Developing and maintaining a safe learning environment in the school laboratory is critically important and this responsibility falls primarily to the teachers. Too often, teachers lack knowledge or understanding of current safety guidelines and protocols due to a variety of reasons, including that safety may not have been an integral part of their university science curricula, methods courses, or research science.

Surveys by the National Science Teaching Association and others indicate that although a large majority of university and college science faculty indicate safety is a priority, most also self-report that they rarely perform risk or hazard assessments prior to conducting experiments. It is no surprise that most high school science teachers enter the profession lacking sufficient training in building and sustaining a proactive lab safety program. Moreover, these teachers commonly perceive the risk levels in their labs to be low despite reporting that lab accidents and injuries are common.

This edWebinar will cover how to build a strong safety culture in your classroom, laboratory, school, or district so that you can uphold your duty of care to students and create a safe and effective learning environment. Topics include science safety and the law, the most commonly reported lab accident in school labs, chemical safety, risk assessment, chemical storage, disposal, toxicology, and proper use of PPE and safety equipment.

This edWebinar will be of interest to middle and high school teachers and school and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

About the Presenter

Mike Marvel, Ph.D. leads the science team at Flinn Scientific, including the development of laboratory manuals, online courseware and professional development programs, and the presentation of workshops at national and regional science education conferences. Prior to joining Flinn, Dr. Marvel spent three years as an assistant professor of chemistry at Aurora University, where he taught inorganic and general chemistry and led an undergraduate research program funded by American Chemical Society Undergraduate Young Investigator and National Science Foundation Transforming Education in Undergraduate Education awards. In addition, Dr. Marvel was a co-leader of a team that developed an M.A.T. Teacher Leadership graduate program. Dr. Marvel has authored or co-authored 13 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from unique pedagogies in the science lab to the commercial applications of solid-state metal oxides. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Connecticut College and a Ph.D. in inorganic and solid-state chemistry from Northwestern University.

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Time: 4:00 pm — 5:00 pm EDT

Free!

Registration