5 Tips For Taking Lab Styled Classes
1. Some labs may share the same emergency shower. So wear underwear that you wouldn’t mind being seen in as much, if you along with another person have the misfortune of getting drenched in a harmful substance and have to share the same emergency shower head. This has happened to my professor, and she admitted it was really uncomfortable and awkward.
2. Always keep extra hair ties in your bag, car, and on your wrist, if you have hair that is at least shoulder length. Sometimes hair ties will give out in the middle of lab, you forgot, or in-case another person may have that problem.
3. There are glasses styled protective eye-ware that can be used in lab that doesn’t have a rubber band, they are less bulky and easier to carry around in your bag, plus they fit way easier over prescription glasses.
4. If you’re worried about handling a particular substance for fear that it may go through your gloves, or if handling sharp objects for a dissection for example, double up on gloves before starting, and if discoloration of gloves occurs part way through, change them out. Don’t worry about going through a lot of gloves, your institution would rather pay for more rubber gloves then for you to get injured and pay for your medical bills.
5. NEVER start an experiment without cleaning the glassware. Upper division chemistry lab students always make general chemistry lab students the butt of every lab joke because they haven’t gotten into this habit quite yet, and are terrible at cleaning their glassware. Even the slightest of residue can butcher results and yields for analytical chemistry experiments, and for some reason we were sharing the lab and glassware with gen. chem.??
Bonus: If your lab doesn’t have a specific and clean area to place book bags, use a bag that’s cheap and easy to wash, and use it specifically for labs and not for anything else. Harmful residues may get on your bag from the floor or spills, you don’t want to be carrying it around with you everywhere while spreading the contamination.