It's weird that they weren't readily available until now. Pesky mosquitoes and their West Nile virus ... torch 'em!

Military surplus throwers are getting harder to find and way more expensive, since the military dropped them 30 years ago. These guy figured they could make money building a VW for the pent up demand. 87 octane sounds like they're using gasoline, but I'll bet they're just projecting a flame rather than shooting fluids.

Astounding lack of info at the product website. There is, however, a sticker, on what I suppose is the fuel receptacle, that says "Flammable Liquid". The receptacle looks remarkably like a propane torch fuel tank.

I think Bruce was right. It looks like there is no liquid spewing in the video on YouTube. You wanna set something besides toilet paper or paper towels on fire, you're gonna be a minute.

Oh, good grief...

Attachment 50807

:facepalm:

It's an absolute disgrace.

Mrs. Porter is preventing personal injury lawyers throughout the land earning a (dis)honest living.

Today is the 27th.

Do you think they ate their oreos yet?

Well, it is after lunch...

*shrug*

If my child's teacher handed him an Oreo without telling me, I'd be pissed. Oh, and so would the parents of the four other students in his class alone who have to eat gluten-free. What's appalling is that teachers have to rely on food bribes to make learning fun because they are shitty teachers.

I still hate everything.

Come on, Clod, where are you getting such damnation of teachers ?

Using an Oreo to demonstrate plate tectonics is not a bribe.
It's a good model that kids at many levels can understand.
If as you say, it also happens to be fun, what's wrong with that ?

And the permission slip just shows the teacher was thinking ahead
about what might happen to the cookies during/after the demonstration.

I thought it was an innovative, inexpensive, and readily available prop
by a conscientious (and maybe well-experienced !) teacher.

It's called Realia.

xoB, thank you for that post. I did not know that word before.
You're right, that's what it is.

But according to Wikipedia, Library Science doesn't seem to recognize "Oreo cookies" as worthy of being in a collection :mecry:

In any case, I'll try to use "realia" in a sentence some day soon !

I'm with the teacher. And you and the other GF parents could club together and provide the whole class with GF sandwich cookies. Or at least provide them for your own kids.

How would you make learning this topic interesting? What would you use for a demonstration? I think that most kids will have already played with sandwich cookies and so have first-hand experience of how you can make the two hard parts move apart. So they're already partway to the "aha" moment.

Absolutely, but only if the teacher sends home a note telling us it's going to happen, which is what they were rolling their eyes at as being unnecessary.

Playdough and blocks come to mind, both readily found in the classroom environment. My experience is that the minute treats are even promised, let alone in their hands, it is the only thing they will think about. The "aha" moment will be replaced with "yeah yeah, we move the cookie bits like this, can we eat them yet?" I remember a few times when food was incorporated into lessons as a kid, and how we were all too excited about the cool change in routine to learn anything.

I was scoffed at when I was tutoring for suggesting that I could start a school that would not have discipline problems and would have high testing scores. The foundation of my school would be snacks and naps. No blood sugar issues, no sleepy kids, well rested, well fed = ready to learn.

I'm a fucking visionary so all y'all can go fuck yourselves.

A fucking visionary!

bitches.