Days after exploding a nitrogen "bomb''in a "great big science class'', Dr Dave Warren will take a "leap into the unknown'' by bringing his Dunedin chemistry outreach work to Taiwan and Malaysia.

Dr Warren is a professional practice fellow in the University of Otago chemistry department.

He believed this was the first time a New Zealand university had taken a chemistry outreach programme overseas in this way.

The liquid nitrogen "bomb'' that he helped explode, blew 4000 ping pong balls skyward on Thursday, as part of a science class for about 1100 school pupils at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.

The class was part of the week-long New Zealand International Science Festival, whose main programme started yesterday.

The department has a long history of running lively science demonstrations for secondary school pupils and others, often including controlled explosions and other fun experiments.

For the past eight years, Dr Warren has co-ordinated the department's outreach programme to promote chemistry to primary and intermediate school pupils throughout Otago-Southland.

He will leave Dunedin today and fly to Taiwan and Borneo for the next three weeks, with a team of senior Otago chemistry students.

He was yesterday feeling a mixture of excitement and some "apprehension'', and was buoyed by the experienced student outreach team he was taking with him.

While overseas, they will share the Otago department's teaching style , first making science presentations at a week-long workshop for some of the brightest secondary school pupils in Taiwan, near the capital, Taipei.

The team will then travel to the Malaysian province of Borneo, at the invitation of a teacher training college in Kuching, Sarawak.

The team will be working with about 200 intermediate-aged children in a two-day camp in Kuching.

This will be followed by a week-long camp for intermediate-age pupils at a rural school.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz