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ShareJanuary 1, 2008 — Science teachers gather to compete in a parody of the television program Iron Chef. From a “secret ingredient” such as a soda can or paint contestants piece together a compelling science demonstration. They use low-tech materials to illustrate classic principles of science and math.
Want to know if your science teacher is the best? Send them to San Francisco to compete for the iron science crown.
Tucked inside the rotunda of San Francisco’s picturesque palace of fine arts lies a world of learning for kids -- young and old.
And on any given Friday you might even find that there’s a little friendly competition going on. It’s just like the cooking show iron chef, but it’s not often they would cook with batteries and wheels.
“We unveil a simple ingredient that you find around the home or school and then teachers have a few moments to build a math or science activity right on the spot.” Linda Shore of The Exploratorium told Ivanhoe.
“Science is in every day things, science is a very simple thing and your can do physics and chemistry and biology with film cans and paint and pencils,” Shore said. One teacher used the paint to drop marks on a paper track, demonstrating the speed of a car, a roadmap for learning for these future physics pros.
But winning the crowds over, more paint, and one grand illusion … am American flag that doubled as an optical illusion.
“Everything we do is hands on so we can take it right to our classrooms, it’s nothing that kids will be bored with, they’re gonna love it,” Christina Green, the Iron Science Teacher, told Ivanhoe.
“She showed us the eye and how the green cells went away and we only saw red and blue, that was cool, I liked all of it,” science student Ella Roth said. Science that’s not complicated -- simply cool. Catapulting these kids to the top of their science game.
MORE SCIENCE AT THE MUSEUM: At San Francisco's Exploratorium, a scaled-down model of the city made with Jell-O helps visitors visualize how the city would shake during a major earthquake. In another display, a bowl filled with wet sand and a mallet shows how shockwaves can cause soil to liquefy, swallowing buildings like quicksand -- a grave threat for many San Francisco neighborhoods that were built on sandy landfill.
Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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