Different ways of demonstrating

There are several options as to how you might go about delivering the demonstration.

1. Video or film links

This is of course a passive demonstration and probably should only be used when, for whatever reason, the demonstration cannot easily be performed physically in the classroom (or laboratory, or school playing fields etc.) environment. There is a separate resource page on video clips. Experiments such as the reaction of caesium with water   are likely to come under this category. One  source for 10 different demonstrations is the ThoughtCo site.

You can also watch and learn (good and bad practice) from videos of others performing demonstrations, e.g. a good one from Chris Bishop of the Royal Institution  

2. Giving your own demonstrations

There are many good demonstrations that you can do yourself.

Of course, all of these come with the obvious safety warnings. Before you perform any demonstration in front of others try it out for yourself first. Check all your source material carefully, especially if you have obtained the details from a website. Ensure you do a full risk assessment, discuss your demonstration with other experienced chemists and, if necessary, get advice from a reputable body such as CLEAPPS.

Some suitable demonstrations that work well if performed properly include:

• boiling water at room temperature in an evacuated vessel
• methane/hydrogen together with oxygen in a plastic bottle
• liquid nitrogen experiments: freeze food, mercury, cooling balloons etc.
• big piece of sodium metal in plastic bowl of water
• thermite reaction
• flammability of ether vapour – pour down a plastic tube on to a candle
• calcium carbide on ice, light the ice on fire
• burning money: 20 cm³ alcohol + 80 cm³ water together with a pinch of salt.
• ammonia fountain
• adding concentrated sulfuric acid to sugar (sucrose)
• pouring a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate which solidifies
• blue bottle
• adding a drop of concentrated sulfuric acid to equal amounts of finely ground sugar and potassium chlorate in a crucible. The mixture will ignite immediately!

Many of these and many others classic demonstrations (including instructions and the underlying chemistry) can be found on the Royal Society of Chemistry website Classic chemistry demonstrations.

There are several good books that describe in detail some excellent demonstrations. Probably the classic book is

B. Z. Shakashiri, Chemical Demonstrations: A Handbook for Teachers in Chemistry ; University of Wisconsin: Madison; Vols 1 - 4.

Two other good books are:

H W Roesky, K Möckel, Chemical Curiosities, VCH: Weinheim, 1986

T Lister, Classic Chemistry Demonstrations, Royal Society of Chemistry; London 1995

3. Lectures (including demonstrations) from an outside specialist

Many universities hold open days where they put on a chemistry ‘spectacular’ – this is partly for educational reasons and partly to encourage high school students to apply to study Chemistry at their university. Equally many universities actively organize visits to schools from lecturers in their Chemistry department to give lectures on a variety of topics (universities usually bear the cost of this themselves). It is impossible on this site to list all the universities that do this and you will have to research the universities in your own country or locality. In the U.K two of the universities that provide this service are:

University College London (UCL)

University of Bristol

In the U.S.A. many universities organize summer schools for high school students where they will gain practical experience beyond what you can offer in a school laboratory and many have ‘outreach’ programmes where they will send their own staff to give hands on demonstrations in schools. Two examples of these are:

Duke University

Cornell University