MGJH Science Class Fire Leads to Changes for Secondary Science Class Demonstrations

After a at last year left several students injured, did an audit on its teacher-led science classroom demonstrations.

A May 17, 2012 memo from Osseo School District Assistant Superintendent Keith Jacobus to Superintendent Kate Maguire outlined the audit process as well as the results. The demonstration reportedly used in the ninth-grade science class at Maple Grove Junior High on Dec. 1, 2011 in the district following the accident.

A few of the new outcomes of the audit of teacher-led science classroom demonstrations, according the memo from Jacobus, included:

• A list of approved demonstrations

• Development of an approval process for all new teacher-led science class demonstrations

• A collection professional development videos on science safety that “will be required viewing for all current and future secondary science teachers in our system.”

District 279 also added a section to “current chemical hygiene plan notebooks for all secondary science teachers,” according to an email from School/Community Relations Director Barbara Olson. The additional section has several key elements:

• A description of each approved teacher-led demonstration

• A safety procedures document for each demonstration

• Protocol and form for requesting approval of new teacher-led classroom demonstrations

• A list of safety videos used for professional development of secondary science teachers.

The audit team consisted of 12 science teachers in the Osseo School District who  “represented every secondary school in the district and were chosen because of their content knowledge and expertise in the area of chemical and lab safety,” according to the memo from Jacobus.

The audit team put in more than 100 hours from January to April reviewing teacher-led science classroom demonstrations. The audit team began by creating a list of teacher-led demonstrations in the district involving combustible, volatile or corrosive chemicals “that have the potential to cause physical harm.” As part of the review process, the audit team could disallow a demonstration if they assessed “it posed potential risk that cannot be mitigated through reasonable prevention efforts” or the “concept illustrated was not sufficiently aligned to a state science standard.”

“While the impetus for the audit team’s work was an unfortunate accident, the outcomes will benefit all secondary students and science teachers throughout the school district for many years to come,” Jacobus wrote in his memo.

The district’s internal investigation into the incident is “still under way,” according to a May 7 email from School/Community Relations Director Barbara Olson.

To read more on the accident:

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