Are Science Experiments at Home Safe?
We all agree that some experiments can be dangerous. Perhaps some parents worry that encouraging kids to experiment may lead them to do things which will harm them or burn the house down when the parents are absent. This page will attempt to offer guidance on this problem, but this is just a first draft. We might use teaching kids to swim as an example of an activity having risks. One parent might promote the terror of drowning as a way of keeping kids away from water. That child might grow up with excessive fear of water. Another parent may believe drown-proofing a child by teaching him the Georgia Tech method gives him better preparation for life. In a similar way, teaching a child to work safely with chemicals, glassware, heat, bacteria, animals, and electricity may reduce his risk of injury rather than increase it. Actually, most kids attempt some very dangerous things in their efforts to learn about the world in spite of the warnings of parents. If the child knows his parent will
