From my own school days, things that I remember being told about in the
context of "you can't do this any more" were:
1. using Van de Graaff generators (in physics),
2. scraping skin cells from the inside of your cheek to look at under a
microscope (biology),
whilst we were still allowed to use carcinogenic compounds in chemistry. I
wonder what the last ten years have added to this list... :-(
As it is I have found even undergraduate "proscribed" laboratory sessions a
poor taste of doing experimental research in the real world - restricting
the more interesting experiments in schools seems crazy.
I wonder what the current trend is amongst kids doing kitchen chemistry,
taking things apart, wiring up batteries and light bulbs etc. More to the
point I wonder what the trend is (in our risk averse world) amongst parents
letting / encouraging their kids to do these kinds of things...
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Mark S. Bentley (Researcher, Space Sciences Research Group)
Planetary & Space Sciences Research Institute (pssri.open.ac.uk)
Students for the Exploration & Development of Space (www.uk.seds.org)
Email: [log in to unmask] | Tel: +44 7974 754054 | Fax: +44 7092 043051
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
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