What You Must Do Before Doing Labs

This article provides lists of actions that a teacher should initiate with the students before lab activities. These include lab safety training, safety drills, safety contract, safety test... See More

This article provides lists of actions that a teacher should initiate with the students before lab activities. These include lab safety training, safety drills, safety contract, safety test, and more. The article also provides a list of actions the teacher should take such as lesson plan logging, safety training, department meeting agendas that list safety discussions and more taken prior to any lab activity performed either in a regular classroom or in a laboratory setting. All of these can help prevent accidents and a school or teacher from a law suit.

Practicing Safe Science Procedures

This article makes a case for laboratory safety training to be conducted by teachers each year with their new groups of students. Negligence or the breach of a duty on the part of a teacher... See More

This article makes a case for laboratory safety training to be conducted by teachers each year with their new groups of students. Negligence or the breach of a duty on the part of a teacher that results in a student being harmed or exposed to something dangerous becomes a case for the courts to sort out! The author points out that teachers can document their intent to provide a safe learning environment by what they note in their lesson plans. So whether a teacher is planning to use salt, vinegar, and baking soda or copper chloride and a Bunsen burner, by having the steps that were followed to properly train the students written down, the teacher is providing evidence of his/her actions and maintaining a safe classroom simultaneously. This is just one of the excellent ideas provided by the author to help teachers practice safe science procedures.