In the depths of the Chemistry department something unique is taking place. General chemistry professor Michael Canestaro has been filming a chemistry demo series titled “Science with Mike” with the help of Alex Parks and videographer Jason Carter.
The series was first uploaded to Youtube in May of 2017 and has since produced 29 videos. Recently “Science with Mike” was picked up by Think TV who have begun putting money into ads for the series.
Canestaro says they have sent around 20 videos worth of material to the station and are “Just waiting in the pipeline” for things to be finalized. Canestaro says he wouldn’t be surprised if the show was airing and filming regularly by the end of September.
The series will be airing for the public as well as streaming on Think TV’s Stem World service and is also available on a learning database for teachers called PBS learning media.
Canestaro has been putting silly videos up on Youtube for years. Things like unboxing videos or “bitter angry gardening” where he talked about his trouble with his plants. Neither of which lasted long. Yet he had always been interested in producing a chemistry demo series.
Canestaro was originally approached about starting the demo series by Denny Wilson.
“While there were multiple chemistry demo series already in existence there is always room to grow. ‘You can’t copyright chemicals.’” Said Canestaro.
“Science with Mike” was meant to find a middle ground between good educational science and some well placed humor.
“I thought that could be a niche.” Said Canestaro. “To sorta make it funny, cause I think there should be more humor everywhere. Just absolutely everywhere.”
The series was intended for the public. Canestaro didn’t want it to get so technical as to scare people away.
He said if he were to go back he might have taken out some of the content from his earlier videos. Worried that he spent too long getting technical without comedic relief.
“I wanted to shoot the middle, I wanted to make it entertaining but I also wanted to teach a little bit. It’s sneak teaching.” Canestaro said with a laugh.
He said a good sentence to describe the show is a comment he found on a video “Rabid oxidation interspersed with Dad jokes.”
The rapid oxidation part of that description referring to the large number of times things catch on fire during the show.
“Two-thirds of stuff needs to catch on fire.” Said Canestaro. “[Fire] It’s the equivalent to naked people in movies for chemistry demos.”
The demo series is witty and full of characters Canestaro creates out of the things he electrocutes or drops into acid.
“When in doubt make a character out of the stuff.” Said Canestaro.
Canestaro’s goal was to reach a wide variety of people. He says it did end up being tailored more for a younger audience.
Canestaro has been teaching chemistry for 23 years, and “Science with Mike” is the union of his love of science and humor.
Cerridwyn Kuykendall
Reporter