Australia's Science Forum

With regards to practical labs that are ongoing, particularly crystal growing, where chemicals etc are left in the lab for some period, do you label these? Or rely on the common sense of teachers to ensure they are left undisturbed until they are finished with. Just wondering about the safety aspect.

Thanks.

Hi Curie,
If a chemical or solution is not being used straight away it needs to be labelled, that is during the course of the day it has been made up. I have labelled all of our stock bottles for the alum solution for crystal growing, the containers the crystals are growing in are not labelled though, but they are in trays that are labelled, hope this helps,
Cheers
Lisa

I just leave them unlabelled, but it probably is a good idea to identify the nature of the crystal and any major safety issue. Might start doing that from now on!

Sorry, I should have been more specific. The beakers etc the crystals are currently growing in are not at the moment labelled with anything other thatn (in some instances) the students' names and classes. The solutions/ chemical bottles themselves are labelled.

Like you said, left up to the teachers discretion. I do not interfere with any ongoing pracs, it is up to them to label if they want. I just dispose of it when they send it back.

I am the same as Dime, but you have a good question. In the furture I will have a sign up saying this chemical is ____________________ take care. For years & years they sit on the window sill for months & months, I have never thought about it. But I will in furture put up a sign.

Well done

I dont care what it is but if it is to leave my prep room it is labelled.
Even if with just a bit of masking tape.
I make sure everything has some sort of description on it just for my own personal piece of mind.
Even when we do slime or other stuff that the kids take home the zip lock bag has a sticker on it with what is in it.
I know it is extra work but I just like to cover my own butt.
I put blank bits of masking tape on beakers for when they are doing crystals than they know who owns them and what is in it.

Just what I do no set rule but if anything was swallowed or thrown in some ones eye I know that I have done everything I should have to make it easier to identify the chemical used.

KIMMY

I'm the same nothing goes without being labelled, but at the sametime nothing gets left in the labs. It all comes back to me either kept in a tub or on a trolley, we have homerooms, maths and all sort use the rooms.

OK next question - for those of you who do not keep ongoing pracs in labs, but in the prep room - where the hell do you keep them all/ keep track of them? We used to keep them on a side bench in the lab, with labels, but now there are a lot less side benches, and not a lot of space to put them. So they either go on the limited space on the side bench, or to the side on the work benches, or on the window sill.

I wouldn't have space to store them all in here, and I'm pretty sure they'd get forgotten. (A lot of them get forgotten now in plain sight).
I have had incidents where open beakers of metho where left out, and I said if anything needs to soak in metho or any other flammables, they should be covered and labelled and put in the fume hood. Slight problem - only one fume hood, double sided, one side into the prep room, the other into a supposedly dry lab (long story) . One of the classes has a couple of interesting kids who delight in turning on taps, attempting to unlock it, and playing with the sash should they succeed. So basicly even I can't use or have anything in the fume hood when the class is running.

Maybe I need that metho. Hmmm.