History Main / EducationThroughPyrotechnics

Nothing on God's green earth is more volatile than the science laboratory materials of a fictional high school. Not even [[TheTokyoFireball Tokyo]]. Experiments can be reasonably expected to combust, detonate, singe off a few eyebrows, scorch the ceiling, blow out windows, force the evacuation of that wing of the building and/or attempt to attack their creators. If they don't, the class GadgeteerGenius [[HomemadeInventions builds a transdimensional collapsatron out of paperclips]].

* The original ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor'' opens with Professor Kelp blowing up his classroom.

-->'''Bavistock:''' Well... maybe you didn't understand the article!

* In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderman'' Professor Connors is fighting Peter in his high school, and their battle takes them through the chemistry lab. Connors sees two bottles on the desk, picks them up and mixes them together, and hurls them after Peter before they explode like a grenade. Either the evacuation interrupted what would have been an extremely ill-advised chemistry demonstration, or their universe has some incredibly bad procedures for lab safety. Oh right it's the second one, that's ''why'' a [[FreakLabAccident spider/human]] and a [[ProfessorGuineaPig lizard/human]] are currently battling each other.

--->'''Hagrid:''' I mean, [[[LampshadeHanging it's always bin a bit of a risk sendin' a kid ter Hogwarts,]] hasn't it? Yer expect accidents, don' yeh, wit hundreds of underage wizards all locked up tergether, but attempted murder, tha's diff'rent.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'''s Hogwarts, things blowing up or catching fire is about the least harmful thing that can happen in a classroom. Spilled potions cause boils to sprout all over, or cause whatever they hit to swell to enormous size (whether that's hands, nose, eyeballs, you name it.) Then again, the explosion of the Swelling Solution ''was'' deliberate...
** This is a big part of the reason why ''Hogwarts exists'': underage wizards are expected to make mistakes and/or release accidental magic, and it's better to have them all in one place with competent adults to fix the disasters.
--->'''Hagrid:'''''Yer expect accidents, don' yeh, wit hundreds of underage wizards all locked up tergether, but attempted murder, tha's diff'rent.''
*** And with Magical Medicine, anything that isn't instantly fatal is generally fixable.

* In the ''{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Ankh-Morpork's Guild of Assassins School now teaches courses liek Applied Exothermic Alchemy, Deployment of Devices, and Bomb Disposal. (how to dispose a bomb so it does exactly what you want it to with regard to the selected target). Teaching staff are not above casually lobbing a Device at a group of students as a sort of practical test of quick hazard recognition, and quick reflexes.

This is not in the least helped by the teachers, as this is a popular position for the [[TheProfessor Professor]] or MadScientist. Often they have left an university or a private research institution, possibly through the roof.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. The MeetCute between the Doctor and Jo Grant. The Doctor is singing [[TemptingFate "I don't want to set the world on fire..."]] when his equipment blows up. Jo grabs a fire extinguisher and douses the flames, only to get shouted at by the Doctor for ruining three months of lab work.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. The MeetCute between the Doctor and Jo Grant. The Doctor is singing [[TemptingFate "I don't want to set the world on fire..."]] when his laboratory experiment blows up. Jo grabs a fire extinguisher and douses the flames, only to get shouted at by the Doctor for ruining his experiment.

* Nothing explodes, but the general spirit is the same; the first lesson given by Professor Hank [=McCoy=] of XMenEvolution, knowing the general mindset of his high-school-age students, is how to make a StinkBomb.

* ''Bullseye!'' (1990) had Roger Moore as a conman [[{{doppelganger}} posing as Bavistock]], one of two scientists who've invented a fusion reactor. [[spoiler:The scene foreshadows the ending where the scientists are revealed to be frauds themselves, and the fusion reactor they've designed blows up when MargaretThatcher turns on the power at the official opening ceremony.]]

* ''CampLazlo'': In "Sweet Dream Baby" the Jelly Beans manage to put their cabin into orbit with something they mixed up in a store bought chemistry kit.

* ''ArchieComics'': A common situation at Riverdale High.

* Satomi Hakase in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' has done this at least once, exactly as the main group were entering her lab. Naturally done for humour with everyone only a [[NonFatalExplosions bit blackened with a few hairs out of place]].

* Were she not an elementary school teacher, Yoko from ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' would probably go for this - in fact, she once pulled this trope off unintentionally by [[BadassTeacher destroying two Ganmen that were threatening her students]].

* Nothing explodes, but the general spirit is the same; the first lesson given by Professor Hank McCoy of XMenEvolution, knowing the general mindset of his high-school-age students, is how to make a StinkBomb.

* The original ''TheNuttyProfessor'' opens with Professor Kelp blowing up his classroom.

* Occurs in several tales on ''AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': A HighSchool is haunted by the ghost of a girl who died in a lab explosion... The school {{Nerd}} defeats an evil water spirit (made of water) with manganite ("Mix water with manganite and kaboom!") and [[AndSomeOtherStuff other chemicals]] from the school lab...
* ''BillNyeTheScienceGuy'' embraced this trope. "And now, for a really big chemical reaction."..... BOOM. Bill once displayed the chemical formula for nitroglycerin. He then proceeded to drop the formula, and it exploded.

* ''BrainiacScienceAbuse'': It doesn't matter what they're experimenting with, they're going to blow something up.

* ''FamilyMatters'': In an AllJustADream episode, Laura dreamed that Steve Urkel built an atomic bomb for his science fair project.

* Inverted in the MyChemicalRomance video for "I'm Not Okay", since they are shown in chemistry class and none of them manages to cause an explosion (though Gerard does smack himself in the face somehow).

* ''BeavisAndButthead'': Played with in ''Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity''. "Are explosions science?" "In your case...no."

* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromStMarys'': GenreSavvy Mrs. Desai knows you're only in the chemistry lab to make bombs.

* ''RanmaOneHalf'' does this, in early Season 1, right near the time Ryoga enters the scene. The Chem Club students want to get their hands on Akane and decide to make bombs, which they of course accidentally set off in the chemistry lab (and wind up setting off accidentally during the battle when the mines fail to go off during Ranma/Ryoga's fight).

* ''[[PrettySammy Magical Girl Pretty Sammy]]'': This is the opening Washu took in order to study magic. Human in this AlternateContinuity, she nevertheless is the most powerful MadScientist in the world.

* On ''ThePowerpuffGirls'', Past!Utonium randomly mixed chemicals while goofing around in science class and accidentally set the school on fire.
* On ''AmericanDragonJakeLong'', Jake and Spud blow up the Huntsclan Academy lab while trying to brew a potion of dragon slaying.

* ''[[PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson And The Sea of Monsters]]'': Spoofed in this children's book. The WeirdnessMagnet main character goes to a relaxed, New-Agey school, and his chemistry final is literally "make something explode". Within five minutes, he and his lab partner succeed so spectacularly that the lab has to be evacuated, and the teacher praises them for their instinctive grasp of chemistry.

* [[MadeOfExplodium Nitrogen Triiodide.]] Freakin' [=NI3=]. ''Staple'' of mischievous chemistry students and show-off professors across the world. Rather powerful crystalline explosive, sensitive enough to go off when ''a big fly lands on it''. However, unlike most unstable stuff, it may be handled more or less safely upon mixing and is primed only when it dries up. Hence the popularity.\\
\\
R.W.Wood's biography (which in itself is twice more entertaining than 9/10 of "MadScientist" fiction, and half again weirder) specifically mentions his nitrogen-iodine experiments. He was already pyro-savvy, so he split it into several little piles... and when he tested first dried pinch its explosion scattering a good spoonful of almost ready touch-sensitive explosive crystals through the entire room...\\
\\
Once in Soviet times students in Voronezh University ladies' dormitory were quite annoyed by their porter due to her [[MoralGuardians habit of night patrols]]. Enter the... Chemistry students and enigmatic faint smell of ammonia rising from the corridor's floor. Next morning she was found sitting atop her stool with boots. This little experience apparently taught her something valuable about wisdom of ''not'' sharing one's insomnia with everyone around and about peaceful coexistence with bunch of crazy students in general.