Book Reviews - January 2009 - Volume 109 (1)

Science Safety in the Community College

Authors: J. Summers, J. Texley, and T. Kwan
National Science Teachers Association Press
1840 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201
2006, 222 pages
$46.66

Reviewer: Lloyd H. Barrow
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65203

Science Safety in the Community College is the fourth in a series to provide direction to K-14 teachers of science as they implement the recently adopted NSTA Safety Position Statement. This resource address unique aspects of teaching at a community college including diverse ages of adult learners, facilities guidelines, part-time faculty, generic aspects of safety, English as a second language, and awareness that many students lack science understanding and aspects associated with safety (chapter 2).

The first chapter provides an overview of the resource plus ways to implement safety via of syllabus and maintaining explicit records of your use of safety procedures. Chapter 3 utilizes NSTA facilities guidelines related to promoting safe laboratory operations. Safe storage of chemicals and various laboratory equipment is the focus of the chapter 4. Chapters 5-9, with extensive sidebars, has separate chapters devoted to living organisms, chemistry, earth and space science, physics and field studies. Each of the chapters has extensive web based resources plus SciLinks related topics. The final two chapters focus upon general aspects of safety related to teaching in community college laboratories where the four P'S - prepare, plan, parent, and protect are intended to broaden readers understanding of safety.

Each chapter has descriptive headings, vignettes, and extensive web resources plus SciLinks associated with each topic. An extensive glossary, disposal of chemicals, NSTA safety position statement and index are separate appendices. Readers can focus upon chapter related to their discipline or read it from cover to cover. The authors stress their orientation that “safety is more than a set of rules. It's a state of mind” (p. viii). The concluding chapter has a series of major bullets associated with each of the earlier eleven chapters. Faculty with limited time should read the concluding chapter first, and then decide which chapter(s) to read next.

The authors are veteran NSTA leaders although; they did not list community college experiences in their biographies. National safety experts reviewed the manuscript. Even though the resource was intended for community college faculty, the book will also be applicable to undergraduate science faculty and teaching assistants.