When it comes to eye safety, there are some situations in which regular safety glasses will work adequately for the needs of the STEM education classroom or laboratory. However, there are certain instances in which safety goggles must be used for safer protection. Taking the time to analyze hazards and assess the risks prior to any activity in the…

Markerspaces and areas to conduct collaborative STEM activities are becoming increasingly popular in schools, libraries, media centers, and community centers. These are numerous examples of rooms that were originally designed as traditional classrooms being converted into markerspaces or collaborative STEM work areas. This also involved the use of…

In fall 2020, the Physics Department was tasked with coming up for a plan for optics, our one credit lab course. Because of the continued COVID-19 pandemic, our institution planned to offer a fully online fall semester, with no students residing on campus. The college announced the plan 5 weeks prior to the start of the semester. This paper will…

Tremendous teacher shortages and shifts in the preparation of technology and engineering (T&E) teachers have been occurring for some time (Litowitz, 2014; Moye, 2009; Volk, 1997, 2019). The training and certification of these teachers is extremely varied since each state certifies T&E teachers independently and most states offer several…

A two-week summer camp was designed, implemented, and then updated for high school students focusing on organic chemistry, solar energy, and green chemistry principles. Students learn about laboratory safety, perform organic reactions, go on field trips, and take part in interactive lessons that focus on both fundamental chemistry topics as well…

Frogs are routinely used in physiology teaching laboratories to demonstrate important physiological processes. There have been recent directives that promote the use of the anesthetic MS-222 (tricaine methanesulfonate), rather than lowering body temperature with a cold water bath to prepare reptiles and amphibians for physiological experiments or…

Chemical safety, a practice of protecting humans and the environment in which they work and live from the deleterious effects of chemical substances, was investigated in this study in Nigerian secondary schools. Using a mixed-method survey, we investigated the awareness level and implementation of the best practices of chemical safety by 1246…

Recent global events and educational trends have led schools to heavily rely on digital media to educate their students. Science classes, in particular, stand to lose substantial learning opportunities without the ability to provide physical laboratory experiences. Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to resolve this issue, but little…

This paper will describe risk-based process safety content that meets an ABET, Inc. Program Criteria requirement to include the hazards associated with chemical processes that is used in Louisiana State University's chemical engineering curriculum. The process to select the curriculum content follows what was used to define the outline for the…

This study explores the effect of video-based instruction on the safety rules in the chemistry laboratory on student achievement. The sample for the study comprised 61 ninth grade students enrolled in two different classes at a public high school. The students in the class designated as the experimental group (N = 32) were given video-based…

Smartphones, coupled with small mobile sensors, make it possible to work with near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in science classrooms. NIR spectroscopy has become a standard analytical technology in various industries. These new devices enable students to create their own data in real time. This article presents an inquiry-based teaching unit, in…

The weeks leading up to summer break can be stressful for instructors and administrators, as they are ultimately responsible for inspecting and cleaning up their STEM education facilities to ensure a safer start the following academic year. In this article, the authors present a three-pronged approach to aid in safely closing down a makerspace or…

Imagine you are an instructor in a STEM education lab or makerspace. It is early in the day, and students are working on an engineering design challenge using hand and power tools. You are circulating around the classroom supervising and assisting students. Suddenly a student yells that a classmate is bleeding. You rush over to find the student's…

This month's Safety Spotlight focuses on holding students accountable for their safety actions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) labs and makerspaces. Most teachers should understand the importance of a proper safety program. In this article, the author describes his work permit system for safety. The work permit system…

Techniques are needed to train students in "writing to learn", whose main goal is to "learn to write". This work aims to exemplify how writing can be a teaching learning technique in an example in Chemistry to develop a correct understanding of the preparation of molar solutions in the laboratory. It is essential that this is…