Australia's Science Forum

Hi
I know there have been previous threads on this but I cant find what I am looking for.
Are there any regulations that govern bench space per student in a laboratory in NSW? Or any written guide lines on lab design?
We want to push to have one of our labs to be altered. For starters the benches are too narrow and really difficult to work on (only built within the last 10 years! - noone from sicence had a say in their design of course). We need something to take to the bursar to support our request.

Thanks
Tina

do the kids sit at the benches or do they sit at a table?????
We have had our labs rebuilt the kids sit at a table and stand at the benches
I will give you the size of them
H 87 cm L 120cm W 70cm then we have a table that you can move around w 90 W 70 and is ajustable
Hope that helps
P.S. this is a DEPT design

Hi Noona

The kids sit in the middle of the room and the benches are around the outside.
Another thing is that there is someone in a wheelchair starting here next year. What do other schools do. I presume we will need to make one workbench lower than the others to allow this person access to pracs.
Thanks
tina

I guess I was just wondering if there were written guidelines. We know what we would like...

We have students here in wheelchairs so we had to get one of the labs wheelchair friendly. They installed a low stainless steel bench with sink, taps and gas outlet and with a lip at the front so if anything got spilt it wouldn't run back onto the student. It cost an awful lot of money, the plumber didn't seal the gas line properly so we had a very slow gas leak every time the gas was turned on in the room and took about 6 months to finally figure out where it was coming from.
That was 3 years ago and every year since, the student has been in a different class and hasn't been back in that classroom to be able to use the bench. I suggested at the time that maybe they should have quick fit connections on the bench like a portable barbecue, that way the bench could be utilised in all labs. So maybe you could thing about that if you have to design one.
Estelle

We have a wheelchair table here if you want to have a look next time you're here, Tina. You could probably talk to the teachers who taught the students who needed it to ask what was good and what they would do differently. It hasn't been needed for that purpose since I've been here. I think the idea of a mobile one is good but I don't know how it would work. The one we have has taken the place of 3 other benches which means groups have to be bigger in that room.

Hi Tina,
We had a disabled bench installed in one of our new labs recently, its quite good in the fact that it can be wound up and down so it can be used for able bodied students as well.

CC

WOW CC!

The wind-down bench sounds terrific! I want one! We have two very height-challenged students in our junior year, and they often end up standing on chairs to see - not very safe at all!