Abstract: Abstract: Michael Faraday is renowned for his outstanding contribution to science and technology during the first half of the nineteenth century. His work on electricity and magnetism, which sowed the seeds for the electrical engineering industry and for industrial power generation, has led to the widespread electrification of our planet.
Faraday however, was more than just a brilliant experimenter and a scientist – he was a profound and humble man who was also a devout Christian. He also recognised the vital importance of passing on scientific wisdom to the younger generation. Between 1825 and 1862 he gave 19 series of lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in London. These were described as: “adapted to a Juvenile Auditory”. Several factors have contributed to the uniqueness of these lectures: they were extremely popular for four decades, Faraday was one of the foremost natural philosophers of his era, he was a brilliant experimenter and communicator, and the location in London of the architecturally splendid Royal Institution created a unique learning environment.
As a result of the enormous success of Faraday’s education programme, his series of lectures on “The Chemical History of a Candle” was published in 1861 and has been continuously in print since then. It has been translated into 17 languages.
The content of the lectures will be summarized and some of Faraday’s experiments – those relating to carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) – will be demonstrated. His teaching methods will be discussed – personal anecdotes, his unbounded enthusiasm (as shown by the use of expletives), his remarkable manual dexterity, his creativity in devising experiments to illustrate a specific point, historical context (earlier authors and human history) and the use of logic to deduce an inference from the experiment.
Regardless of today’s extraordinary advances in science, the teaching of its fundamental principles through experiments must forever constitute the mainstay of education. This will ensure that all consumers of these great achievements, will give them the respect and admiration which they deserve. Michael Faraday has set a supreme example in achieving this aim.

Key words: Faraday, education, demonstration, chemistry, physics, science, experiment, carbon dioxide, respiration, combustion, logic.