Laboratory chemical synthesis research typically lacks the preplanned hazard responses found in production-scale industrial laboratories. Chemical safety management is a known challenge in education-based facilities, which is concerning for academic and national laboratory environments working with inexperienced student researchers. At the…

Chemical safety is a discipline that cuts across all other chemical disciplines and also impacts other laboratory sciences. It is an essential part of chemistry and continues to evolve with the science it supports. This paper provides a short background about ACS's growing involvement with chemical safety education that stems from support from ACS…

Green chemistry is finding its place as one of the most essential study topics in the curriculum of future chemists and chemical engineers. Experiments that meet green chemistry principles contribute to make the laboratory a safer working place, generate less waste, and allow students to increase their knowledge in new environmentally friendly…

Numerous fires during demonstrations in secondary schools, museums, and science centers have occurred while using flammable liquids. This calls to light the need to educate undergraduate students and educators in the safe handling and use of these flammable chemicals. Understanding the benefits and risks of flammable liquids should be an essential…

The reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate to produce carbon dioxide gas is a popular and engaging experiment to illustrate chemical reactions that result in the production of gases. It also provides a useful model for teaching concepts related to the effects of concentration on reaction rates. Although a prepared hydrochloric…

Immersive learning technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and educational digital games offer many benefits to teaching and learning. With their potential to immerse learners in realistic environments and facilitate higher-order cognitive learning, these technologies could be used to complement current classroom…

High-voltage plasma arcs from solid-state Tesla coils were used to produce characteristic atomic emissions of various metals. The colored arcs produced were highly visible and vibrant, making for a spectacularly engaging demonstration for groups of varying sizes. The demonstration used an inexpensive solid-state Tesla coil to generate low-current,…

Among the tasks that the ACS Committee on Professional Training undertakes is the periodic revision of the "ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor's Degree Programs" (also known as "the guidelines"). Because the guidelines recommend and/or mandate practices for the safe education of undergraduate students,…

Academic institutions are faced with the complex problem of accurately determining the hazards associated with a proposed or ongoing project. For many reasons, compressed gas safety can be a significant challenge at universities, especially those that involve research using many uncommon materials. This article is a call to action for implementing…

Integrating chemical management into a comprehensive emergency operations plan (EOP), including through the creation of a Toxic Materials Annex and a Hazardous Materials Annex, helps improve a school district's or individual school's preparedness for a chemical-related incident. To ensure the annexes remain relevant and useful, districts and…

The Joint Safety Team (JST) was conceived in 2012 by the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and the Dow Chemical Company as a model student-led safety organization. The JST initiative was aimed at improving academic safety through four core areas: compliance, awareness, resources,…

Working with undergraduates in an organic synthesis research laboratory presents a unique set of challenges. An undergraduate research program must be designed to focus on teaching students to "think like a chemist" while advancing the principal investigator's scientific agenda. However, as novices in the laboratory, undergraduate…

The liquid nitrogen cloud demonstration is an effective, dramatic, large-scale demonstration to illustrate gas laws and cloud/fog (aerosol) formations for classes and large-scale outreach events. When performed at full scale, it is common to produce a cloud 20-30 feet in height. Its effect can be further enhanced by adding brightly colored…

In this article, a proven safety concept with documented success is presented. The concept aligns with best safety practices and the international engineering educational framework termed "The CDIO Initiative," and it has resulted in a strong safety culture among students and staff. This concept has been developed for undergraduate…

In 2015, "NFPA 45, Standard on Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals," from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was updated to include language requiring educators to perform a documented risk assessment when conducting demonstrations in K-12 classrooms. Additionally, in the past five years numerous organizations…