SAFETY
GENERAL SAFETY AND ORGANIZATION
Be prepared to devote your full attention to each laboratory exercise. Turn your cell phone to silent or vibrate to limit distractions.
Never leave your laboratory exercise unattended. Monitor the laboratory exercise at all times.
Read the laboratory exercise thoroughly before you begin. Laboratory exercises in this course contain multiple steps and reading through the entire exercise will prepare you and help you to work more efficiently, safely, and eliminate mistakes due to lack of planning. If you have any doubt as to how to perform an exercise safely, call or email your instructor before continuing with the exercise.
Assemble all laboratory equipment and materials before you begin the laboratory exercise.
Keep your work space organized to reduce confusion, chance of error, or chance of spilling. Put away unneeded notebooks and papers.
Do not eat, drink, chew gum, or smoke while performing laboratory exercises.
Do not place pencils, pens, labels, fingers, or any other objects in your mouth while performing the laboratory exercises.
Never perform any laboratory exercise while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Put all laboratory equipment and materials back into the lab kit box for storage.
Please notify everyone in your household you will be incubating experiments at room temperature and keeping the media (food for microbes to eat) from the lab kit in the refrigerator.
SELECTING YOUR WORK AREA
Identify a work area in a well-ventilated area where all laboratory exercises will be performed. Avoid working in areas with carpets or rugs. Ideally, your “lab bench” would be located close to a sink.
KIDS AND PETS
The laboratory exercises in this course are designed to be performed in a non-traditional laboratory setting, your home. Safety precautions must be followed to ensure that the lab materials do not cause harm to you or other members of your household. Young children or pets may find and want to play with laboratory equipment or materials. Many pets have an acute sense of smell and may be attracted to something in the laboratory kit.
Proper ATTIRE
ALWAYS wear appropriate attire when performing laboratory exerrcises.
- Closed-toe shoes must be worn when performing laboratory exercises.
- To reduce exposure of your body, wear a long-sleeved shirt. Wear long pants, no skin can be showing, so you may have to wear socks with your shoes. A skirt can be worn but it must fit close to the body and again no skin can be showing.
- Long hair should be fastened and dangling jewelry or loose hanging garments or sleeves should not be worn.
- Avoid loose or dangling clothing or jewelry that could catch on objects or interfere with the lab exercise.
HAND WASHING
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water and dry with paper towel before beginning a laboratory exercise and after completing the laboratory exercise.
Watch the following video on proper hand washing:
gloves
You are required to wear gloves to protect your hands when you are performing lab exercises involve growing bacteria (3 of 11 lab exercises you will perform involve growing bacteria).
Wash your hands before putting gloves on and after removing them.
Cover cuts or open wounds before putting on gloves.
If punctured or torn, gloves should be disposed of immediately.
Avoid touching your face, hair, phone, or any other personal items while wearing gloves.
To limit contamination, removed gloves should not be reused.
Please watch the following video on gloves
surface disinfection
Disinfect your lab bench with a surface disinfectant of 10% bleach before and after completing a laboratory exercise.
To prepare surface disinfectant (10% bleach) use the 100ml graduated cylinder from the lab kit to add 180 ml of tap water to a cup or bowl. Use the 100 ml graduated cylinder to add 20 ml of bleach to the cup or bowl. The surface disinfectant (10% bleach solution) is now ready to use.
Disinfect your work surface with the surface disinfectant by applying surface disinfectant with a paper towel, allowing it to remain damp for 2 minutes, and then wiping away any remaining disinfectant with a dry paper towel. Throw the used paper towels in the trash.
disinfection and disposal of bacterial cultures
When the lab exercise involving the growth of bacterial cultures is complete, disinfect the bacterial culture plates by pouring bleach (not 10% bleach) onto the surface of the plates covering the entire surface.
Wait 20 minutes and then pour the bleach down the sink with running water.
Tape the plates shut and dispose of them in the trash.
