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in the Chemical l abomtory Edited by NORMAN V. STEERE, 140 Melbourne Ave., S.E. Minneapolis, Minn. 5541 4
LXX. A Survey of Safety in High School Chemistry Laboratories of Illinois* JOHN R. YOUNG, 819 Mayfair Drive, Plinceion, 111.
In order to obtain pertinent information regarding safety practices in the high school laboratory, s. questionnaire cancerning the problems most often encountered in that laboratory situation was constructed. The format of this questionnaire was based upon the knowledge gained from a thorough research of the literature directly concerned with the topic, a similar study conducted by Robert D. Msi comherl, and two years of teaching experience in high-school chemistry. The questionnaire was pretested by two fellow chemistry instructors in the state of Illinois. Wade Nicadiemus represented a. small school system with approximately 240 students, and Walter Bright represented a larger system with approximately 800 students. The two instructors were chosen because they represented different laboratory situations and different student populations due to the size of the school systems in which they taught. It was assumed that by virtue of being in different situations, the instructors would be acquainted with different laboratory problems. Each instructor was asked to read and comment on m y part or parts of the questionnaire which he felt needed revision or clarification. All of the comments and/or criticisms were reviewed and used in the construction of a more thorough and appropriate questionnaire. The first section of the revised questionnaire requested information about personal background, including the sex of the ~mticipant,age, the highest degree held, and the numher of years in science teaching. Specifically, the questions included in section one were the following: Sex:-male-female Agein years:-less than 25; -2k30;-31-40;-41-50; -more than 50 Highest degree held:BA,-MA, -Doctoral Number of years experienced in teaching. science (counting this year):-less than 4;-4-6;-7-9;-10-12; -13-15;-1618;-more than 18 *Presented before Illinois Chemistry Teachers' Association, October 16,1970. D. J. CHEM. ' M a c o ~ s m , I~OBERT Enuc., 38,367 (1961).
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Do you feel that authors forewarn you enough as to the safety of a proposed laboratory experiment? -yes -no. Comments:
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This information was needed to generate data which might show correlations hetween such items as the age of the pmticipant and the numher of accidents encountered during the 196849 school year, and the amount of teaching experience as related to the number of accidents encountered during- the same ~ e r i o dof time. It was anticipated that s. high correlation would exist between the age of the instruotor and the number of accidents encountered in the 196R69 school year, suggesting that the greatest frequency of accidents would occur with those instructors who were 25 or younger. This expected high frequency would he expected to result from the lack of proper expe-, rience by recently graduated instructors.. Also anticipated was a high correlation between the total numher of accident encounters and the number of years in science teaching. It was anticipated that the most accidents in 1968-69 occurred with those instructors having 4 years or less of actual experience. Again this could be due to the lack of experience. The above correlat,ions were suspected ss a result of earlier information gathered through the study by Mscomher as well as through my own teaching experience. Through the questionnaire, other information was obtained for continued studies to be undertaken concerning such items as the sex of the participant and the highest degree held as compared to the numher of accidents encountered during the 1968-69 schoolyear. The second section of the questionnaire contained general questions regarding a number of specific areas involving laboratory safety. The major areas within which data was collected included: past laboratory accidents that were serious enough to require the aid of a. physician, present knowledge ss to the extent of teacher liahilitv, names of sefetv filmis. and extended I& of safetv " elrtss~. S o h eificdy, same of the questions involved in thisseotion were as follows: Have you encountered any serious laboratory safety problems (ones needing the attention of a physician) in your teaching experience? -yes If ves. lease comment on -no. the cause of the problem and the result of the injury.
Do you devote a t least one lecture to the discussion of safety and of simple laboratory techniques? -yes-no. Comments:
Do you show m y films to your classes illustrating safety fundament&? -yes-no. If yes, please list the films, titles, and distributors.
Do you enforce the wearing of safety If glasses or goggles? - y e s ~ o . yes, do you find it difficult to enforce? -yes-no.
Are yon familiar with the amount of liability an instructor is under while in alaboratorysituation? -yes-no.
The information obtained from the above questions is essential for a thorough study of high school laboratory safety. Also in section two were ouestions which would yield data which mi'ght reveal correlations between the numher of accidents as speoifically related to the size of the class and the number of square feet available per student. These questions are listed as follows: Approximate number of students in each class in the fallowine areas. (If u w i . 1 ~ 5i n~ 1x11). one rruvhing mow r l ~ o f i , p l r ~ ~t.pproxim,rte e of I each): Jr. High Science-Freshman Science -Biologj-Chemistry-Physics Approximate numher of sccidents per class per week: -0;1-3; -66;7-9;10 or more. Approximate square footage of your laboratory area:-sq ft. The basis for the above questions comes from actual teaching experience. From personal experience I have found that the more densely populated a. laboratory area is, the more likely accidents are to hamen. These accidents come f n m unu~lrivip~terl and ir.nrlvrrrrn~p h y iwl umrwt with 011.er S I U ~ I C I ~r ~w~ d, t ~ w i n the jahbingorspillmg
