Australia's Science Forum

What does everyone do with labelling 'unknowns', do you put the User Code colour dots and DGC group where appropriate, or just A,B,C ... X,Y,Z etc.? Just that it could be a dead-set give-away in some cases, for cluey seniors at least.

Last time we did something like this I edited the Chemwatch labels and just replaced the name of the chemical with the letter. I did express concern that this would give it away but the teachers said a: you are giving the students too much credit and b: they still have to justify why they say it is what they say it is to get their marks. These were only grade 9's though. The other option we considered for next time was to take the all the risk phrases etc and put them on all of them so they just are very careful with everything. Not sure how practical that is though.

I am not sure if it is a good idea or not, but I label the bottles normally, and then put another blank label over the top with the "A", "B", "C", etc. That way, if there is an emergency where it is needed to know what the chemical is, then it is just a matter of removing the outer label. So far, the kids don't seem to have worked out how to remove the outer label.

Ian

As most of the unknowns are only 0.1 M, a small quantity and are used quickly I just label them A.B. C etc.

Me too, fibreweb

I do the same as Ian. Sometimes cover the whole label and put a letter on it, sometimes if needed, I leave the risk phrases on the bottle and just cover name of chemical. It is handy to know straight away, what the chemical is , in case of emergency.
Lada

I've done risk phrases with a letter, and then in the folder of mini MSDS's that I send out to the teacher I list what the unknowns are on a piece of paper at the back of the folder. That way, presumably, blind Freddy could find the relevant info as required.

It must have the Diamond DG class & a coloured dot.

I print a full page of the labels for all the chemicals and give this to the teacher.
IF the chemical is a bit nasty, then I print a list of the hazard phrases and put this at the Station without informing the student which chemical it is. This should alert them to be careful with ALL the samples.
Then I just label the bottles A,B,C etc..