The Safety of Physics Science Activities in a High School Physics Classroom

High school physics teachers often turn to various resources, including the Internet, as they search for engaging physics activities for their students. An important question, especially for new physics teachers, concerns the safety of these activities. Have safety issues been adequately addressed within these activities? The purpose of this article is to emphasize potential safety issues involving high school physics projects as well as to provide a checklist for physics teachers to use as they evaluate activities. If the activity is deemed to contain safety issues, physics teachers are encouraged to attempt to modify the activity to make it safe. If the activity cannot be modified for safety purposes, then it is recommended that the physics teacher search for a different activity. The intention of this article is to provide high school physics teachers with safety information that can be used in preparing safe, inquiry-based, hands-on, engaging and topic-appropriate physics activities for their students.