Explosion in the Lab

After a week of teaching lab safety and having students and parents sign a safety contract, it was time for our very first lab. All week we had talked about using a fire extinguisher for flames. For whatever reason, my students from the previous year always chose a fire blanket over any other safety equipment on the six-weeks exams. I even said, "Boys and Girls, Do we even have a fire blanket?" My favorite answer from a child was, "What is a fire blanket anyway?" I asked, "Thank Goodness! Someone who didn't answer fire blanket. Honey, what did you choose for an answer." The kid said, "Oh, I put down the fire blanket." ARGH! So, this year I was especially determined my students would be prepared and not answer fire blanket unless they absolutely had to do so.

After demonstrating the procedures at each station, I allowed the students to choose their own lab partners and get started. Every student put on their safety goggles and the girls and boys with long hair pulled their hair into ponytails. It took some convincing to get the boys to get their hair up, but it was either "my way or the highway" on this issue.

I was at station three since it had boiling water. Turning 6th graders loose in a lab with boiling water would have been a HUGE mistake. The lab was working perfectly with whisper voices, science vocabulary words being used, and procedures being followed. I had just said to myself, maybe this was a good lesson to have right after Curriculum Night afterall. I actually had the rare treat of being seated giving my swollen feet a chance to rest. After the students at my station had measured and recorded room temperature water, and ice water, I prepared the boiling water. I explained the safety procedures of where to stand and that I would be performing the measurement of the water. This was their turn to merely observe. I no sooner placed the boiling water in a coffee mug on the desk and somehow a student knocked over the cup. I never saw the kid touch the cup, but in a blink of an eye there was boiling water on the desk. Call it 24 years of teaching experience or call it the mom experience, but I knew to have paper towels ready to cover a spill. All of a sudden a student started hollaring, "She used the fire blanket! She used the fire blanket!" Oh brother! "Boys and Girls," I said loudly and drawn out, "we have a fire extinguisher, goggles, and the "heat resistant gloves" or oven mitts as the girls called it in our lab. We don't have a fire blanket. Do you hear me? No, fire blanket!" "Wow!" a student exclaimed while pointing at me, "Looks like we had an explosion in the lab afterall." I had to laugh. Was there safety equipment for an exploding teacher?