DENVER (AP) – A dazzling show of fire and color can make science come alive for young students, but it can also inflict serious and painful injuries, as flash fires in Nevada and Colorado showed this month.
Educators and investigators say some teachers lack the training required by law and don’t know about standard safety measures that can dramatically lower the inherent dangers of hands-on experiments – experiments they say are vital to science education.
“You’ve got to have it hands-on, but you have to make it a safer experience through that training,” said Ken Roy, a safety consultant for the National Science Teachers Association and a longtime teacher.
Four students were injured, one seriously, when a teacher was pouring methanol onto a table top and igniting it during a chemistry class demonstration Monday at Denver’s Science, Math and Arts Academy, a charter high school. A 4-foot jet of flame erupted out of the methanol bottle and burned one of the students, investigators said.
School officials said the seriously injured student’s parents asked them not to release any information about his condition.