In the United States and elsewhere, schools are getting ready to shut down for summer break. While we completely understand the urge to run from the building after the last lab report is graded, we all know that some time spent shutting down your lab for the summer will make it much easier for you (or another teacher) to enter the lab in the fall. Here are a few easy things to try this spring to make your fall feel easier.
- Check your perishables (and your perishable coupons): Just like in the kitchen, our laboratory ingredients can go bad over time. Edvotek has done extensive testing on our kits and reagents to know how long they will be able to produce good results in your students’ hands, and these expiration dates should be present on the reagents. Before you head out for the summer, toss used-up or expired reagents and make a list of what you will need for the fall so that it can be ordered and in your lab on day one. If you have any perishable coupons, make sure they’re still good for the next school year – there should be an expiration date on the coupon, too.
- Make sure to properly store and label any hazardous chemicals: We know that schools serve as important community spaces all year long. During the summer, there will likely be other people in your classroom this summer, whether it is for summer school, or camps, or other community functions. Make sure to clean up any hazardous materials that may be easily accessible to people in the building, and dispose of any chemical waste. Lock chemical cabinets and be sure to have a full inventory of chemicals posted to the cabinet or door. We recommend having SDS forms printed and stored in the lab for quick reference.
- Inventory your laboratory: Now, your chemical hygiene officer might have you keep up to date with the chemicals in the cabinets and your enzymes in the freezer, but do you keep track of the equipment in the cabinets? The last few days of school would be a good time to go through the cabinets, count your electrophoresis chambers and beakers, and check on your pipettes. If anything is damaged, give us a call or email info@edvotek.com and we’ll see if we can repair it for you (as long as it is Edvotek equipment, of course).
- Check the safety equipment: Make sure to check the fire extinguishers, the eye wash stations, and the safety showers before school ends. If they don’t work, they can be fixed over the summer so that your lab is ready for the fall. Check to make sure your safety goggles and lab coats are in good shape and are clean. Order any PPE that you might need for next year now so that you have it ready for the fall.
- Turn things off or unplug them: Hot plates, incubators, water baths, stir plates, pH meters, etc — these do not need to stay plugged in over the summer. They can be unplugged to make sure that they don’t get damaged during power surges. You’ll also lower the risk that something might short out if there is a power surge or outage.
- Set up a fail-safe for your freezer: Power outages can also affect frozen reagents if the temperature rises too high for too long. This includes restriction enzymes, DNA and RNA samples, and biological samples like collected water or plant tissue. There’s a quick and easy “hack” you can do though, to let you know if your freezer thawed over the summer. Take a cup of water and freeze it, then place a penny on top of the ice. If the penny is frozen in the ice when you return (or, if the water is liquid), then you know the samples have thawed at least once over the summer.
- Order your kits for next school year: September is busy for everyone — even your favorite educational kit suppliers like us! The earlier you place your order, the earlier we can get it to you, meaning that there won’t be delays. You can always contact us for pricing information and shipping times!
These are just a few of the things you can do to prepare your lab for next year. Any to add? Let us know at curriculum@edvotek.com and we will make another post full of teacher tips.
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