Safety Moments in Chemical Safety Education

This essay assessed the chemical safety knowledge of students in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, concerning chemical storage, heat operation, waste disposal, and emergency response. The results show that students' familiarity and understanding of safety knowledge is not satisfactory, especially in the waste disposal and emergency response. In addition, the significant difference is also found among different subgroups (gender, major, and academic year). Therefore, in the following work, the analytical experimental courses incorporate online and offline safety education into the teaching design for first-year undergraduates. Prudent and continuous safety training is expected to be routinely provided for all undergraduates and postgraduates in the future.

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Chemical Safety Knowledge of University Students─A Case Study

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2022

“…Interestingly, novel experiences are known to promote both visual and verbal memory, suggesting that more than one factor (VR, novelty, and others) may be responsible for the overwhelming positive response of the student participants. The issue of correlating cause and effect in this particular study raises a more general question associated with the wide array of tools, training methods, and resources that have been introduced to promote safety in the laboratory. − How should the impact of a given innovation or training method be measured with respect to laboratory safety? Ideally, a positive outcome would reveal itself as a reduction in laboratory accidents, which requires a randomized longitudinal study.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, a “call to action” has emerged, emphasizing the need to improve safety in academic laboratories. ,− Recommendations cover a number of areas, including the commitment of additional institutional resources to lab safety, the importance of constructive communication between key stakeholders, research into the cause of accidents in academic laboratories, and improved training. The latter has received significant attention in the scientific literature, encompassing topics as diverse as chemical spills, , compressed gas safety, waste management, standard operating procedures, student/researcher led joint safety teams, − the four principles of safety (“RAMP”), safety moments/learning experiences, − and the development of laboratory safety courses. − Innovative training methods, including behavioral conditioning that sensitizes researchers to best practices, represent a long overdue development in the education of future scientists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtually Bridging the Safety Gap between the Lecture Hall and the Research Laboratory

Kong¹,

Welfare²,

Shenouda³

et al. 2022

Laboratory safety has received heightened attention due to a series of devastatingly tragic accidents in both academic and nonacademic settings. Consequently, chemistry departments at various academic institutions now offer some form of formal training in laboratory safety for entering graduate students. Although the extent of this training varies widely among institutions, it typically includes an online assessment and/or minimal in-person classroom instruction. However, a significant gap exists between a lecture hall setting and the complex environment that comprises an advanced research laboratory. We've adapted the technological advances in virtual and augmented reality to bridge this gap. A set of 360°virtual reality lab experiences, highlighting safety infractions, have been created for a variety of subdiscipline-distinct (medicinal, organic, inorganic, physical, drug screening) laboratory settings. Notable features include the accurate depiction of the visual complexity associated with research settings, the opportunity for the trainee to explore multiple laboratories in a self-paced fashion, and immediate feedback with respect to the identification of safety hazards. The VR Lab Safety modules were very well received by first year graduate students, with greater than 85% of the respondents describing the VR experience as engaging and memorable, as a good supplement to safety reading material, and as providing real world examples that are otherwise difficult to visualize.

“…Educators have a duty of care to students to ensure that work done in training is safe with risks mitigated appropriately. Educators should also strive to lead by example given the importance of occupational health and safety in both the curriculum and in professional practice. − It is also possible to use this opportunity to expose students to safety in a practical manner as, during the project orientation, a meaningful discussion between instructors and students on the safety features and consideration in the resource can be had, and students are tasked to participate in the process by carrying out activity and materials risks assessments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Design Experiential Learning Resources for Independent Learning

Inguva

Shah

et al. 2021

Key components of any experiential learning module are the resources students use to learn. These typically include laboratory equipment, handouts, and instructional material in the form of videos or standard operating procedures (SOPs). Their design and implementation require careful thought to ensure that students learn in an effective and meaningful way. From our own experience in the undergraduate teaching laboratory and from a variety of literature sources, we have identified five design principles that educators should consider and integrate into their resource development workflows: safety, authenticity, flexibility, accessibility, and robustness (SAFAR). We present several examples of how each principle can be implemented using Kolb’s experiential learning cycle as a lens to understand the impact of each design principle on the learning process.