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Chemistry Is Getting A Bit More Explosive

I found this article on MSN about a chemistry teacher in Florida who was arrested for teaching his students how to make a bomb. Apparently he showed them the chemical break down on how to make a powerful explosion, and was even telling them about electric detonators so they wouldn't get hurt.

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6985768/

Makes one wonder what the students are being taught in their classes. Also, I have to wonder if there would be such an issue over this if we weren't living in post-9/11 days. I can remember being taught in my chemistry class what was needed to make an explosion. Granted, that was after 9/11 as well, but I can remember people who were in chemistry long before 9/11 talking about how they had learned to make things blow up.

Explosive Bit Getting Chemistry

My chemistry teacher never went to quite this extent, but I do know that demonstrations where he blew things up or set them on fire were a big factor in my attentiveness to the rest of his classes. I am inclined to assume that this chemistry teacher had good intentions, and that he is getting a bad rap because of an oversensitive, post-9/11 society (blah blah blah...). When I teach, I choose to go to the extent of my liberty to teach a principle to a class. The more senses one can involve in the classroom experience, the more likely the students are to comprehend and retain the material taught. The more unique the presentation, the more memorable the material. They should give this guy a break - he probably cares much more and expends much more effort than the teachers who choose to regurgitate book material in a droning lecture format.

Chemistry Is Getting A Bit More Explosive UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

I have to agree and say that 9/11 has definitely changed certain topics being taught in school such as bombmaking. I also think that all of the school related crimes that have happened in recent years have have effected teaching this sort of topic, as well. This is from the website on Homeland Security: The Role of Schools in a Post 9/11 Environment it says:

As to what teachers are allowed to teach concerning bombmaking I found that, "On June 19, 1997, the Senate voted 94 to 0 to approve the Feinstein Amendment to S.936, the National Defense Authorization for 1998 Bill. The amendment prohibits the teaching of bombmaking for criminal purposes. Here is what is prohibited:

The parts I highlighted in bold are what stands out to me as whether teaching bombmaking is legal or not. I definitely think that there are warning signs that a student could exhibit that the teacher could foresee that the information taught could be used this way, but can it be proven that the teacher could predict that a student would use this information for criminal purposes? In my opinion, unless the student made statements about his intentions for committing a crime with the use of the information being taught, I think that it would be very hard to prove. The teacher in the article not only detonated chemicals in a coffee can by a ball field four times for his students, he watched a video that a student had made of setting off an explosive device at a golf course and approved of his successful results. In my opinion, this is questionable behavior by the teacher but I don't know whether he could foresee any crime being committed or not. I'm sure it is a crime to detonate an explosive on someone's private property, but the article didn't say anything about anyone being hurt. Still, I don't think the teacher needed to go to the extremes that he did to teach about the chemical reactions of a bomb.

Explosive Bit Getting Chemistry

See, I feel kind of torn on the issue. I don't think it's wrong for a chemistry teacher to teach about the chemicals that cause explosions; however, I certainl do not condone him going into detail by detail in making the bomb. That much I find rediculous. His getting arrested was a bit much though.

Explosive Bit Getting Chemistry

The best teachers, in my opinion, have a passion for what they teach. This man apparently does: he loves chemical reactions, how they work, how long they take to work, what happens when they work correctly, and how to safely conduct experiments.

However, perhaps he did take it a little far by explaining to his class about electonic detonators -- is part of the class curriculum to set off a bomb? That just seems dangerous, and forget about "post 9/11" as a backdrop. Arresting the man seems a little over the top, though.

In my opinion, of course.
Roz