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Inquiring Safely: A Guide for Middle School Teachers

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 December 2005, 03:02 CST

By Stoeber, Rodelyn

Inquiring Safely: A Guide for Middle School Teachers. Terry Kwan and Juliana Texley. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press, 2003. 183 pp. $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0-87355-201-6.

The book Inquiring Safely: A Guide for Middle School Teachers, written by Terry Kwan and Juliana Texley, provides an interesting and fairly comprehensive overview of laboratory safety for both middle school teachers and administrators. The focus of this work is safety within an inquiry-based science curriculum, with emphasis on creating student responsibility and accountability. While it is difficult to address all the aspects of safety in middle school science, both authors effectively draw from their experiences to create a book that is easy to read and current with many of the issues facing today's science teachers and their students. Kwan, with her experience as a middle school teacher, science supervisor, and teacher educator, and Texley, a former school superintendent and past editor of The Science Teacher, clearly illustrate the importance of a safe environment that accommodates the particular needs of mainstream as well as special education middle school students.

The book is composed of 11 chapters with catchy and playful subtitles, such as "Finders Keepers," a chapter discussing the essentials of safer storage, and "Striking Gold," which describes the important aspects of a safe chemistry laboratory. "The Savvy Science Teacher" contains anecdotes drawn from teacher stories that add depth and creativity, making it easy for the reader to relate to the material presented in the book. The authors refer to their book as a "SciLinked text," which has references to a Web site maintained by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Throughout the book, there are addresses to files within this site that permit greater exploration of certain subjects discussed in the particular chapter. Further references are provided at the end of each chapter in a box titled "Connections." Another noteworthy section of this book is the chapter "Communities of Learners," which focuses on adaptations required with special-needs students and students with behavioral problems. The final chapter provides a good summary of the main points for each chapter.

While most of the book discusses safety within the different domains of science-chemistry, biology, earth science, and physics- issues of safety and liability beyond the borders of the science laboratory are also addressed. Examples of forms and checklists that teachers can use or adapt are provided, such as a "Parents'/ Guardians' Health Information Form" for field trips and a "Sample Consent and Release Form" for the taking of student pictures and videos. The authors point out the problems of safety related to the presence of substitute teachers, guests, and other adults in the classroom.

They also encourage cooperation and partnerships with the teachers of other subject areas. For example, the physical education teacher could assist with the physical conditioning of students before various field activities. The science teacher can work with the art department regarding security, storage, and advice about chemicals.

The importance of the use of technology such as the Internet and e-mail is also addressed. Items such as digital cameras can be used to promote sharing of science experiments while at the same time limiting the amount of traffic in the science laboratory. Students can create PowerPoint slides to showcase work and experiments to parents and other interested individuals.

Much of the equipment and laboratory descriptions depict the ideal science laboratory, which makes this book important reading for administrators or supervisors who may not be knowledgeable about issues of optimizing safety learning in middle school science classrooms. Teachers can build a wish list based on some of the recommendations listed in the chapters. More strategies and alternatives for those teachers not having much of the suggested equipment would have been useful. A checklist for a sample chemical inventory is provided, but it does not make mention to which experiments and which curricula these chemicals would be applicable.

Names of experiments are mentioned, such as an amusement park "lab exercise." Being that there may be teachers unfamiliar with the mentioned experiments, an appendix item describing the experiment or a reference to a Web site would have been useful. Furthermore, while the book does make references to many U.S. rules and regulations, they may not be applicable to all situations outside the country. The mention of these rules may encourage teachers to study the implications of similar rules and regulations for their own country.

This book is a valuable resource for the beginning and the more experienced teacher. It would be beneficial for those individuals wanting to build or improve the science laboratory, as well as administrators wanting an understanding of the issues of safety involved in science learning.

Dr. Rodelyn Stoeber

Assistant Professor

Collge universitaire de St. Boniface

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Fall 2005

Source: Science Activities

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