Testing for Safety

On Friday, I finally gave my students their first test, "Lab Safety." We had spent a great deal of time on safety. I drilled the students on when to use goggles, a fire extinguisher, and a fire blanket. Before the test I quizzed the students, "If the teacher somehow is on fire, you would use the....." and I paused to let the students fill in the answer. Every single class was going to put me out with the fire extinguisher. Well, the correct answer would be to use a fire blanket in this instant AFTER stop, drop and roll, but my students knew that we didn't have a fire blanket. SO, we had to have a side lesson on if we had every safety equipment apparatus in our room that we could ever use, we would choose the fire blanket to put out a human and not go with the chemicals. I just hope I never catch myself on fire, because I'm simply too old to stop, drop, and roll and I certainly don't want to be chased by 22 students armed with a fire extinguisher.

While grading the tests, I allowed a bonus question on the back and I was eager to see the answer. "If the teacher calls for a "Safety Freeze", what should you do?" The answer is to use common sense and then freeze. The common sense would be used to get out of the way of danger and then freeze. I wouldn't want a student to freeze when a boiling substance was headed right toward him, or freeze near something on fire. We don't really have drastic things going on in our science lab, but I definitely want my kiddos prepared for the unexpected. I'm sure my elementary teacher wasn't expecting me to experiment with a magnifying glass and sunlight coming through the window, but sure enough, I ignited paper in my desk. When working with students, I know that anything is possible. I was ecstatic to find everyone got that one right. I also discovered lots of flowers, cartoon animals, and "My Science Teacher Rocks!" notes all over their papers. With each new paper I graded, I discovered a personalized note. I made the mistake on writing a personalized note on the first test I graded, so I felt obliged to continue writing on each paper. Needless to say, the test took me an exorbidant amount of time to grade, but each of my students have a personalized note back from me. I love teaching my 6th grade scientists.