Friday, January 27, 2012

Getting The Message Across, Your Chance!

Getting the message across is not an easy thing.
Especially when dealing with teens that today have all sorts of media at their disposal.
What I mean is that it becomes difficult to keep their attention.
No longer is it just about the book.
It sort of has to be a show.
If you know what I mean.
Science has always been one of my favorite subjects; I like to know why and how and things like that.
Not all of it is applicable in everyday life, in fact most of it isn't, so extreme measures must be taken to get the message across.
Okay, not really.
About the extreme part.
Today in chemistry class, the students got a lesson in well, I don't know what it was all about.
Combining stuff to make another stuff I guess.
Vinegar was added to a couple of small pieces of magnesium:



To show that something was actually happening, it was put in a large syringe and the students could see the volume increase.
Then the stuff was put into a test tube:



Most of then had to do this part twice as they it took a while to get the procedure correct.
Then the instructor came around, and:



What do you think happened?
Well, you will just have to try this yourself cause I ain't saying.
Okay, not really.
I'll tell.
I know how you all dislike suspense.
If you remember the Hindenburg, you know what happened.
Apparently, vinegar and magnesium together produce hydrogen and when the match was applied, well:



The hydrogen ignited, just not in that scale.
Though it would have been pretty spectacular.
The kids were impressed even thought he explosion was more like a small pop.
The message here being clear: don't drip vinegar based sauces around your magnesium framed bicycle.
Things could get sort of hot.
So anyways, one of the other classes I got is this:



I gotta say that kids, in this case juniors, are pretty dumb.
When it comes to driving around in a car I mean.
Most of them have no clue what is going on, how to operate a vehicle, or what makes a vehicle actually move.
Scary stuff.
Well, I present to you, the reader, this chance to make kids less dumb!
I have received permission to present a short thingy on bicycles, sort of a safety on the road thing, so that these kids know how to deal with bicyclists once they hit the road.
Here's your chance to get a message across!
What I need is your suggestions, scenarios, safety thingys, that will help these kids navigate the streets along with you, the bicyclist.
My lesson for instance, is that bicycles have the same right of way on the road, and that they are to be afforded all the same rights and courtesies.
Think of it as sort of road test for drivers, only involving folks on bicycles.
Sort of a here's the scenario, what would you do? kind of thing.
Steve A, are you listening?
If I get enough suggestions, maybe some pictures to illustrate, I can put together a Power Point(if I still remember how) to present to the class.
If it's good enough, maybe the Drivers Ed instructor can make it a permanent addition to the lessons and that would be a good thing.
A chance to send the next generation of drivers out with a positive message about folks on bicycles.
I hope.

4 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

If I could teach kids learning to drive one thing, it would be that you need to keep enough space around you, front, back, and both sides, so that you can safely control the vehicle by stopping, or turning, to avoid running into things, or being run into by others. That's true for other cars, trees, and bicycles.

If you can sneak in some patience, tolerance, understanding, and forgiveness, that would probably help them on the road, too, since there are a lot of bad drivers out there, and rage is not the way to deal with them.

TrevorW�� said...

I second JRAs comments.
Unfortunately I don't have the patience to teach them myself so I have to leave that to Guys like you.........

-Trevor

Anonymous said...

Urine has enough electrolytes to conduct a current...that can be used for electrolysis of hydrogen and oxygen.

limom said...

I could do something about brush bys as I want to keep it bicycle related.
Maybe the three foot rule thingy even if it's not on the books here.
I want to do something about right hooks, but don't quite know how to present it.

Annie Nonamous, uh, okay.