The purpose of this assignment is for you to research and create a reference guide of laboratory safety and chemical information and use it to investigate some more commonly used compounds. You will refer to your guide continually throughout the year and hopefully through college. By the end of the year, you will have a useful reference to take with you in the format of your choosing.

This task has several parts. Each part will leave you with a hopefully useful document. The format of the document you create may be paper or electronic, a Word document, powerpoint, spreadsheet, database, or html document. It will be dynamic; that is, you will be expected to update it throughout the year as needed, for example, when you are asked to use a new chemical in lab, you learn new properties of a substance you already have in your list, you find new resources or descriptions. The content outline provided on the next page. You shold feel free to add any resources or other information that you find useful as the year progresses.

Each part will require a fair amount of individual effort

The next page will give you specific instructions. This is just an overview.

Part 1: Laboratory Safety Rules

As part of a small group, you will research safety policies (aka Chemical Hygiene Plans) at universities and in industry, list rules you agree upon as being important in a high school laboratory, and give a rationale for including the rule. Document all sources by pasting the URL directly into the document you produce.

A draft of your document will be peer-reviewed, amended if necessary, and submitted. The result will be a listing of laboratory safety rules you will find useful throughout your science career.

Part 2: Using the Information on a Materials Safety Data Sheet

You will gather several MSDS from the Internet, research the meanings of the information you might find there, choose the information you believe might be useful to you this year, and explain why and how that information might be useful. You will create a document that explains what you found. The document should teach someone else how to use MSDS.

Again, your document will be peer-reviewed and amended as necessary before final submission.

Part 3: Constructing a Chemical Data Resource

You will use many different substances in the laboratory this year. It is your responsibility to know some things about each chemical before you work with it. For safety reasons, you will want to know how the chemical might harm you or cause an accident so that you may handle it safely. For practical reasons, you will want to know some physical and chemical properties of the substance, such as the appearance, what it might dissolve in and the density. For academic reasons, you will need to know such things as the chemical's name, formula, and molar mass (what IS molar mass? This is an example of something you will look up and explain.)

As you research and compile your information, be mindful of copyright law. Many sites include guidelines for legal use of the material they contain.