The genesis for my Chemistry Project goes back decades to when I taught chemistry in high school. It was one of several subjects I taught every day. I developed chemistry investigations for my classes.
The advantage of school was my access to many chemicals and lots of equipment. That meant I could develop challenging experiments.
I considered these experiments challenging. The real challenge came later when I was developing the chemistry investigations for my new website.
Authors are supposed to have websites to promote their books and connect with fans.
My website did promote my books, only a couple at that time. What I wanted to do was attract people to my site. “The Pumpkin Project” was coming out soon.
To me, science is science. It is looking for why things happen the way they do and are as they are. Chemistry was a familiar subject so I decided to post chemistry investigations on my website.
Doing Chemistry At Home
At home I had none of the equipment or the chemicals I had used at school. The topics were the same. The challenge was to develop ways to suit these topics using equipment and chemicals anyone could find.
Why chemistry? One reason is how interesting it is. Another is that every other science has some relationship with chemistry. Yet another involves reactions, seeing things change form and color.
“The Chemistry Project” is taking shape using the posts I put up nearly ten years ago. A couple have needed changes. One Activity had to be redone entirely.
So far, the first part on the metric system is complete. The chemistry investigations are done for the second part on matter. I’m short a couple of puzzles, trivia and a Chem Story.
Importance of Science
Another problem has appeared. Putting “The Chemistry Project” together will take a lot of work. It is a science activity book. And science is now suspect.
People question the validity of science. They ban science books.
To me, this ignores the fact that most of those people would be dead without science just as half of all children died before the age of five only a couple of hundred years ago. Science created the materials in their clothes, the engines in their vehicles, the appliances in their homes.
And future scientists, the ones who will give us more technology, begin now with books like “The Chemistry Project” that challenge them to think, to use the knowledge they gain through experiments. There’s a lot riding on those chemistry investigations I’m developing. I hope they measure up.