Lecture Demonstration Accidents from Which We Can Learn

There are many reasons for the recent resurgence of interest in lecture demonstrations. Lecture demonstrations are fun. They grab the students' attention. Students like them. They provide breaks that help students recover from the deluge of information in the typical lecture. They can provide concrete examples of abstractconcepts. As Ramette has noted, they can be exocharmic ( I ) . M O S ~ importantly they teach chemistry. Unfortunately, demonstrations are routinely done under conditions where neither the students nor the instructor are adequately protected against injury. We have therefore collected examples of accidents and near accidents that might remind chemistry teachers of the need to pay more attention to safety when doing demonstrations, without frightening them away from doing demonstrations.