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Iron Science

from the Scientist (Registration Required)

Anyone who thinks that iron science means the laborious study of the chemical element number 26, think again. A Canadian competition called Iron Science pits teams of science teachers against each other in a challenge to deliver the most creative approach to communicating science and engineering. And it reached its final conclusion Nov. 21.

"It's a spectacle," Mary Anne Moser, director of communications at the University of Calgary's Schulich School of Engineering and the chair of Iron Science's national steering committee, told The Scientist. "We're putting a lot more splash and pizzazz into showing off science teaching."

Modeled after the Iron Chef television series—which ran in Japan from 1993-1999 and was adapted in the US by the Food Network in 2005—the Iron Science contest revolves around a "secret ingredient," which can be a physical entity such as alcohol or marshmallows, or an abstract concept like pressure.