Chemistry Lab Safety Activities
Cow Eye Demonstration: Safety Demonstration – Eye and Eyewear Safety
Flinn Scientific, Inc. has created a demonstration that is sure to promote student goggle wearing. Acid
is splashed onto a cow’s eye and quickly rinsed off, allowing students to observe the immediate and
irreversible damage that can occur to eye tissue when a strong acid is splashed into the eye.
http://www.flinnsci.com/Documents/demoPDFs/Safety/SF10062.pdf
Cartoon on Lab Safety – Identifying Safe and Unsafe Laboratory Procedures and Activities
A very chaotic science laboratory is depicted through a cartoon, where unsafe activities are occurring
as well as correct lab procedures. Students are asked to analyze the cartoon and are given ten guiding
questions that correlate with the picture.
http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/safety.html
Another Cartoon on Lab Safety – What Not to Do in the Lab
A very chaotic science laboratory is depicted through a cartoon where unsafe activities are occurring
in abundance. Thirty-six areas of the lab are labeled and the students are prompted to answer the
following question, “What is wrong with each numbered spot?”
http://expedioscientiam.net/school/resources/what_not_to_do_600.pdf
Safety Coat of Arms
Students would be asked to individually create their own safety coat of arms on a piece of computer
paper. The coat of arms must only include items relevant to lab safety and it must include at least five
safety rules or procedures. The safety coat of arms would be laminated (optional) and students would
attach it to the front of their lab notebook as a reminder of lab safety.
Lab Safety Music Video
A rap song created by Rhythm, Rhyme, Results emphasizes the importance of goggles, gloves, and
no food or drink in the lab. It also goes over proper clean-up procedures after an experiment. The
video is very informative and entertaining. An activity could be included at the end asking students to
write a brief summary of the major rules and procedures emphasized in the video or guided questions
could be given at the end of the video for students to answer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSdY4gEfCHY
http://www.nclark.net/Chemistry - General
Problem Solving Scenarios for Laboratory Safety
Science and Safety Consulting Services provides twenty scenarios that would be appropriate for
groups of 2-3 students to contemplate and then determine the safest response to each.
http://www.sciencesafetyconsulting.com/pdf/HSActivities.pdf
Lighting a Bunsen Burner
Having ten plus Bunsen burners ignited in a laboratory can be dangerous when students are not aware
of the proper ignition techniques and the required behavior around fire. Time should be taken in class
to demonstrate the correct procedure and to have students practice lighting a Bunsen burner with no
experiment associated with the ignition. A music video could also be played to enhance student’s
retention of the correct procedure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G_YpI_LLmE