryData 1y ago

Well that and both government and businesses don't make a lot of amateur chemistry that easy. Many chemicals have to either be bought second hand out of someone's bulk purchase for a licensed lab, extracted out of consumer products, or bought off shady amazon dealers at massive markups with uncertain purity standards. God forbid somebody finds you doing random experiments suspicious and calls the cops or something who are going to automatically assume you are being bad or dangerous or making meth.