Following are some notes and guidelines we would like you to present to your
students.
Contact Information
The Preproom has a web site that can answer many
questions posed by students. This
web address is http://quiz2.chem.arizona.edu/preproom.
It contains information regarding their financial responsibility for
their lockers and equipment, safety regulations, and job opportunities.
As always, the Preproom is here to support you and
your students. If you have any
questions regarding the experiment, please do not hesitate to call upon us.
Each of the Coordinators will attend Course staff meetings.
Their assignments are as follows:
104b Hana
Salik
621-3947
hsalik@u.arizona.edu
104a
John Mummert
621-9974
jfmummer@email.arizona.edu
243a/243b/247a Mark
Yanagilashi
621-9974
op106bf@email.arizona.edu
323/326 Cindy
Runkel 621-9979
crunkel@u.arizona.edu
Questions may be directed to Cindy Runkel,
621-9979,
crunkel@u.arizona.edu.
Taking Care
of the Lab Room
We change over experiments starting Thursday
evenings. When the first lab
section of the week meets on Monday, everything called for in the experiment
is set out in the lab. In order
that the next class can find everything it needs, please make sure you leave
the lab as it should be. This
means:
·
Return
all reagents to their appropriate storage place (i.e. acids to the Acid Hood,
capillary tubes to the Reagent Bench, refrigerated reagents to the Preproom).
·
Do not
move instruments (pH meters, Spec 20s, etc.). Many of the instruments are sensitive, and things sometimes
get lost when moved.
·
Do not
borrow equipment (stirrer/hotplates, Mel-Temps) from other rooms.
·
Make
sure the Balance Room and the balances are cleaned after your students are
done using them. Some instructors
assign two students to each lab period who are in charge of cleaning up any
messes. If they do not clean it
up, you will have to. The
balances are leveled and calibrated each week.
If you have a problem with a balance, please bring it to the attention
of your Preproom attendant. All
of the balances are accurate to 0.1mg and are quite expensive (>$1600
each). Please help us take care
of them.
Checking Out
Equipment
Some equipment must be checked out, as we are
not able to stock it in the quantities required to outfit all of the
lockers. In order to avoid more
than one trip to the window, it is beneficial for you to put a list of
check-out items on the board for each experiment.
In the majority of cases, your Preproom attendant is also serving two
to three additional labs. Sometimes,
your students may have to wait in line to check out their equipment.
Please tell them to be patient and not to worry as time is built into
the experiment to accommodate this bottleneck.
In order to check out equipment, students must fill out an “orange
slip” completely and legibly. When
they return the equipment, it is their responsibility to get their orange
slip back.
Reagents
& Supplies
Reagent
integrity is very important for those sections that meet in your lab after
you. Therefore, please teach
your students good techniques. They
should NEVER put ANYTHING into a stock reagent bottle unless there is a
plastic pipet attached to the bottle. They
should pour the reagent into a small beaker or graduated cylinder.
Also, please ask them to either hold the cap or place it on the bench
upside-down. If a reagent needs
refilling, please bring it yourself or have a student bring it, to the
Preproom window. Please
remember to bring the cap.
Chemical
Spills
If a reagent is spilled, please clean it up
immediately. People have been
burned by a solution of sodium hydroxide that began as 0.1M and ended up on
a bench as pure, dry NaOH after an hour or so.
Acids should be neutralized with the sodium bicarbonate in the acid
hood. The resulting slurry
should be placed in the solid waste. Please
do not leave the mess for someone else to clean up. Most courses do not use mercury thermometers anymore.
For the few that do, we have a procedure to follow if one is broken.
Please notify the Preproom attendant immediately if this happens in
your lab.
Emergencies
The most common emergency in our undergraduate lab,
in recent history, is a student fainting.
In almost all cases, this was not a result of chemical exposure.
If there is ever an emergency in your lab, have a student notify the
Preproom attendant at once. You should attend to the student. The Preproom attendant will communicate the emergency to the
appropriate person, who will call 911.
In these cases, or any case in which the student may subsequently
seek medical attention, you must complete an Incident Report to be filed
with the University’s Risk Management department.
Failure to do this results in very large fines.
The Preproom attendant has these forms and will forward it to the
proper authority after it is filled out.
For smaller injuries such as cuts and thermal burns,
we can attend to the student at the Preproom window. A simple First Aid kit is located in the Preproom.
Please note: Students
are not covered under Worker’s Compensation insurance. When the Student
Health Center is not open (such as during night labs), injured students will
be transferred to UMC. Any
associated costs will be the responsibility of the student.
Safety
Regulations
Splash-proof goggles (no safety glasses), aprons (or
a lab coat), and closed shoes are required to work in the lab.
Students are encouraged to purchase a set of goggles and an apron
from Alpha Chi Sigma, our Chemistry fraternity.
Representatives will come to your lab during the first and second
weeks of lab. Students may keep
these items in their lockers, as no one else is assigned to their locker.
If they choose to bring these items to lab each week and forget them,
they may rent them from the Preproom at a cost of $1.00 per item, per day.
These charges will be applied to their Bursar’s account at the end
of the semester. There are
separate “blue slips” for them to use to check out goggles and aprons.
These will be marked “returned” when they bring the goggles and
apron back, but they will not receive the blue slip back.
It will be filed.
Students are also required to wear closed shoes.
In the event that they forget, they may check out a pair of shoe covers
from the Preproom. The cost is
$1.00 per pair. We do not want
the shoe covers returned.
Gloves are also available at a cost of $0.50 per
pair.
You are solely responsible for the safety of your
students. However, your Preproom
attendant is your safety back up. They
will help you enforce the policies if needed.
Sometimes it is difficult to keep track of so many students at once, so
we will let you know if we notice any of your students not wearing goggles or
any of the other required personal safety attire.
Students are not allowed to open the lockers until
you arrive in the lab. They are
not to even start getting their glassware out.
They should remain in the classroom area until you arrive.
Checking In
To Lockers
In most cases, you will receive 24 locker cards.
Count them. If there are
not 24 cards, inquire with the Preproom attendant.
You must return the same number of cards to the
Preproom at the end of your lab. DO
NOT LET ANY OF YOUR STUDENTS LEAVE WITH A LOCKER CARD. We need to maintain the integrity of the count for
administrative purposes.
Once a student fills out a locker card, initials it,
signs it, and returns it to you, they are OFFICIALLY CHECKED IN.
From this moment on, they are required to check out of the locker by
the date specified on their locker card.
Failure to do this will result in a $10 service fee in addition to
anything missing or broken. This
policy includes those who drop the course after the first day and who do not
perform any lab work.
Students should check to make sure that all of their
equipment is present and in good working order. Pictures on the inventory sheets are NOT indicative of the
quantities required. They need to
consult the lower half of the sheet for the quantities and prices of each item
shown in the picture. They should
especially check glassware and plastic bottles for cracks.
On the day they check in, the Preproom will replace broken and missing
items free of charge. After the student signs the locker card, they have assumed
financial responsibility for all of the items in the drawer.
An excuse of, “it wasn’t there from the beginning” will not waive
a replacement fee. If anyone is
uncertain of a particular piece of equipment, they should consult their
Preproom attendant. Please DO NOT
tell them, “it should be fine.”
Students should not be sharing lockers.
If someone suspects their locker is shared (i.e. they find an
additional set of goggles and an apron in the drawer), they should notify the
Preproom attendant immediately. Missing equipment is not evidence of a shared locker.
Although we do our best to check to make sure all lockers are actually
locked at the end of each lab, the student is responsible for this.
We will affix a note to their locker if we find it open, in hope that
they will not forget again. Leaving
equipment out and leaving lockers unlocked are the quickest way to have
equipment stolen. For this, they
will be charged. However, there
is a Lost and Found in each lab. During
change-over, we will put glassware that has been left out in that drawer
(usually located by the Balance Room).
