What do you get when you combine radium and phosphorus?

If you’re using atomic letters from the periodic table of the elements, you get “Ra” and “P”. And if you’re in professor Michael Eskin’s class, you get rap.

Food chemistry professor Michael Eskin is making rap videos to teach his University of Manitoba students about the chemical compositions of various foods. With a little help from his son, the silver-haired prof is starring in some slickly-produced music videos, complete with Auto-Tune voice adjustments and visual effects. Eskin even dances – with a little help from the video editing software.

Eskin says his goal is to make his science-heavy lessons a little more palatable for his students.

“Students learn much better if something is with music,” Eskin tells CTV News.

Eskin’s rap videos – which include such immortal titles as “Lipids Get a Real Bad Rap: It’s Just Not Fair” and “The Passover Rap” – show the professor and Associate Dean of the Human Nutritional Sciences department wearing dark shades and a cap while he raps and moves his hands to the beat.

And he’s not just reciting his lesson notes. He’s rhyming, too.

“I sort of got into the rhythm of the thing,” he says.

His lipids rap includes such verses as:

“Without cholesterol where would we be

When the sun shines you make Vitamin D

Without it we would all suffer from rickets

Bow legged and chirping like a bunch of crickets”

Eskin says his next rap video will aim to steer children away from unhealthy foods.

He hopes kids will drop the sugary candy and pop – after they hear him drop a beat.

With files from CTV Winnipeg