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.
References
[1]
National Research Council (2012) A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, The National Academies Press, Washington DC.
[2]
Meier, R., Murdick N.L. and Lytle, C. (2014) The Safety of Science Activities in an Inclusive Elementary Classroom. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 278-288. http://www.scirp.org/journals/jsshttp://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.29046
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.29046
[3]
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) (2015) NSTA Position Statement: Safety and School Science Instruction. www.nsta.org/about/positions/safety.aspx
[4]
Prosser, W.L., Keeton, W.P., Dobbs, D.B., Keeton, R.E. and Owen, D.G. (1984) In: Keeton, W.P., Ed., Prosser and Keeton on Torts, 5th Edition, West Group, St. Paul.
[5]
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) (2013) Safety in the Science Classroom, Laboratory, or Field Sites.
https://www.nsta.org/docs/SafetyInThe Science ClassroomLabAndField.pdf