New Prep Rooms

[kimmy]

Just wondering what Labbies have put in there Compactors in there new Prep rooms.

Have you used it for general equipment, droppers, or filing or general items like Grocery things - about to get mine and not sure what im putting into it?????
Any suggestions although I know what I am like I will change things a few times till I get everthing the way I want it.

Do you keep any chemical in your new prep room????

Oh so so much room where do we start.

Kimmy

[noona]

Hi Kimmy
Nop chemicals in the compactus
IO keep Pens paper Mic stuff and Balances and most of the things I need in mine.
It is great the white totes fit very well .
I keep sand & dirt and amp & volt Meters Hot Plates etc etc

[fibreweb]

My compactus has 2 fixed ends that are 400mm deep and a movable middle bit the is 300mm deep on each side.
I had the end that was supposed to move so it could be locked bracketed to the wall as it had a tendancy to try and close when I moved the middle portion.
I tried to put in a table of how I've filled the compactus but it wouldn't work so I have added the fdocument that I made to label the fronts, each page correspond to one of the bays.

Warning: things on the movable shelves have a tendancy to move . I initially had the prepared slides there and one time I moved the middle section down came several boxes of slides, hence their move to a fixed end

I have purchased many,many storage boxes from The Reject Shop and these fit beautifully on the shelves and contain things that used to be in then old banks of drawers like the crucible tongs.

Wendy

[kimmy]

Thanks for the layout of this.

Was not going to put chemicals in the compactor but I see that there is a sign that states no chemicals to be stored in the prep room and was wondering if anyone was storing any sort of chemical such as dropper bottles and weak (.1 - 1M)chemicals in there prep rooms????

Fun fun fun now to re load the prep room and labs.
I am lucky we have new equipment for our labs
It is all worth it in the long run - I must admit I am looking forward to this part of it all.

Kimmy

[fibreweb]

I have the stock bottles of 1M of all the common acids and bases as well as 1M and less solutions of a lot of the various metal salts eg copper nitrate, iron sulfate etc. stored in my prep room. I also have bottles of the most common used dry chemicals such as copper carbonate, copper sulfate, calcium carbonate in the prep room.

I have that no chemicals sign on my door as the foreman had to put it up. I have not heard of any dirrective from a higher authority that says I can't have any chemicals in the prep room. From what I can read it is allowable by CSIS.

After a whole term I have only just decided on final homes for most of the things in the prep room. The food stuff has been in 3 different locations as has both solid and made up chemicals. I'm sure I shall make even more changes next term.

My advice is to live and work in the room for several weeks, working out the best location for things.

[Labbie]

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I shall also have soultions in the prep room. Until the re-write the CSIS. So interesting to read and understand the problems I face when they finish our re-fub next year. Oh by the way they have not started yet. I was thinking of where things would go. Thanks

[matchstick]

Well 4 out of the 5 labs and my preproom were refurd'ed and were signed off last friday.The preroom is so bright and much large than before however....I tested th eye wash that come with the dump shower( in the preproon) well......I thought at the time ' wow i need to see that again' so i pushed the handle again,see i had never seen one of these work before so i thought it was 'prettty'....HA! I looked down only too see the floor flooded.My preproom is one of those from the original plan so I didnt get a drain hole or seal for the pipe...so there was water over the floor and into the class room....I couldnt stop laughing and shaking my head.
Still these labs are way better than what we had.
Matchstick

[fibreweb]

Hi Matchstick,

I did exactly the same thing when I first got into my prep room.
Now I have a bucket permantly under the outflow pipe for when others decide to "see how this works".
I havent tried the shower at all as I don't want to clear up the water.
I do have a drain under the shower, but with the metal surround it is actually higher then the lino!!! so little use anyway.

Have a goood holiday

Wendy

[lizzieb]

Ditto the eyewash basin outletting nearly a foot above floor level - HT says he'll manufacture some hose to run from there to the floor waste, which in our case should work (although we haven't tried it yet....).

The surface used for benches is interesting, too. First day in, I pulled an EMPTY tote tray across the centre bench, which left a large jagged scratch. Imagine what it's going to look like after a week of normal use.

HT suggests solutions in totes in the fixed end of the compactus? (I don't have a sign anywhere that says NO Chemicals)

Dropper bottles is the only other piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

Equipments all ready to go into the first 2 labs when we get them back at the start of the year.

Doors to the labs only lock from the outside, and can't be latched open...
Lots and lots of keys....

[fibreweb]

3 labs,............... 150 odd keys

How many will I get up to with another 4 labs to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wendy

[kimmy]

Oh Liz - Lots and lots of Keys Poor you.

We have got one master key - It was up to your head teacher to ask for what ever they wanted. What are all your doors different keys.
All our external and internal doors are just on one master key that fits all science block doors.

KIMMY

[cactus155]

Well my prep. room and labs are all cleaned out, nothing has happened with them yet and the kids will be back in about 2 weeks. They reckon the science area could be out of action for at least 6 months of this year or maybe longer = no practical science which means I am in an Admin. type role for a while.

[Rowyrow]

Welcome back everyone! well the Kids come back on Wednesday next week and This is what greeted me when I walked into my prep room this morning! You can only Laugh though just means no pracs till it's sorted!

[trish armstrong]

O M G what happened?
Was that how it was left last year or how you recieved it after the refurb?
Trish

[Rowyrow]

well I can assure you when I locked the door at the end of last year it did not look like that! I have cleaned out some of the stuff and im currently waiting for my compactus to be installed. I Think it just got used for storage over the hols whil the new lab was being fitted out and the builders decied not to clean up after themselves. Oh well it's all coming together now !

[lizzieb]

Hi Kimmy,

All lab doors here are keyed alike, which is a much better system than at THS, but like Wendy, each of the cupboards in the new labs has a separate key. The builders are saying we should get a master key, so fingers crossed.....

My P/R was finished off over the hols, and get the first 2 labs back tomorrow. The other 2 will be handed back at the end of Feb I think.

So far so good here - best wishes to all the rest of you who are still in the process.
Enjoy the prac-free time!

Liz

[kimmy]

We have had our labs handed over during the holidays - GREAT GREAT GREAT .
Anyone getting the refub done - dont worry about all the trouble during the time that the builders are there it is so so worth it. We were lucky we had a great bunch of builders who worked with us so well. Hope that all you labbies that are getting new labs have good builders to work with.

anyway what have you all put into you white tote trays and who has put wheels onto them. I have fould them rather usless without wheels so my GA is putting wheels onto them. Are you all using them for storage or for experiemtn trays. ????? Not sure what im going to do yet. Oh I want some more compactors oh they hold so much in them they are fantastic .

Good luck to you all that have refurbs finished and are moving in like me I got most done in the holidays and goodluck to those who are moving out waiting for builders.

KIMMY

KIMMY

[Labbie]

A school not far from us, was given THREE days notice. To start their refub, they were due to start on 11 Mar. Any way they only got 3 days notice, before the builders moved in. So it was full on, moving every thing, and some one had to change the time table for the whole school. It was a really mess, so never bank on the starting date. We are due to start on 27 Feb, but after that shock, I am packing a little away each day.

[smeee]

I busted my arse to clear our labs in order to hand over to builders by 2 Dec. Work was supposed to commence 4 January but hey...guess what....only a perimeter fence has been erected and no work commenced...yet !
So I now have 15 junior classes and 10 senior classes to share 3 labs at this end of the school.
When its all finished I will have 3 labs and 3 dry labs in the one area so will be worth the wait, probably not til Term 3.
Ohhh welllllll

[RosalieM]

Oh my goodness!! 3 days???? Wow!! I don't know what would be more frustrating - having everything shifted in such a hurry, or being ready like Smee and seeing no action! That is awful for both schools. Sometimes I sit here reading about the refurbishments with a little bit of envy, but after reading that I am not so envious!! We MIGHT be getting an extra lab when our new library is completed... but if we do I think it will be only enough for demos, no benches etc. Maybe one day!! And then a bigger prep room would be good to go with it but I'll have to keep dreaming about that one...