Safety in the Lab

Have you ever seen a public service announcement when watching TV, or heard one on the radio? Public service announcements (or PSAs) are advertisements used by the government and non-profit organizations to raise awareness of an issue, or encourage people to take action to make an improvement in their community. An effective PSA is one that appeals to a target audience, informs the listener, and provides a call to action. You may have heard public-service announcements on the benefits of quitting smoking, eating healthfully, exercising, or recycling.

Now that you know the importance of safety in a laboratory setting, pretend that you have been selected to create a public-service announcement for your fellow students to educate them about lab safety, including safety rules, protective apparel, and what to do when accidents occur in the lab. Your two to three minute audio PSA podcast should include details about each of these topics. For this assignment, you should use audio recording software provided to you by your instructor or free audio recording software available online, such as Audacity. Your final submission will need to include a transcript of the audio file.

Before you begin, review the Safety in the Lab PSA Rubric so that you understand how your assignment will be graded. Also, please take a few minutes to view the examples of public service announcements provided below. You may need to use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment. If so, please submit a Works Cited document. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing any resources that you used.

Once you have completed your podcast, transcript, and works cited document, please your work to the dropbox.