Name: Matt Knorr Science Education Safety Module Worksheet 1: Safety Standards 1. What are they key elements of the NSTA Safety and School Science Instruction Position? -School districts must adopt written safety standards, hazardous material management and disposal procedures for chemical and biological wastes. These procedures must meet or exceed the standards adopted by EPA, OSHA and/or appropriate state and local agencies. - School authorities and teachers share the responsibility of establishing and maintaining safety standards. -School authorities are responsible for providing safety equipment (i.e., fire extinguishers), personal protective equipment (i.e., eye wash stations, goggles), Material Safety Data Sheets and training appropriate for each science teaching situation. -School authorities will inform teachers of the nature and limits of liability and tort insurance held by the school district. -All science teachers must be involved in an established and on-going safety training program relative to the established safety procedures which is updated on an annual basis. -Teachers shall be notified of individual student health concerns. -The maximum number of occupants in a laboratory teaching space shall be based on the following: 1) the building and fire safety codes; 2) occupancy load limits; 3) design of the laboratory teaching facility; 4) appropriate supervision and the special needs of students. -Materials intended for human consumption shall not be permitted in any space used for hazardous chemicals and or materials. -Students and parents will receive written notice of appropriate safety regulations to be followed in science instructional settings.2. What is meant by Duty of Instruction? 3. What is meant by Duty of Supervision? Students must be adequately supervised according to legal, professional, and district guidelines to ensure acceptable behavior and mitigation of risks of foreseeable dangers. Teachers must make sure the students are acting in a safe manner.
4. What is meant by Duty of Maintenance? Teachers or administrators are responsible for the safe environment and acceptable condition of equipment in a classroom or other learning setting. Teachers must make sure the physical non-human setting is set up safely and without broken or damaged equipment. 5. Why do you think Safety is an important concern for a Science classroom and its teacher? In a typical science classroom, there are many potential hazards to humans and teachers alike. Many things that are likely to be used in a given class term could be potentially harmful or even fatal if used improperly. Electricity and certain chemical experiments could be especially dangerous if not done with due care. Also, while many of these situations are well known to me, I need to realize that many of my students likely lack the firsthand knowledge that I have gained through the years and will require additional training and precautions to ensure they can learn with these hands on activities. Worksheet 2: Safety Practices 1. What is the purpose of an MSDS label? An MSDS label should be present on chemical containers to inform any person what the particular chemical in the bottle actually is, its concentration / strength, how it can hurt a person, and the date it was prepared. 2. Summarize what it means to properly store chemicals. To properly store chemicals means to store minimum quantities of chemicals to ensure lower risk from them. Additionally, certain chemicals should be separated and isolated from one another to reduce additional hazards from fire or toxic reactions. Separating acids from bases and storing flammable chemicals in proper containers and cabinets should be always required. 3. How would a teacher go about cleaning up a concentrated acid spill (be overly specific)? When Rob, my fictitious student, spilled 3.5 L of sulphuric acid on my newly waxed lab floor, I immediately order all students to stand back so they don t slip on the spill and I go for my 3 bucket spill kit. First, I pour sand around the spill to keep the acid from spreading across the floor, then I pour unscented kitty-litter over the spill. After scooping up all of the solids and disposing of them in heavy tras bags, I go for my final bucket of soda ash and pour some over the still wet spill area in order to neutralize the acid. Finally, I mop up the area with clean water and keep students out of the area until the floor has adequately dried. 4. Summarize what it means to use proper precautions with animals.
Proper precautions to be taken with animals include never letting students handle animals without direct supervision. Students should wear gloves when handling animals and the students should be given clear guidelines in order to help protect not only themselves but the animals as well. Only animals from reputable pet suppliers may be used; never wild or poisonous animals though. After handling animals, students should wash their hands, and if they are ever bitten or scratched, the principle and school nurse should be notified. Finally, animals that are not currently being used should be kept in adequate cages which are kept reasonably clean. 5. Summarize what it means to use proper precautions with plants. Proper precautions to be taken with plants include never using poisonous or allergy causing plants within the classroom. Additionally, students should be notified of the distinction between edible and non-edible plants, and should never eat plants unless specifically directed to do so. Finally, students should wear gloves when handling plants and should wash their hands after completing their work with plants. 6. What do you think are the two most important pieces of safety gear in a classroom? Justify your reasoning. I would consider the two most important pieces of safety gear in the classroom to be safety posters and safety goggles. It is hard to rule out other important safety equipment like fire extinguishers and fume hoods and the like, but I feel as though safety posters can be especially important because they not only serve as continuous reminders of how to use safe practices in the classroom, but they could have been made by the students themselves, further reinforcing the messages they contain. Furthermore, safety goggles are individualized protection from some of the most common and often unpredictable safety hazards within the lab or classroom setting. It is often hard to tell when a projectile might be deflected off course or some small reaction pops in just the wrong way that a student s irreplaceable eye gets in the way of a drop of some hot, caustic, or otherwise undesirable reactant. Since It happens from time to time in all kinds of demos and experiments and because eyes are so fragile, I consider these some of the most important safety gear in the classroom. 7. Respond to the following three cases. Explain what went wrong, how it could ve been prevented, and what you should do to address the situation: Case 1: A student is engaged on a lab demonstrating basic titration techniques. He accidentally spills 35 ml of concentrated HCl on his left forearm. The first question that comes to mind is why is there acid all over his left forearm? Presumably he should have had the acid in front of him and wearing appropriate gloves (perhaps long gloves). Additionally, perhaps the accident could have been avoided if the student was more aware of what was going on in front of him (maybe he didn t realize that HCl is a strong acid and due care required to use it safely). At this point, however, he needs immediate attention. I would first instruct him to remove any
gloves (if he has any), and immediately proceed to have him begin flushing his arm with tepid water continuously for at least 15 minutes while I proceed to clean up the area in the classroom where the acid may have spilled so that other students aren t at risk. After the acid is cleaned up in the room but before the end of the 15 minutes, I would proceed to contact a school administrator and probably school nurse as well to document the situation as well as provide additional medical care for the student, if needed. Case 2: A student is dissecting a frog in a laboratory on dissection techniques. She accidentally cuts herself with the scalpel and gets some of the frog blood into the cut. First of all, the student may not have been exercising adequate caution when handling the scalpel. Students should be keenly aware of what direction they are cutting and if any of their own body parts might be roughly along that path should the blade slip out of the tissue, like in this case. Properly training students before he dissection lab on safety techniques such as this may have helped prevent such an accident. Likewise, suitable gloves could have helped somewhat in preventing a scalpel from cutting the skin if the student were exercising more care. At this point, however, this student is at risk of becoming a frog now that the amphibian s blood has entered her veins. I would probably have the student put on gloves at this point if she didn t already have them on and as long as they didn t cover the cut, and would have her wash out the wound with clean water. Then, I would have her apply some antibacterial cream to a simple sterile bandage that would be applied to the cut. If the cut were more severe and there was a more serious bleeding problem I would refer the student to the school nurse, but in either case I would document the incident and would notify an appropriate school administrator. Case 3: A student is engaged in a lab which utilizes the technique of evaporation to get a sample. After a few minutes of careful heating, the watch glass she is using cracks and explodes, launching the chemical sample and glass shards towards her eye. This situation is a little tough because it states that the student was carefully heating the watch glass, so apparently due care was being exercised there. The only other thing I could think of that might help mitigate the risk in this type of accident is to make sure the student is doing this portion of the lab inside of an appropriate fume hood with a pull-down front window screen to better protect the upper parts of the body from such accidents. Of course, safety goggles are also mandatory in such a lab, so hopefully this student heeded that call before the accident. After the accident, I would survey the situation to see if medical treatment is necessary. If the student only had splashes of chemical on her skin but no other contact, I would have her flush it off for an appropriate amount of time for the given chemical. If there were chemical in the student s eyes, I would direct her to the eye-wash station for continuous flushing for 15 minutes. If it seemed as though there were glass in her eyes, however, I would contact medical help immediately through the school nurse or other school administrator for immediate professional care. This situation should NOT have happened, however, since there were multiple ways to avoid it, namely the pull-down screen on the fume hood and the student s PPE / safety googles.
8. If you were to sum up all of the safety practices, rules, and guidelines into four statements; what would those four statements be? 1) Be aware of what is going on around you at all times and the associated risks. 2) Hope for the best but plan for the worst. 3) Always wear safety goggles in any lab or demonstration involving moving particles 4) Have proper documentation for all materials and document and report incidents to administrators and parents, if necessary. Worksheet 3: Safety Plans 1. What are the common themes to School Safety Plans? A) Standard operating procedures B) Working definitions in reference to the Laboratory Standard. C) Criteria to determine and implement control measures to reduce employee exposure including engineering controls, use of personal protective equipment and hygiene practices. D) Requirement that fume hoods and other protective equipment are functioning properly and within specific measures. E) Provisions for employee information and training relative to the laboratory standard, employer s chemical hygiene plan, chemical references and more. F) Circumstances where laboratory operation requires prior approval from the employer. G) Provisions for medical consultation and examinations. H) Hazard identification, including use of material safety data sheets (MSDSs) and labeling systems. I) Use of respirators. J) Required record keeping- record of any measurements taken to monitor student exposures and any medical consultation and examinations including tests or written opinions required by this standard.
K) Designation of personnel responsible for implementation of chemical hygiene plan including chemical hygiene officer and if appropriate, chemical hygiene committee. The chemical hygiene officer is the employer-designated employee who is qualified by training or experience to provide technical guidance in the development and implementation of chemical hygiene plan. This person usually is a chemistry teacher, department head or laboratory technician. L) Provision for additional employee protection when working with particularly hazardous substances, for example, reproductive toxins, carcinogens. OSHA compliance officers initiate inspections by reviewing the employer s plans. They then focus on plan implementation and policing 2. What are the common themes to Student Safety Contracts? A) Report spills, injuries, or other accidents to teacher / administrator immediately. B) Follow all written and verbal instructions at all times. C) Wear appropriate PPE s while in the lab. D) Treat all chemicals as if they are dangerous. E) Treat all animals in the lab with respect when they are present. F) Use extreme caution when carrying materials, using glassware, or when dealing with any source of heat (i.e. flame or hotplate). G) Dress properly, wearing suitable clothes, long hair pulled back, and a lab coat where necessary. 3. What do you think are essential points for a School Safety Plan? A) Clear definitions of terms B) Standard operating procedures C) All equipment must be in good working order D) Hazard identification for chemicals via MSDS labels on bottles, E) Broken non-essential equipment should be locked and tagged out and labeled accordingly. F) Adequate signs and placards indicating locations of safety equipment (e.g. fire extinguisher, fire blanket, spill cleanup kits, first aid kit, gas and water shutoffs, etc). G) Plan in place for supplementary medical treatment or consultation when necessary.
H) Continuing education/training for faculty and staff to maintain proficiency with the technology currently in use for safety. I) Mandatory record keeping to document status of equipment and any deficiencies that may exist with them. 4. What do you think are essential points for a Student Safety Contract? A) Supervision is required to do experiments B) Do not commence experiments until specifically instructed to do so. C) Long hair must be tied back and shirts/vests must fit properly so there is no hazard of loose clothing. D) Report any accidental spills to teacher immediately E) Report any personal injuries to teacher immediately F) Do not remove chemicals or lab equipment from lab room without permission from teacher. G) No food or drink is allowed in the lab setting H) Keep the lab work areas and traffic pathways clear to the greatest extent possible during the lab, and make sure all equipment is put away before leaving the lab unless prior arrangements are made with the teacher. I) While heating materials in the lab, use the fume hood with the screen pulled down whenever possible, and NEVER leave a heat source unattended. J) Learn about the safety equipment in the room and emergency procedures and periodically review materials that outline their use. K) Safety goggles are mandatory to be present in the lab whenever there is risk present of moving particles of any kind. Similarly, if there is any demonstration or lab involving a chemical or solid other than liquid water at room temperature, goggles must be worn! 5. Create a generalized School Safety Plan: In order for all students and faculty to be able to safely participate and learn in a lab setting, certain requisites must be present. First, all students and faculty must be trained on lab safety before they will be permitted to participate in lab experiments. Likewise, all participants in the lab need to be adequately dressed and equipped in an appropriate way for the lab. Some labs may require lab coats, respirators, full-face shields, or gloves, but all labs require the use of safety goggles and clothing of proper fit. Also, behavior needs to be appropriate for the lab environment. This includes ceasing to
bring food or drink of any kind into the lab and maintaining a continuously cautious and deliberately professional attitude at all times. In addition to personal preparedness, the lab itself and equipment need to be kept in good working order. Any broken equipment needs to be reported to the supervisor of the lab or teacher for potential disposal or repair. Similarly, accidents need to be reported immediately. Finally, be aware that there is always an individual assigned to be responsible for the lab no matter if it is being actively used for lab classes or not. You need permission from this individual in order to enter the lab, access materials, parts, or tools, and to begin experiments or demonstrations. 6. Create a Student Safety Contract that you would actually use in your classroom: Pagedown.
W elcome to the Fairbanks Alaska junior chemistry class! Let s take care of a few items of housekeeping before we pass out the Bunsen burners and pipettes. This can be a very exciting and rewarding class, but please understand that chemistry, like many other science labs, can be potentially dangerous or even DEADLY. Yes, it truly is that serious. It doesn t have to be, however, as long as we all work together in recognizing the dangers and being committed to mitigating the risks. I, Mr. Knorr, am your teacher, and will do everything I can to make sure the lab is safe for you to use. I will make sure that there are working shutoff valves for the gas, water, and electricity, and will make sure that they are properly labeled. Also, I will make sure the emergency equipment is present and well maintained. This includes the fire blankets, eye-wash & shower stations, fire extinguishers, fume hoods, and first aid kit. This is the point where I need help. I need you to take and receive a passing score on the lab safety equipment test, and I need you to be committed to: 1) Listen to teacher s instructions at all times 2) Behave in a calm and orderly fashion (no rough-housing, running, goofing-off, tomfoolery, etc) 3) Be careful with lab equipment and materials so they don t break 4) let me know if something does break or is found broken or if there is a personal injury of any kind 5) Wear properly fitting clothing, and be able to pull any long hair back. No loose clothing will be permitted. Also, keep any necklaces in your pocket or tucked into your shirt. 6) Bring your assigned PPE s (personal protective equipment), and consistently wear them. This includes your gloves, lab coat, and most critically your safety glasses. 7) Leave your food and drink out of the classroom 8) ENJOY the exciting experiments that we are going to do this trimester! Student signature Parent / guardian signature date date