Australia's Science Forum

wasnt sure if this should have gone into.... 'teachers behaving badly', 'avoiding accidents' but I thought id start a new and get some other peoples thoughts on this!

Yesterday, I walked into a lab where Y7 are evaporating off soft drink in evaporating basins to help clean up. To my shock the students where eating the sugar syrup in the bottom of the basin!
I was just stunned...... chemical residue, chemical boiling points, dont eat in the labs ,filth just for starters, all came flooding into my head......

The teacher thinks that all residue would be burnt off.....
Please tell me Im right, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on this one!!!!

Yep....i would never eat off anything in my lab...i don't even put my coffee cup thru the dishwasher...

Who knows what has been in those basins over the years?????? Lead???? Anything!!!!

I even found a set of beakers 'for food use' when i unpacked this place.....

Hi Bindi, you are so right. No one should eat or drink in the classrooms. Chemicals stay in the air for many a year. By eating or drink in the classrooms they may take in a small amount of residue, the CSIS tells us no eating or drink EVER. I would have thought it was common sense, but not every one has that________________ Some times it is so very hard to tell others that they are wrong. So just keep up the good work.

What a dangerous precedent for a teacher to set! Think of the yukkies in those basins!

You are absolutely right to object. Poor starving children, having to eat the crap off a science evaporating basin. Maybe the teacher should shout them some lollies instead!

yep, you are right, ditto what everyone else has said

Lisa

I am gobsmacked - don't these supposedly intelligent people have any sense......

Unless they were brand new or specifically for that prac who knows what has been in them.....

I agree I started at a new school recently and both prep rooms had food prep going on in them! coffee machine, dishes going in with lab glassware unbelievable Ive since labeled one sink and the dishwasher labware only and made one prep room for food, the other for chemical clean up I cant believe people value their own health so little! cheers MariaC

I am the Labbie and the Workplace Health and Safety officer here, nothing should go near students mouth whilst in science lab, If Teachers here want a prac that they want students to be able to eat after wards they have to use a normal classroom and no lab equipment. How ever the Teachers did give me the name T-rex they say I'm a bit old and a bit grumpy at times, but students and staff are safe in the science block. This is my first reply I read all the time and this site has helped so much.

regards T-Rex

Welcome T-Rex,
When I first started here, teachers used to do food pracs and then eat them eg chocolate rocks, shorbert etc. Slowly, i managed to educate them and now all food pracs are done in the kitchen on normal hot plates using clean cookware.
I cannot believe that a teacher would let kids eat from laboratory glassware.
Lada

One of our teachers came in yesterday and asked if I had some sugar. I said yes of course, and headed for the chem store to get it for him. Then he held up his coffee cup and said "I've run our of sugar for my coffee".
WHAT??
No way!!
I told him he'd have to do without his sugar, there's no way he can have some out of the chem store for his coffee!!
How can they even think it's ok??
J

Maybe you should have given it to him with some HexacynoironIII No great loss

Yesterday I had 2 students come down and ask me for 8 forceps for their teacher, I handed them over and they went off.

Then I started wondering what he was doing with them as their was no other gear ordered.

I decided to take a look and they were mining Chocolate chip biscuits, they had a piece of hand towel down on the bench and were using the forceps to remove the choc chips from the biscuits with the view of once they had weighed the piles they would then eat them.

I may have embarrased the teacher but I told them in no uncertain terms that the forceps had last been used to find insects in the dirt at the Ag plot and before that they dissected pigs eyes and their was no way they could eat the chocolate. The teacher hadn't seen any problem.

Later on I came across 3 girls that were using watchglasses that were last used for Copper Sulphate crystalisation to melt chocolate on to "test which chocolate made the best fondue". They were also told in no uncertain terms that science equipment could not be used for food. To make it worse they were in the prep room doing it!!!!!!!!!

And now I'm in strife for tapping a child on the leg with a bunsen hose through the fume cupboard for trying to get her off the bench. I had told her 15 minutes earlier to get off the bench.

I have to write a report on that so I am armed with photos of the fume hood and how far off the floor some one is when they are sitting on the benches.

I'm so frustrated I could scream. At least I have the support of the head teacher.

Wendy

The kids here are ruling the school. Aren't accountable to anyone for anything.
When I walked past a group of truants and said "why don't you put out that cigarette" one charming girl replied "why don't you go f... yourself"
I hope it is not the same everywhere else. Grrrr....

Dime, you are not alone! Last two weeks of term can't go fast enough - we seem to have a group trying to disassemble the school! Roll on 3pm Friday!!!!!!!!!!

I would be submitting a Hazard report about this.
After some of the situations I have had here, I have learnt that we need to cover our backs.
THIS constitutes a legal hazard, and if you don't report it you could be as liable as the teacher concerned.
What if one of those students becomes ill?
What if in 10 years time that student decides to sue the school for negligence? They could cite you as responsible as well as teacher.
Cover your back and protect yourself.

Heard a bang yesterday in lab 4 and some yelling from the teacher. Year 12 physics boys mucking around and knocked over 10 litres of liquid nitrogen. One student is banned from any pracs until the end of term (big deal!!) and he said he didn't mean it and said the lid should have been on properly. (duh)
Guess which teacher is now doing a risk assessment.

Last week we had a man here going through the place doing a OH & S audit. He is a retired Principal who has set himself up as an OH & S Consultanmt and for an ( in the words of the SAM) exhorbitant fee comes and goes throughthe school enlightening you of where you are and what you need to do.

I thought here was an opportunity to find out about risk assessments for Science pracs. The answer was " you don't need risk assesments, its up to the common sense of the teacher"
Not even a mention of CSIS and guidelines. To me, he lost all credibility then.

When he finally visited science he wanted to know if I had a full face mask for mixing chemicals.
Stated my shower was being blocked, and took multiple photos of it.
I have tried to insert the photo of my shower but can't remember how to do it, it isn't totally clear but if the trolleys wern't near the shower they would be in the middle of the room which is a greater hazard.

Then he was going to leave

I asked whether he had any interest in the Chemical store so he looked there and that was all!!!
No questions on MSDS, spill kits, goggles for students, correct shoes, labelling, chemwatch. I hope that when I get to speak to the Principal about the incident about telling the girl to get off the bench, I can point out what he didn't ask and what our situation is.

WEndy

Teachers here are frustrated because they keep getting the reports sent back with red lines through them saying they have to be more positive and they can't write what they would really like to say.
What they can say... what they would like to say
____ is a good communicator... = talks too much in class
____ participates in the practical side of science. = when using bunsens always sets fire to something inappropriate.
____ is an active classmember... = disrupts at every opportunity
____ is very quiet in class... = please feed him/her

Not to be eaten or tasted.
May be contaminated.
Experiments involving
tasting or eating are not
allowed in laboratories.

This is a copy of some small labels I made and printed out on bright coloured paper and stuck to the food items in the department. Depending on the current crop of teachers I put it on everything or just on the shelf they're stored on.

Joan

I found out recently that some of the students who have home group in the science lab next to the prep room were coming in and eating ice out of the freezer!!!!!!
I had to put a big sign on the freezer door saying something along the lines of "Not for human consumption, do not eat ice from this freezer". The stuff that has been in that freezer plus the fact that I don't wash out the ice cube trays and that they are filled from a "non potable water" tap, who knows what they have been ingesting! And as for the teacher letting them!!!!