My Favorite Teacher

Ken Weber
September 10, 2010

Each one of us has a teacher who has left a lasting impression on our lives. My most memorable one was a science teacher named Mr. Mills. This is because he made lessons real for us. I have talked about him once before, but I am bringing him up again because of what he did right. The most memorable lesson that I remember him teaching was a demonstration of how water is created in the universe.

He got a lot of glass soda bottles (do they even make glass soda bottles anymore?) and he brought in a tank of hydrogen and one of oxygen. He then filled each bottle with two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, corked the bottles, shook them up and said that we were going to let them sit for a few days.

For the next few days the bottles sat on a table in the front of the room as we studied other things. Then came the big day! Mr. Mills took one of the bottles and took out the cork. Then he put a lit match next to the opening of the bottle. The result was a very, very loud BANG!!! It sounded like a huge explosion, and teachers were running into the room from the surrounding classrooms to see what had happened!

After confirming that everything was OK and waiting for all the other teachers to leave, Mr. Mills then asked if we wanted to see how much water this huge explosion had made. He turned the bottle upside-down … and we saw nothing! He said that the amount of water was so small that it was impossible to see it with our eyes!!!

All of us then thought of how much water is on planet Earth, and we realized how much energy it must have taken to create all of that water!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Because Mr. Mills made this example so dramatic and real, it is one of the most memorable lessons that I remember from my entire life!

So here is a lesson for teachers and writers who want to teach a lesson.

MAKE THE LESSON REAL AND SOMETHING THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO DAILY LIFE.

MAKE THE LESSON MEMORABLE.