“My favorite element is bromide,” said David R. Sullivan, University of Oregon’s lecture demonstration coordinator. “You know you’re a chemistry nerd when you have a favorite element.”
Every science major who has taken a chemistry class here at the University knows David R. Sullivan simply as “Randy the Demo Guy.” He’s that plaid-shirt-wearing, jolly-looking guy who comes into our chemistry classes and breaks up the boring lectures with color-changing liquids, electric pickles and exploding hydrogen balloons.
“The most fun thing is you get to bring unusual things into the classroom and do unusual things with them,” Randy said.
The first thing Randy the Demo Guy does to design a demonstration is look at the curriculum. He gauges what kinds of concepts need to be taught in more ways than just with words on a PowerPoint. He keeps three things in mind: safety, science and showmanship. I’ve seen a demo involving electricity where he told the class to remind him to switch off the current before he touched one of the doodads for fear of lethal electrocution. I’m pretty sure having us all scream, “Randy, turn it off!” at regular intervals was part of the showmanship part, but he did admit that sometimes he legitimately forgets.
“The best demos have an induction period,” Randy said, meaning those experiments that take a little bit for anything to happen.
In a demonstration called the “Iodine Clockwork Reaction,” which demonstrates the kinetics, or the rate, of a chemical reaction, a beaker of clear liquid is supposed to suddenly turn blue when the reaction is complete. There are just a few moments when you’re sitting in your seat, thinking that they’re just pulling your leg and nothing is going to happen — and then you scream, “Oh my god, it just turned blue!” The most exciting thing about watching Randy’s demos is that, even though it may look like magic, the students in that room could probably tell you what is happening in that liquid on a molecular level.
When Randy comes into a chemistry class, he gets to demonstrate just how cool chemistry can be. Demonstrations provide another perspective on lectures — they don’t just tell us science, they show us science. I can appreciate a chemical reaction much more if I can see it happening, not by what’s written in an equation. Chemistry especially is an incredibly hard science because you just have to trust that there are molecules made up of atoms and there are electrons whizzing around the atoms, and for some reason molecules stick together because of these little negatively charged flying ping-pong balls being attracted to other positively charged ping-pong balls.
That’s why when Randy told me about his outreach program called ChemDemos he does for local schools, I was thrilled for those young students. Back when Randy was first hired at the University in 2001, he discovered that doing demonstrations was not exactly a full-time job. So he thought, “What else could I be doing with my time?” He thought back to his days as a high school chemistry teacher and remembered how much he liked working with kids. And he realized he has access to a plethora of equipment and chemicals that the everyday high school science teacher could only dream of. So he decided to design an outreach demonstration show that he could take to local elementary and high schools.
“Wait, you want to bring chemicals to little kids?” were the school lawyers’ initial reactions, but Randy eventually wore them down, and for eight years has been bringing chemistry demonstrations into elementary and high schools.
Every fall Randy teaches a Freshman Interest Group called “Mix it Up: Teaching Science,” where students get to design demos and show them to each other. One year they were even able to go to the elementary school where Randy’s daughter is a fifth grade teacher to show the kids.
“It was really nice to be in the audience, watching my students make her students light up,” Randy said. “(My students) knew chemistry was fun, but they didn’t realize it could be a show.”
My first experience with Randy was in my freshman year 9 a.m. General Chemistry class in 100 Willamette. Chemistry has never been a favorite subject of mine, so I wasn’t thrilled to be in class at 9 in the morning on a Monday, learning about exothermic reactions. Then my professor started talking about the Hindenburg kerfuffle — you know, when those people were riding in a hydrogen-filled zeppelin and someone really needed a ciggie — and introduced us to Randy.
Randy was holding a balloon behind a “blast shield” — what he calls “polycarbonate plastic” but looks like mere plexi-glass. He told us the balloon was filled with hydrogen, and he was going to see what was going to happen when he raised a lit match really close to it. He told us to plug our ears. Then he put on his own earmuffs. He lit the match (which was attached to a long stick) and raised his arm, closer and closer until…
BAM!
The balloon erupted into a fireball, emitting the loudest bang I’ve ever heard. I think I was the only one in the room who shrieked.
Seeing chemistry happen in real life is an incredible learning experience, especially when you could explain the science yourself. Here’s hoping that Randy sticks around to continue showing us the wonder of science.
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