What a candle needs to burn

Here is our second video and the first under the title of "Khemistry kid"

It was really interesting to Matthew start to think about why we can't fill the glass up and how that relates to how much oxygen is in the air. I have also noticed that he still remembers what combustion is a few months later....

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The begining of khemistry kid

This was the first video we made. It really was inspired by #RealTimeChem week and was very spontaneous. I was washing up the dishes watching the oil moving around and changing when I added the dishwashing liquid. I thought - hey I could make a video of this with my son.... Interestingly at first I wasn't going to use the dialogue between me and my son. My wife told me I should and that gave birth to the khemistry kid :-)

Keep the camera rolling

After making a number of videos with Matthew I have noticed that the best stuff often happens once my planned experiment is over. Normally this is once I've stopped filming and have started cleaning up. This is the time when Matthew really starts to investigate things by himself. I am now careful not to stop the 'experiment' too early. Its fascinating the things that he picks up. I've noticed a similar thing happening when I do science shows. While I'm packing up a few kids come up and starts really looking, touching and learning. Recently I intentionally took advantage of this and after the main 'show' I set up some workstations where the students got to carry out the experiments by themselves. This definitely was the highlight and the students absolutely loved the chance to experience the science hands on by themselves. I'm keen to keep thinking about ways to encourage hands on exploring of science. Would love to hear any ideas you may have.

Learning about chemistry with purple cabbage

We started a series of video looking at acids and bases. Fittingly we used purple cabbage as our pH indicator. What I love about the first video is that Matthew eats the cabbage during it - this really highlights the important point that everything is made up of chemicals (currently a very 'dirty' word).

Reflections of a chemical dad

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