Yesterday in science class, Mr. Young taught the class about lab safety and about the WHMIS and consumer hazard symbols.

  This symbol means a product can explode.

 This symbol means the product can be easily set on fire.

     This symbols means the product can chemically burn living tissues.

     This symbol means the product is poisonous/ toxic.

While the teacher was explaining the symbols, Ellie wasn’t paying attention but was distracted by the clouds outside.

Today in science class, Mr.Young assigned a lab involving a variety of chemicals. The instructions for the lab were handed out and the equipment was provided at the front desk. Ellie was grouped with Linda and Micheal. “ Who wants to grab the equipment?” Linda asked, “ I’ll go” Ellie replied. While Ellie was gathering the equipment, she noticed a symbol on one of the bottles, she wasn’t sure what it meant but she was sure it was one of the WHMIS symbols that Mr. Young explained when she wasn’t paying attention. Once Ellie came back with the materials, they started to set up their equipment for the experiment. After finishing up their station, they put on their safety goggles to prevent harmful things from getting the eyes and tied up any loose hair, so it wouldn’t get in the way.

Ellie and Linda decided to pour the chemicals into the test tubes with a funnel, so the substance wouldn’t spill onto the counter. Then they took the eyedropper and used it to transfer the chemical into another test tube. Once they transferred it, they wrote down what they observed. Before Ellie could transfer the substance into a different test tube, Micheal noticed that it was different from the one in the materials. “ Ellie, did you make sure to check the chemical before you grab it ?” Micheal asked, “ I didn’t check it I thought it was already provided?” It was a good thing that Micheal noticed it before things could’ve become a mess. Micheal went to collect the correct one and the group continued with their lab. Once they finished with the lab, Linda decided to put on rubber stoppers to keep the chemicals inside the tubes so nothing bad can happen.

Ellie was curious to see what happens if she mixed the two of the chemicals, she decided to try it out. She poured one into the other, slowly the chemicals mixed and “BAAAMMM” and an explosion happened and fire surrounded Ellie. The explosion happened so fast that no one caught sight of what happened beforehand. Students were panicked and concerned, while Linda immediately reported the incident to the teacher. Ellie panicked and tried to put out the fire with blowing wind in its direction, that was not a great idea and made the fire worse. Students were told to evacuate from the classroom. The teacher ran and grabbed the fire extinguisher and called out to Ellie to duck down so he could put out the fire.

Ellie complied and ducked down, after a few moments the fire was dealt with. Luckily, Ellie wasn’t injured badly but instead had some burn marks. “ Ellie are you okay?!” asked Linda, “yeah I think so” Ellie replied. “ What happened before the fire?” Linda questioned Ellie, “I was curious and mixed some chemicals,” Ellie said, feeling guilty about what she’d done. Then, the teacher confronted the class and asked who caused the explosion. Ellie was in between a conflict on whether to tell Mr. Young that she’d done it or not. She decided to speak up, “I’m sorry Mr. Young, I was the one who caused the fire, my curiosity got the better of me.” “ Ellie I’m glad you’re okay, but next time please be more careful and consult others around you when your curiosity takes over.” when everything was sorted out, Ellie was asked if she could clean up the glass shards. She agreed since it was her fault that the mess was made. When everyone was dismissed, Ellie had stayed back to reflect on her mistakes.

– map of safety equipment –