Greenbowe, associate professor of chemistry and coordinator of general chemistry at Iowa State, has made some 300 trips to middle schools and high schools in his 20 years as an educator. In the seven years he has been at Iowa State, Greenbowe has focused on bringing the wonders of chemistry to sixth through ninth graders. His demonstrations entertain and are sought after by Iowa students and teachers alike. However, they are not intended to be a mystery orchestrated by a great and powerful Oz, but geared to whetting a child's appetite for science. Yet to keep youngsters interested, Greenbowe admits to a little flash.
Solutions change color, heat up, cool down and light up before the students' eyes.
Perfectly good racquetballs, immersed in liquid nitrogen, are hurled against a wall and shatter to pieces. All this is choreographed to safely keep students' attention and drive home a point. Greenbowe's interest in traveling science shows goes back to the early 1970s and his days at Indiana State University's physics department. His adviser, Lawrence Poorman, traveled Indiana, putting on similar shows. He stressed that you have to interest the children so that they would come away from it thinking they understood, or partially understood, what happened.