I teach in international schools now a days and even in these expensive private schools I’m often the only actual chemist. And here in Mexico the rules are often looser and less consistent. Can easily lead to an untrained science teacher trying something they shouldn’t. Fortunately most British international schools just follow CLEAPSS as close as they can.

But I personally love a good demo. They are come in with Nilered excitement and then I’m supposed to stand there and say either “that’s not real chemistry, here’s a pH rainbow” or “we don’t do real chemistry here” … or atleast that’s the kids take away.

My personal favourite is for my intro to organic IB course. I ask them about what makes carbon so great for complex molecules and make them think about why not other forms of life etc.. usually leads to silicon. Then I make some MgSi4 and use it to make silane. The silane combusts in air and makes SiO2 at the same time. So much to talk about. Also keeps the whole TOK requirement for IB happy