One day during my science class, Mr. Jackson, my Science teacher, asked us to get into groups to do an experiment. I was in a group with Derek and Dave. Mr. Jackson gave us a list of equipment and asked us to set it up on the counter. The list included the following:
- A Bunsen burner
Which is used in a laboratory to heat substances during an experiment. A Bunsen burner is a small gas burner that uses an adjustable flame.
- An Iron ring
It supports a beaker over a Bunsen burner
- A Beaker
It is a multi-purpose piece of equipment used for containing a chemical reaction, measuring liquids, heating them over a Bunsen burner’s flame or collecting them
Mr. Jackson had us read the National Science Teacher Association Science Laboratory Rules and Regulations to understand safety procedures to follow in the lab. He also showed us the warning symbol for Flammable Material:
Which meant that a product is flammable and that flame can ignite it very easily, so always keep away from ignition sources.
Afterwards, Derek used the Bunsen burner to heat up some water and I used an iron ring to support the beaker. I set a timer for 10 minutes. We got distracted and somehow ignited the flammable material which set fire to a cabinet above the lab table. The fire started to get bigger. I got one of Dave to inform the teacher and I ran to grab a fire extinguisher. I started to put out the fire, but I almost burned myself. Derek almost managed to put out most of the fire, but the extinguisher ran out of fuel. Luckily, my teacher came in at that moment and put out the rest of the fire. We cleaned up the mess and we had to talk to my teacher about what we did wrong so as to prevent this from happening again. He said that we were right to tell the teacher right away, and try to put out the fire, but we should have been paying more attention and wearing safety gear. Nevertheless, our quick thinking and remembering safety procedures prevented the accident from burning down the lab.
About 2 weeks after the accident there was another accident in the lab. Again, Dave, Derek and I were in a group doing another experiment. In this experiment, the teacher clearly explained that there was going to be some corrosive liquids and warned the students that they needed to be very careful with this lab. He showed us another warning symbol, this time for Corrosive Material:
This told you the product can cause corrosive damage, damage to skin metals and eyes keep away from unprotected parts of your body and should be taken seriously.
This time, Mr. Jackson gave us a list of the following equipment to use in the experiment:
- Hot plate
This is used to Heat. up flammable substances.
- Corks
This is used to seal test tubes tight. They are used as a lid.
- Test tubes
These are used to hold small amounts of material for laboratory testing or experiments.
- Test tube rack
Test tube racks are made to hold multiple test tubes upright at one time for easy organization, transport, or washing.
Derek didn’t care about the warnings, and did not want to review the safety procedures again. He was confident that they would be careful, and he didn’t listen to the teacher that well. We started with using the test tubes and pouring acid and mixing chemicals in them to get a reaction. Afterwards, we put them on a test tube rack to observe them. When we were where done observing them and taking notes, we had to take them to the hot plate and heat them up in a beaker one at a time. The teacher told us to put a cork on them so none of the acids would spill out of the tops of the test tubes. The teacher had to get something for us and he went out of the room for a little bit. Derek didn’t put a cork on his tube and he and Dave took the test tube rack to the hot plate. Someone called Derek’s name, and he looked over at them and spilled a little bit of acid on Dave’s hand and burn Dave. Dave felt the pain and freaked out, hitting the test tube rack Derek was carrying, which then spilled all of the test tube materials onto Dave and onto the floor, burning the floor and Dave! Dave was badly injured, with his index finger and his thumb and half of his hand completely burned. He was bleeding all over his hand and screaming as the teacher ran inside. Mr. Jackson was horrified. He took Dave to the washing station, to wash some of the chemicals off and then wrapped him up and too him to first aide.
While Mr. Jackson and Dave were gone, Derek and the rest of the class were afraid that they would get blamed for Dave getting hurt. Most of the class, especially Derek, wanted to lie and say that it was just Dave that burned himself because they didn’t want to get a bad grade and get into trouble. But I said that, even if Dave covered for us, it wouldn’t be fair that he be the only one to get into trouble for this accident. I said that we need to tell the truth, and learn from this mistake. Derek disagreed, and threatened to tell Mr. Jackson that it was my fault that Dave got burned, and got most of the other students to go along with it because he was more popular than me. I had an ethical dilemma where I had to choose to tell the truth or go along with the lie to cover for Derek.
When Mr. Jackson came back into the lab, he told us how to clean up the spill and told us that Dave would be fine. Derek told him the lie, and said Dave was fooling around like last time and caused the accident. No one else said anything. Then I decided to tell the teacher what actually happened and I told him that Derek wasn’t listening during class safety and he didn’t put corks on the test tubes which resulted in him spilling acid on Dave. The teacher wasn’t very happy with either me or Derek and our two versions of what happened. Derek and I were sent to the Principal’s office. Later, Mr. Jackson met with us and the Principal and told us that the other students told him I had told the truth and Derek had lied. Mr. Jackson thanked me for telling the truth. Derek got in very big trouble, and he was suspended from school and was never allowed to do any experiments in Science again. Funny enough, he was ok with that. The whole experience taught me a valuable lesson to be an ethical person and to tell the truth when conducting experiments, even if it was my fault that someone got hurt.