7 Stupid-Simple Ideas to Teach Science Lab Safety

Inside: Learn the importance of teaching safety rules as well as easy activities that you can do with your students to teach and reinforce lab safety in the science classroom explicitly!

Science lab safety is one of the most important topics you’ll teach all year!

Explicitly teaching science lab safety is too important to skip. Here are some super easy ways to teach and reinforce safety rules.

The Importance of Teaching Science Lab Rules

During my career, I’ve seen many accidents in science labs that could have been prevented with explicit teaching.

• Seemingly harmless horseplay resulting in broken glassware
• Middle school students eating glue on a dare
• Poking a metal rod into an outlet – zap!
• Mercury spilled from a thermometer that never should have even existed in our building. Leave it to an eighth-grader to find the ONLY ONE. Cue the hazmat team.

Needless to say, I am a huge fan of explicitly teaching lab safety!  

Teaching science lab safety is so much more than sending home the science safety contract for parents to sign.

Yes, most lab safety rules are common sense, and while breaking down the rules at the beginning of the year may seem like a waste of time, I promise that it will pay dividends in the long run.

Science Lab Safety Contracts

Does your district use a lab safety contract?

If not, the Flinn Student Safety Contract is a great place to start! It’s a free download and includes a safety quiz for a follow-up assessment.

Just sending home the safety contract to be signed and dated by students and their families is not enough!

While most students will bring it back signed the following day, few families take the time to read through the lab safety rules and contract in its entirety!

It’s so important that students understand and follow the rules in the contract.

That’s where explicit instruction comes in!

Lab Safety Rules Presentation and Notes

Students need to be explicitly taught the safety rules.

For my classes, I use a presentation and fill-in note set that highlights the most important science safety rules on the Flinn safety contract.

The presentation is a great way to discuss how these rules apply in your classroom or lab. Students can also take notes on these important ideas.

Since I collect the safety contract that students and parents sign, this note page stays in their folder as a reminder of all of the safety procedures throughout the year.

As we go through the presentation, I use the “turn and talk” strategy throughout the lesson to break it up and keep students engaged and thinking.

Students answer questions such as:

• Which rule do you think is the most important? Explain why.
• Explain to your neighbor what you would do if….
• Which rule do you think would be the hardest to follow? Explain why.

Science Lab Safety Quiz

The Flinn Science Safety quiz ensures that students understand and can apply the rules from the safety contract.

I require students to take the test until they score 100% before they are allowed to participate in lab activities.

Student-Made Safety Slogans

One way to reinforce the science lab safety presentation is to have students make safety posters.

They have two main goals:

1. Illustrate the rule
2. Explain why that rule is important.

They always enjoy this creative activity. Plus, it is always a good way to add some color to the walls in your classroom with student projects at the beginning of the school year.

Other Lab Safety Activities

• Create a safety cartoon
• Record a safety video on FlipGrid
• Write a skit about science lab safety and perform it for the class

Science Lab Safety Performance Assessment

Staging a “disaster” lab is a great way to have students identify lab rules that are being broken.

This can be done through stations, or by making one large area where several rules are broken.

Students are given a clipboard and paper and instructed to explain which rules are broken in the lab.

Hint: Stuffed animals or Barbie dolls are fun and easy ways to represent people. I have also created video snippets for students to watch that provide more detail about the scenario.

Safety Station Examples:

• Broken glass
• Eyewear not being properly worn
• Cutting toward you with a razor
• Horseplay

This set of 25 posters is aligned with the Flinn Safety rules and the presentation and notes for a consistent message.

BioNetwork Lab Safety Simulation

This module-based, interactive simulation is another way to reinforce safety in the science lab. This module has activities and quizzes embedded. Students are encouraged to participate in online activities such as dressing the model appropriately for lab and cleaning up the lab room to make it safe.

Zombie College Video

Students will completely eat up the Zombie College Video: 5 Rules of Lab Safety. The music video is pretty catchy too 🙂

Zombie College is ten minutes of overly dramatic zombie action that your students are GUARANTEED to love! This just might bump you to the top of the coolest teacher list.

While we watch the video, I have my students take out a sheet of paper and list the 5 Rules of Lab Safety from the video. This is great for a discussion afterward.

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