What Can Students Learn about Lab Safety from Mr. Bean?

Chemical laboratory safety education is often synonymous with boring, dry, drawn-out lectures. In an effort to challenge this norm and stimulate vivid learning opportunities about laboratory safety, college chemistry classes analyzed a short, humorous video clip of a character, named Mr. Bean, who visits a chemistry laboratory and commits several safety violations. Each student based his or her analysis on prior chemical knowledge, and the resulting notes were collectively used to assemble a "master list" of violations depicted in the clip. Students learned that despite a foundational background in laboratory safety, it is entirely possible to violate common rules without self-realization. This lesson underscores the importance of applying traditional rules to higher level cognitive tasks.