Safety Teams: An Approach To Engage Students in Laboratory Safety

We developed and implemented a yearlong safety program into our organic chemistry lab courses that aims to enhance student attitudes toward safety and to ensure students learn to recognize, demonstrate, and assess safe laboratory practices. This active, collaborative program involves the use of stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education 2010-08, Vol.87 (8), p.856-861
Main Authors: Alaimo, Peter J, Langenhan, Joseph M, Tanner, Martha J, Ferrenberg, Scott M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collaboration
College Science
College students
Cooperative Learning
Effectiveness studies
Experiential Learning
Hands on Science
Higher Education
Laboratories
Laboratory Experiments
Laboratory Safety
Learner Engagement
Organic Chemistry
Program Effectiveness
Safety
Safety Equipment
Safety programs
Science Instruction
Science Laboratories
Student Attitudes
Students
Undergraduate Students
Washington
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Summary:We developed and implemented a yearlong safety program into our organic chemistry lab courses that aims to enhance student attitudes toward safety and to ensure students learn to recognize, demonstrate, and assess safe laboratory practices. This active, collaborative program involves the use of student “safety teams” and includes hands-on safety training as well as student-led safety presentations, laboratory monitoring, and postlab inspections for each lab session. Although we implemented this program in organic chemistry, one asset of this approach is its portability; it could easily be appropriately modified and implemented in nearly any science laboratory course. This article describes safety teams in detail and provides a preliminary assessment of the program’s effectiveness.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/ed100207d