Australia's Science Forum

I had a teacher who wanted to do this recently. He figured he'd do it outside, if the students stand back a bit then everything will be fine right? He saw sense when he realised the reaction produces sulfur dioxide gas, and delayed it until he was in a lab with a fume hood.

EDIT: haha Mardi, was writing my response at the same time as yours. I'm sure you use smaller amounts than us!

Yes as a demo in the fume hood.

I do ours in a tall beaker inside the fume hood. I think we only use about 20g sugar and about 50ml of sulphuric acid. the trick is to stir vigorously, you will feel the beaker start to heat up. we keep stirring until it is rather warm and then leave it. you will see it start to steam a bit and then it takes off really well

Thanks for the replies people. We took the approach that Mel mentioned, we decided that for this teacher it was a no go.