Lab Safety Lesson Plan: Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Lab Safety, and supports the standard of demonstrating safe practices during lab investigations. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display a picture of someone working in a laboratory, like this:

Ask students:

What do you notice?
How is this scientist using safe laboratory practices?
What else could this scientist do to be safer in the lab?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

Read the description on the Lab Safety topic page.
Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “Discoveries and Innovations,” “Real Life,” or “Sickness and Health.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS

Students take the Lab Safety Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about lab safety while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

Make-a-Movie: Produce a PSA advocating for safe lab practices. In your PSA, answer this question: What are the potential consequences of not following these rules?
Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying the steps to safely conducting a laboratory investigation.
Creative Coding: Code a meme representing how to safely work with chemicals in a laboratory.

More to Explore

Virtual Lab Simulations: Practice lab safety skills with these virtual lab simulations: Virtual Labs: Adjusting pH of Food, Virtual Labs: Bacteria Sampling, Virtual Labs: Gram Staining, and Virtual Labs: pH Scale and Meter Calibration.

Teacher Support Resources:

Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas.
Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Grade: 11-12

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

Grade: 11-12

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.2

Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.2

Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1

Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2

Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.4

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1

Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2

Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2

Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.1

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.2

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grade: 09, 10

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 09, 10

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.6

Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.6

Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.6

Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

Grade: 09, 10

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.6

Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

Grade: 11-12

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.4

Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 11–12 texts and topics.

Grade: 06, 07, 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.4

Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.

Grade: 09, 10

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.9-10.4

Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 9–10 texts and topics.