Lab Out Loud » safety

Episode 37 – Science Because We Can

Brian — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:15:32 +0000

Dr. Theo Gray

Our guest this week has some serious accolades that would make any geek proud: he has won an Ig Nobel prize (2002), been referenced in a Foxtrot comic, and owns the domain name periodictable.com. Dr. Theo Gray talks to us this week about his tables, science experiments and safety, Wolfram Alpha, and even answers some student questions.

Links:

Books:

Making Salt the Hard Way

Bacon: The Other White Heat

Direct download: LOL37.mp3

Singing about laboratory safety

Dale — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:54:53 +0000

We’ve talked about laboratory safety in the past here at Lab Out loud, but we’ve never put our thoughts to song.

Fortunately, the folks at The Sounds of Science hit the right notes for us.

Episode 22 – When Good Chemicals Go Bad

Brian — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:16:26 +0000

In this episode, Maryann Suero and Ken Roy warn us of safety dangers lurking in schools – both in the science lab and beyond. Dr. Suero is the Children’s Health Program Manager for the EPA Region 5 (Midwest Region), and Ken Roy is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury Public Schools in CT, the Safety Compliance Consultant for NSTA, and a safety columnist for the Science Teacher and for Science Scope.

SC3: Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign
The Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) aims to ensure that all schools are free from hazards associated with mismanaged chemicals. SC3 gives K-12 schools information and tools to responsibly manage chemicals.

No More Methyl Something

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: laboutoud science)

OSHA Lab Standard and HazCom Standards websites:

Safety Links

For safety Issues in Schools – email NSTA’s Science Safety Compliance Consultant/Safety Columnist/Author: Dr. Ken Roy at Royk@glastonburyus.org

Direct download: LOL22.mp3

Subscribe to Flinn Safety Training Notes

Brian — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:32:10 +0000

Flinn Safety Training Notes

Each month, Flinn Scientific provides “Science Department Safety Training Notes”. This month’s notes are “Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations.”

From Flinn:

Chemical demonstrations can produce attention-grabbing results that dramatically illustrate chemistry in action–from making fountains of foam to creating kaleidoscopic colors, and generating flashes of fire. This month’s safety training reminds you that safety must always come first by providing important guidelines to consider before doing any chemical demonstration.

To receive Flinn’s Safety Training Notes, simply subscribe at www.flinnsci.com/contact_safety.asp.

Flinn also maintains an extensive MSDS database, with 2-page, printable Material Data Safety Sheets.

Episode 11 – Death of the Chemistry Set

Brian — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:47:33 +0000

This week we talk with Steve Silberman, contributing editor for Wired Magazine. Steve talks to us about the demise of the chemistry set (as related to his article Don’t Try this at Home) and what that might mean for the future of scientific curiosity in our children.

Preview from the Show:
In the last few years, a kind of perfect storm of concerns and legislation has arisen that has had the unintended effect of discouraging amateur chemistry.

Kids really want to fall in love with science. And I know how much the teachers really want to communicate their own enthusiasm about science to their kids. But with fears of liability, and these restrictive laws, and just a kind of general paranoia, instead what’s being transmitted to kids is some kind of combination of boredom and fear.

I would say that one of the reasons that I became a science writer was that I had a well stocked chemistry set when I was in elementary school, that contained many things that I am sure are now illegal.

If we’re cutting off the possibility of future generations of being interested in science – at the same time that the performance of American kids in science starts to go down around 12th grade, the number of science and technology related jobs in the world are going continually up – so we’re creating a gap here where we need people in science and technology, but we’re no longer giving them the access to the things that could help them become interested in the subject.

Links:

Direct download: nstalol11.mp3