Australia's Science Forum

Hi Everyone,

Not sure if this has been covered before or not.

Lighting Bunsen burners with matches, so many kids don't seem to be able to light a match (no smokers anymore lol) what do others do?

You you still persist with matches?
You you use gas fire lighters?

We're still using matches, and it's not just the kids who have trouble. The matchbox strikers on the matches we get are terrible.

Mixed bag here . Some teachers still want to use matches. One teacher prefers cigarette lighters . You would think that the kids would waste the gas but they really have no idea and hold them so that they burn their fingers if they leave them going too long ....self regulating in effect

At my other school ATM ,they are using matches in some classes and in another , teacher lights the Bunsen's with a gas barbeque lighter.

We also trailed flint lighters like the metalwork guys use to light an Oxy/acetylene torch but that was an epic fail as none of the kids had the hand strength or co-ordination to strike them successfully before the room filled up with gas .

Matches. Kids need to learn these skills somewhere. I have had students sent into me for remedial match lighting lessons. Most of the time they have trouble because they are nervous, they think they will get burnt and just need to be shown that they won't. I'm yet to experience a situation where the students weren't able to eventually get the hang of it. Matches are a lot cheaper and better for the environment (no plastic going to landfill). I only ever buy Redhead matches as the cheaper ones are terrible - the wood is flimsy and snaps and the strike plate is sparse.

We still use matches, but the match boxes are always 'vanishing'. I'm sure they travel through a magic portal to another dimension where all good match boxes go. I count out 3-5 matches per box so at least we still have the rest of the matches from the missing boxes...
We are thinking of moving to flints, but possibly our kids won't be able to use them successfully either.

Matches but we do have a limited number of BBQ type lighters. I agree with Merilyn, I think it is up there in life skills to be able to light a fire properly. However there are a number of students entering high school who have no idea how. I have also yet to meet a student who didn't overcome their fear and get the hang of it. Luckily we camp a lot and have a wood heater so even my 8 year old can light a fire. And don't get me started on the number or year 7's that cannot use a sharp knife to cut properly. My 13 year old was appalled at her peers lack of skill. It's the helicopter parents that are to blame

Merilyn1 wrote:). I only ever buy Redhead matches as the cheaper ones are terrible - the wood is flimsy and snaps and the strike plate is sparse.

So true Merilyn .......we tried to save a buck with payless matches . , Redheads are the go

linotas wrote:Matches but we do have a limited number of BBQ type lighters. I agree with Merilyn, I think it is up there in life skills to be able to light a fire properly. However there are a number of students entering high school who have no idea how. I have also yet to meet a student who didn't overcome their fear and get the hang of it. Luckily we camp a lot and have a wood heater so even my 8 year old can light a fire. And don't get me started on the number or year 7's that cannot use a sharp knife to cut properly. My 13 year old was appalled at her peers lack of skill. It's the helicopter parents that are to blame

My now 17 year old, was able to light a match long before Year 7 as we do a lot of camping as well, along with the wood fire at home. We also taught him to pull his weight at home, with two parents working and no grandparents able to help out, it wasn't going to get done for him.
My other rant about students is their lack of ability to wash up. Working in Food Tech has been very eye opening. I've seen them wash up in cold water, but with about half a cup of detergent and use the same cloth that they've been wiping up spills off the floor. Then they use the tea towel to wipe down the bench and have to borrow another one to actually wipe up. Their idea of "clean" is a long way from mine. I started out the year grabbing the dirty things out and washing them myself. I now just pull things out and leave them on the bench if they are not clean. I only do that as we would be responsible if they got sick. I suspect most of the time they just put them back where they belong without any additional cleaning. Tuesday's lesson will be interesting - they are having a cleaning lesson instead. Those that get it right will get rewarded with a treat, those that don't, will be coming back later for extra lessons. I'll be eating a few ice blocks this week, me thinks!
Oh, and have you heard the term "lawnmower parents", those that clear the path ahead of the little dears.

We tried refillable BBQ lighters but gave up. Best matches I have found are Samba, from Bunnings. I even heard a kid raving about the quality of the matches in a prac last week! I put 4 matches in a box, and an elastic band around 5 boxes. Makes it easy to count out, and I usually get them all back - empty, of course!

My Mrs is a teacher so I always got to hear about the frustration of only being given a few matches per box long before I become a Labbie.
So when I started the job I thought I'd hand out a full box .

I arrived on my next day there to find a box of wasted matches on the Prep bench with a note on it from my off- sider saying " 45 good reasons not to hand out a full box "

I have worked out a happy medium now

We use matches here. I send out full boxes and get them back full minus the 3 or 4 that were used!

I buy redheads, but I might look for Samba and give them a go.

bigmack wrote:My Mrs is a teacher so I always got to hear about the frustration of only being given a few matches per box long before I become a Labbie.
So when I started the job I thought I'd hand out a full box .

I arrived on my next day there to find a box of wasted matches on the Prep bench with a note on it from my off- sider saying " 45 good reasons not to hand out a full box "

I have worked out a happy medium now

I can so relate to that years ago I had the principle come to me, kids had been caught smoking and had told her they got them from science, so had to count boxes out even empty boxes back. Kids started tearing some of the flint off the sides. Don't seem to have many smokers anymore.

I hand out a class set of 8 boxes of matches but each box has only about 11 matches in them, this 11 usually lasts a week or 2.
Most often I get all 8 boxes back at the end of a class.
I now have a collection of about 100 match boxes and when I feel like an easy job I sit down and fill my collection of empty boxes with the 11 matches (one redhead box fills 4 of my boxes).
Then I have filled boxes ready to go out and start putting aside the empties for filling another day.
I also have a box of the longer matches for the teachers who want to control it themselves ( I have the long ones because an art teacher wanted the boxes and gave me the matches!)

Yep, just a few matches in each box, 1 box per group.

Same as most we put about 6 matches in each box - 8 boxes per class - i had an abundance of plastic soap dishes and the 8 fit in that ... and then i have about 8 boxes of matches labeled :TEACHER ONLY: in case they need a refill in class ...

I kept on getting complaints about not having enough matches in the match boxes (5) so I bumped it up to 10

I have a box labelled TEACHER USE ONLY that goes out with the class set ... in case there is an overuse they can give a student a couple quickly ...

That's a great idea. Ctrl C

I have six matches to a box and give the teacher a ziplock bag (snacksize) with loose matches just in case the kids decide they want to be pyromaniacs. It's then up to the teacher to keep check on what is used. My biggest bugbear with matches is that kids think an empty matchbox has to be chucked in the bin. Yes I go bin diving to retrieve the empty boxes. Second bugbear is that some teachers don't count the match boxes back in. (Frustrating!)

yep I have both these problems, no matter how many times I remind the teachers, don't always get to the bins in time either.