Lights! Camera! Learning!

'Iron Science Teacher' is just like regular professional development—only with a stopwatch, cameras, and an audience.

When teaching science to kids, a visual approach is good. Humor is also good. And blowing things up is really, really good. At least that’s what educators at the Exploratorium in San Francisco have found in the nine yearssince the museum began producing a live, off-the-cuff competition called Iron Science Teacher. Modeled after the Japanese cult TV favorite Iron Chef (and The Food Network’s American spinoff) , Iron Science Teacher pits educators against one another in a fast-paced competition to produce the best classroom science activity that can be...