As 10th grade chemistry teacher Shelly Hinson Cooper holds a torch in one hand and creates a methane bubble with a rubber tubing and funnel with the other, her students can feel something interesting is about to happen. She lights the bubble, and a burping flame soars to the ceiling. Students are awestruck by one of the many Halloween-themed chemistry experiments they are witnessing in class.
“Dramatic experiments are more fun and exciting,” Cooper said.
Hinson-Cooper said these experiments are also real world applications which are more beneficial to students.
“When they can see an experiment and they are engaged, they are more likely to understand it and remember it,” Hinson-Cooper said. “The experiment makes it a concrete experience, rather than something abstract which they have to imagine.”
