Don't Try This at Home

How often have you heard the phrase "Don't Try this at Home"? Everytime WWF wrestling or some Fear Factor show comes on TV perhaps? Showing my age (and some of my past interests) I remember my brother and I taking absolutely no notice as we practiced wrestling moves on a Sunday afternoon while watching King Curtis and Samoan Joe in "On the Mat" - "Yes" I am that old and "No" you shouldn't do the same. And while we realised that if we jumped off the roof of the house, we probably wouldn't fly like Superman, we did do a very good re-enactment of all the western shows playing cowboys and indians with our ever patient horses (usually "Alias Smith and Jones" but occassionally "Bonanza").

So with that sort of background, you can see why a book coming across my desk called "Do Try this at Home" (Jon Milton and the Punk Science Team) would be of interest to me. When I took it to show the kids at Snells Beach Primary School this morning, they were equally as keen. With the cover promising "Explosions possible, mess likely and fun guaranteed!" why wouldn't they be.

Dan, Jon and Brad cover six different categories of science experiments. Flight and Space (try the Fizz Bang Rockets), Energy, Electricity & Magnetism (can water bend?), Forces, Light & Sound and lastly Chemistry (including the five star mess rated Fizz Fountain). Most of the experiments can be carried out with materials found around home, they all have a difficulty and mess rating, plus identify whether or not an adult should be present.

I think it would be a reasonably safe bet to expect some of these experiments to surface when the Mad Scientist visits the Rodney Libraries during the September school holidays.