Lab Safety Review
Name: ______Date: ______Period: ___
Read the selection below with your partner next to you. Underline and number any parts of the reading selection below where lab safety rules are broken. Then, on the back of this page, make brief notes about HOW this is breaking a lab safety rule or WHAT the turtles should be doing instead. One example has been completed for you to help you get started.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo) decide that they’re tired of being mutant turtles, so they stop by a local science laboratory to see if they can create an ooze to transform them back into regular turtles. It’s nighttime, so the turtles don’t have permission to be there or to be conducting experiments1, but since they’re ninjas, they figure if they’re extra sneaky, nobody will notice.
Raphael and Donatello are both chewing some gum, and Michelangelo brings along some pizza in case they get hungry. They set down their food next to their lab station and get to work. Leonardo finds a bunch of chemicals in the cupboard, so the turtles begin by mixing all the chemicals together to see what will happen. Leo drops a glass beaker while pulling out the chemicals. He quickly sweeps up the glass and properly disposes of it so the other turtles won’t get hurt.
Mike stands directly over the beaker of chemicals they are mixing and inhales deeply to see what the ooze smells like. Donatello then puts the chemicals over a burner and begins heating them rapidly. He makes all of the other turtles tie back their ninja masks and belts so that no loose clothing can catch fire from the burner. He also makes his companions put on safety goggles.
Raphael (the most sarcastic turtle) tells Michelangelo that he looks like a tadpole instead of a turtle without his ninja mask. Michelangelo proceeds to chase Raphael around the room in an effort to put him in a headlock and demonstrate that he is not, in fact, a tadpole. While they are roughhousing, they knock over several jugs of chemicals, which splash all over them and the pizza. Raphael and Mike decide that they should not tell Donatello and Leonardo because they don’t want the others to get mad.
Donatello and Leonardo decide that the ooze they are creating is finally done. Mike takes off his goggles because they are getting foggy and leans in for a closer look. The turtles make Raphael drink the ooze to see if anything happens (because, well, Raphael is everyone’s least favorite turtle, right?) Nothing happens except Raphael burps rudely a few times. The turtles decide that their lab experiment wasn’t very useful. They aren’t sure what to do with the chemicals they have created, so they just dump everything down the drain and then throw the beakers in the garbage. Leonardo makes everybody wash their hands on the way out, and they head back home to share some pizza with Splinter.
What did the Turtles do wrong?
There are at least 10 turtle mistakes in addition to the example given below. Try to find them all!
1. You should never conduct experiments without permission and without supervision.
2.______
3. ______
4. ______
5. ______
6. ______
7. ______
8. ______
9. ______
10.______
What did the Turtles do correctly in the lab?
Example:
11. Leonardo swept up broken glass so the other turtles would not get hurt.
12. ______
13.______
14.______