Dust Explosions: Surface Area and Reaction Rate

Demonstrations can be used to capture students attention, illustrate some abstract point or topic in chemistry, and to give students some point of experience on which to build their understanding of the happening of chemistry. Unfortunately many wonderful demonstrations are either too risky to perform in a classroom setting or sometimes they simply do not work. In the latter case, the outcome is usually that the students are disappointed and the failed demonstration may actually take away from the class presentation instead of enhancing it. One solution to both of these situations is the use of previously recorded, online demonstrations.