New+Sections+notes+page

**Handling Chemical Waste**
Rationale: Chemical waste needs its own category. (This new Section would go after “Storage of Chemicals and Equipment” under FACILITIES) New Material Suggestion: Every effort should be made to use the safest possible materials in the chemistry laboratory, thus minimizing hazardous chemical waste. Attention should be given to new, safer procedures and recycling. Where applicable, teachers should incorporate the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry into their laboratory experiments (See Resources). But when chemicals must be disposed of, they should be collected by chemical class and disposed of according to local codes and school district policies. Rationale: Federal OSHA standards don’t cover workers in public institutions, but prudent practices would suggest that the same minimum standards of safety that cover workers in private industry or institutions should be applied in public school laboratories. (Note that 25 states have state OSHA standards and in some cases public employees are covered.) Thus, some recommendations for training are presented below. (This new Section would go after “Professional Growth” in PROFESSIONAL CONSIDERATIONS) New Material Suggestion: Some possible topics: Concept of Safety Culture; OSHA regulations, including Hazard Communications, Lab Standard; ANSI and NFPA standards; State regulations; proper use of all safety equipment; identifying safety problems (chemical, electrical, ventilation, etc.); how to read an MSDS, write and maintain a CHP that includes school and district policies, write an SOP, set up and maintain inventory; chemical storage; disposal; annual training of employees; maintaining training records. Once training of new employees is completed in topics such as above (or current employees, if no training has been done previously), annual updates can concentrate on one or more of the topics in detail. Monthly science department meetings should each have a 5 – 10 min “safety capsule” presentation that would include some chemical safety, as well as other science safety topics. This would be the last section, and not only for safety but other resources as well. I have included safety-related resources I’d like to see here. Maybe our booklet has to be a little bigger than it was before!) 29 CFR 1910.1450: Occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in laboratories (The “Laboratory Standard”) [|http://www.osha.gov] ANSI Standards, American National Standards Institute, [|http://www.ansi.org]. Biehle, James T., LaMoine L. Motz, and Sandra S. West, //NSTA Guide to School Science Facilities//, NSTA Press, 1999. //Chemical Safety for Teachers and Their Supervisors, Grades 1 – 12//, American Chemical Society, 2001. (One copy FREE—call 800-227-5558.) Fischer, Louis, David Schimmel, and Leslie R. Stellman. //Teachers and the Law//, 6th ed. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 2003. Green Chemistry Institute, American Chemical Society, [|http://greenchemistryinstitute.org] “Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations,” American Chemical Society. ([|http://chemistry.org], search on “Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations.”) “Laboratory Science,” NSTA Position Statement, http://www.nsta.org/positionstatement&psid=16. NFPA Standards and Codes, National Fire Protection Association, [|http://www.nfpa.org]. //National Science Education Standards//, National Academies Press, Washington, D. C., 1996. National Research Council, “Laboratory Chemical Safety Summaries (LCSSs) (safety information for 88 chemicals) http://www.hhmi.org/about/labsafe/lcss.html National Research Council, //Prudent Practices in the Laboratory//. National Academy Press, Washington, DC., 1995. //Safety in Academic Laboratories.// American Chemical Society, vols 1 (student) and 2 (faculty), 2003. (One copy of both vols FREE—call 800-227-5558.) //Starting With Safety// (video), American Chemical Society, 1991. Texley, Juliana, Terry Kwan, and John Summers, //Investigating Safely: A Guide for High School Teachers//, NSTA Press, 2004. Young, Jay A., “Chemistry Laboratory Information Profiles (CLIPs).” Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society, http://membership.acs.org/c/ccs/pubs/CLIPS/default.htm (CLIPs for 106 chemicals can be purchased on CD from http://store.jce.divched.org/)
 * Laboratory Safety Training for Teachers**

**Suggestions**
Inquiry labs should become part of every teacher’s curriculum.

**Preparation of Teachers**
Most new teachers in a large urban district, begin teaching as soon as they receive their bachelor’s degree as teacher interns. Many who have been lectured to for four years find that this doesn’t work in the high school classroom, so they quickly leave the teaching profession. Much can be done at the undergraduate level to prepare all students for the world of work as well as for teaching. (Ask students to design experiments, mix their own solutions, etc. in laboratory activities related the lecture topics; participate in their learning even in large lecture classes, etc.) Also, much can be done in terms of appropriate professional development at the local school and district levels to support new teachers.

**National Level: Design of Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers**
Much current professional development is generic and single event (one shot) type training (particularly at the school and district level). Professional development should be sustained and on-going emphasizing the methods and logistics specific to teaching high school chemistry. This should include safety, storage of chemicals, preparation of laboratory materials, management of students in the lab, how to teach abstract concepts to concrete students, etc. New teachers need continual support.

**District Level**
Provide opportunities for new teachers to visit exemplary programs in other schools.

**Local Level: Science Department Responsibilities**
Give new teachers only one or two preparations. Provide the opportunity and encourage them to observe a veteran teacher during their conference period. Meet with them on a continual basis to provide support, ideas, and answer questions. Provide a classroom located near a veteran chemistry teacher (do not ask them to travel from classroom to classroom each period). Give them adequate materials, supplies, and storage space. Meet with them prior to the beginning of the school year to assist in long and short range planning.

**Enrichment**
A section should be added to address enrichment in chemical education. High school chemistry students do not ordinarily get exposed to the broader picture of the chemical industry, research, and academic fields. This section could address 1) Community issues involving chemistry 2) Speakers from industry, research and academia. 3) field trips to industrial, research, and academic sites. 4) Interaction with university undergraduate chemistry students. It is VERY important that today’s student know how to use probes, graphing calculators, spreadsheets, etc in a chemistry context.
 * Technology**

**Collaboration**
Too many students enter Chem I without the skills needed to manipulate equations. More efforts need to be made for incorporating “real world” math in algebra classes. They spend too much time solving for x or y and not evaluating equations such as d=m/v. Also, most students don’t know how to use metric measurements or know their prefixes and meanings. Dimensional analysis is foreign to them and could be introduced in algebra as well. It is scary to me that when students start Chem I they’re memorized their way through school and have no idea how to apply and manipulate nor critically think and reason,

**Computers**
Need to emphasize good use of computers-data acquisition, drilling, SOME simulation, web resources, etc. Also some bad use types to avoid-simulations of simple labs etc.