3.6 Implementation Safety: The teacher’s instructional strategies included safe, environmentally appropriate, and ethical implementation of laboratory procedures and/or classroom activities.
This indicator measures the degree to which the teacher models and enforces safe, environmentally appropriate, and ethical practices during field and laboratory investigations and other classroom activities. Evidence for an acceptable rating on this indicator includes the teacher providing effective safety instruction (i.e., an explanation of when and why students should wear safety goggles or how students should dispose of chemical wastes), carefully supervising lab activities, properly maintaining laboratory and classroom equipment, and promoting virtues of honesty, benevolence, and respect for all organisms, including their fellow students. If the teachers are asked about the classroom setup during a post-observation interview, they may describe how they arranged the lab materials in a certain way in order to better monitor lab safety (i.e., ensured that chemicals requiring handling with gloves or in a fume hood were used only with gloves or in the fume hood).
An unacceptable rating on this indicator should be given if the teacher does not provide the students with the necessary safety equipment; fails to ensure that students are aware of safe, environmentally appropriate, and ethical practices; leaves the students unsupervised at any point during a lab or classroom activity; or allows the students to conduct unsafe, environmentally inappropriate (i.e., improper handling or disposal of materials), or unethical practices (i.e., being disrespectful to the teacher, a student, or another living organism or engaging in activities that endanger others).
Even though most classroom activities require students to behave in an ethical manner with their peers and teachers, an NA may be chosen if a laboratory or classroom activity where this indicator would be relevant is not part of the lesson being observed.
General Rubric
- This item should be rated a 1 if there was evidence of any significant safety violation or inappropriate behavior that endangered or resulted in unethical treatment of the students or teacher in the classroom, and the teacher did not handle this situation appropriately. The teacher did not monitor or correct safety violations or unethical behavior.
- This item should be rated a 2 if there were several minor instances of a safety violation or ethically inappropriate behavior that were not quickly and successfully corrected by the teacher.
- This item should be rated a 3 if there were some minor instances of a safety violation or ethically inappropriate behavior, most of which were quickly and successfully corrected by the teacher. A few instances of safety violations or ethically inappropriate behavior may have been ignored or gone unseen by the teacher.
- This item should be rated a 4 if there were very few instances of ethical/safety neglect, because the teacher had clearly established classroom safety/ethical practices and consistently monitored the classroom, enforcing these policies.
- This item should be rated a 5 if there were no instances of safety violations or ethically inappropriate behaviors because the teacher had clearly established practices and consistently monitored the classroom, explicitly reminding students of why these policies are necessary and modeling safe/ethical practices (i.e., wearing safety goggles at all times in the lab setting).
Specific Examples of Supporting Evidence
- During this chemistry lab, the teacher left the classroom while students were using Bunsen burners to conduct “flame tests” in order to identify the color of various metal salt solutions placed in the flame. Students were left unsupervised without instruction in proper safety precautions, and they were not wearing goggles, gloves, or lab aprons. Upon returning to the room, the teacher did not monitor the lab area and then ignored the students as they poured the chemical liquid waste down the drain of the classroom sink and disposed of chemically contaminated paper towels in the classroom trash can, not in the solid and liquid chemical waste containers under the fume hood.
- During this chemistry lab where students placed acidic solutions of metal salts into a Bunsen burner flame to observe color changes (i.e., the “flame test”), the teacher moved among the lab groups to demonstrate how to handle and then dispose of all the materials safely. Several students removed their goggles to “get a better look” at the colors in the flame, and the teacher, not wearing goggles himself, did not insist that they put them back on. In addition, once they were finished or when the bell rang, many groups ignored previous instructions and poured their unused acidic metal salt solutions down the common classroom drain, not the liquid chemical waste disposal in the fume hood.
- During this chemistry lab where students placed acidic solutions of metal salts into a Bunsen burner flame to observe color changes (i.e., the “flame test”), the teacher moved among the lab groups to demonstrate how to handle and then dispose of all the materials safely. Although the teacher continually monitored student group work, reminding them to keep their goggles on, keep long hair pulled back and away from the flame, and handle chemicals carefully with gloves, a few students continually removed their goggles and refused to put them back on because “They get all fogged up and I can’t see!” The teacher was not wearing goggles himself, and he ignored this group after correcting them once. As the bell rang, the teacher called out to all groups to send a member back to the fume hood with their unused solutions for proper disposal in the chemical waste container.
- During this chemistry lab where students placed acidic solutions of metal salts into a Bunsen burner flame to observe color changes (i.e., the “flame test”), the teacher demonstrated the safe procedures at the front of the classroom before allowing students to begin work. While students were working, the teacher moved among the lab groups to further demonstrate how to handle and dispose of all chemicals, continually monitored for safety violations, reminding students to keep their goggles on, keep long hair pulled back and away from the flame, and handle chemicals carefully with gloves. When a few students continually removed their goggles and refused to put them back on because “They get all fogged up and I can’t see!” the teacher removed the students from the lab activity until they were wiling to follow the rules. Before the bell rang, the teacher called out to all groups to send a member back to the fume hood with their unused solutions for proper disposal in the chemical waste container.
- During this chemistry lab where students placed acidic solutions of metal salts into a Bunsen burner flame to observe color changes (i.e., the “flame test”), the teacher demonstrated and explained the purpose for the necessary safe procedures at the front of the classroom before allowing students to begin work. While students were working, the teacher, wearing goggles and gloves, moved among the lab groups to further demonstrate how to handle and dispose of all chemicals, continually monitored for safety violations, reminding students to keep their goggles on, keep long hair pulled back and away from the flame, and handle chemicals carefully with gloves. Students followed the safety rules throughout the lab activity. In addition, the teacher stopped the class activity five minutes before the end of class and monitored each group’s proper disposal of unused chemical solutions and solid waste.