Australia's Science Forum

Logging me out too. I actually rarely use the Home button, just go to new topics or the board index. sure enough, I hit Home and I'm logged out. Interesting. I guess I can live without the Home button but it does seem to be a problem.

Science Assist! I'd completely forgotten about it. A great resource and they are desperate to get people signed up for their paid subscription so it can continue. Lots of reliable information and your questions will get answered by their experts.

Always just given them last year's efforts. They usually get so squashed and stretched out of shape before they even get back to the prep room, they need to be rewound. Never had anyone complain.

Trying to shift to a semi-electronic system of storing SDSs. Electronic copy for the master set, but each faculty has printed copies. Sounds like a great idea? But the work of checking that I have them all electronically! What a great idea

That would be printing out safety data sheets? All that paper that you know no one will ever read...

Maybe try to group all those small things under some sort of heading(s), otherwise they will be forgotten and we all know how much time we spend on all those little things.

How long have you got to prepare this grand document? I have had to do this in a past life, and found it useful to keep a list of things over a week. Do you keep a diary with what you need to do each day? That helps as I can go back over what I've done through the year. Some of those annual tasks, l...

I think Sydney Water customers have to have the chemical pit, so maybe your council has other ideas?

I'm not 100% sure Bigmack but I think the idea is that it does drain into the sewer, it is just held there (through some sort of black magic) until it is diluted down. So it shouldn't just be a holding tank with no exit. I thought that all sinks from Science should be draining into it?? Sorry, reall...

To go back to the original question - incubator -v- drying oven, they are two different beasts. Incubators will heat but they aren't designed to dry the contents so good for agar plates. Drying ovens have a fan and are designed to dry the contents. These are a lot more expensive - $2000 does seem li...

I'm pretty sure the basic course is based on the CSIS training. I'd only hope that they have updated it. I am not sure what they go into in the advanced course. If you are really new to chemical handling, and your school is prepared to pay for it, I would do them. You will learn something from them....

We just collect and hold for disposal here, Ian. Yep, don't follow what we have as an excuse for CSIS - the same package that allows the kiddies to play with lead nitrate (0.1M). Some things I evaporate off, just by leaving in the fume cupboard. My predecessor would heat them up to evaporate. I don'...

No harm in being over cautious, but what does your HT have to say on chemicals that CSIS says is okay for students to use, that Riskassess says something very different? On a brighter note, the labels are so good. There is now a new feature where you can print multiple labels for different chemicals...

Yes, HCl did change a few years ago. Check also NaOH as these went up (from memory). Best thing you can do, is keep an eye on the classifications as you are pulling out the prac ie compare your current label to what is on the teacher's risk assessment that has been generated on Riskassess. Something...

No, definitely don't need to add these items. The chemical register is only for hazardous chemicals. Although I do use it as my stocktake in Science so I include my non-hazardous chemicals also. Exceptions are consumer products: something that you purchase from the supermarket, in small quantities, ...

The best reference is always the suppliers safety data sheet, the problem is, we don't know how to put that into the coloured dot system/user system and it is where we need to rely on other sources for this assistance. I think I've only ever come across one discrepancy between a supplier's SDS and R...

Hi Bigmack Yes, you're right with the Chemwatch thing being over the top - designed for industry, not schools. Riskassess is definitely designed for schools. Phillip Crisp who owns Riskassess, worked on the original CSIS. He is familiar with the coloured dot system and Riskassess is up to date in te...

We have the temperature probes which I've found really easy to use, so they must be really simple! I've had trouble encouraging the teachers to use these as they need to get the students to upload the Vernier software, so they tend to go with the easy option and grab the data loggers. We also have s...

Are they still working? Check with the teachers. It's the iodide that makes them yellow. Probably gets a bit more noticeable over time.

Agree Bigmack. I was trying to post a reply earlier but it just wasn't happening. The info from Bigmack is from Safework Australia and no, not a big impact. It will certainly not require the mass re-labelling we did with the GHS introduction. The only thing that, I think, will impact on us is the ey...