PENALTIES TO ENSURE SAFETY IN THE LAB AND FAIR GRADING FOR ALL STUDENTS
Safety Penalty
The laboratory can be a very dangerous environment if the proper precautions are not taken. This is due to the fact that the experiments performed involve the use of extremely harmful reagents. Some of these include very strong carcinogens!
We must all follow the safety rules enforced by the University of Western Ontario which include the following:
1) Lab coat must be worn at all times
2) Eye protection must be worn at all times
3) No food/drink to be consumed in the lab
4) No dangerous behavior toward yourself or others in the lab
5) Only closed toed shoes are allowed
6) Must be covered/clothed from your neck to your ankles
If anyone (including the professor and TAs) shows up without a lab coat, inappropriately attired, or without eye protection, he/she will not be allowed to enter the lab as that will go against the UWO lab safety guidelines. You must buy your own lab coats and safety eye protection (regular eye glasses cannot be substituted for safety glasses). Lab coats and eye protection are not supplied in the lab.
Lab cleanup
You are responsible for cleaning up at the end of your lab session. Failure to do so will result in deduction of 2% of the final mark for each member of the group each time you fail to clean-up. Leaving the lab bench disorganized and messy is unfair for the next set of students who will waste time cleaning and organizing the existing lab bench, and therefore, may not be able to complete the experiments during the allotted time.
Particular chores:
1. At the end of each lab, your drawer shall contain 1 1-10ml pipettor, 1 10-100ml pipettor, 1 marker, 1 pair of scissors, 1 flint striker, 1 roll of masking tape, 1 roll of white labeling tape, and pipette tips.
2. Cleaning the agarose gel apparatus and returning the clean apparatus to the gel running bench.
3. Cleaning the polyacrylamide gel pouring apparatus.
4. Cleaning the polyacrylamide gel tank and plates and returning them to the appropriate place.
5. Turning off equipment after you have used it. Particularly power supplies
Absentee and Late penalties
There are two reasons that students miss labs: illness and planned absences.
If no medical/compassionate documentation is supplied to the Dean's office, the missing of a lab will result in 5% lost from your final mark. The documentation must be given to the Faculty of Science Dean's office not myself or the TA (policy). For the university policy and what must be provided see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf Not penalizing those who simply do not show up for lab is unfair for the students who come to lab prepared and work hard for 4 hours.
If you plan to be absent from a lab, for an athletic or cultural event you must inform Dr. Percival-Smith before the event, and have a note from the coach or organizer of the event.
If you are more than 15 min late for the lab you will lose 2% from your final mark. Not to mention the fact that your group would not be happy having to do the initial preparations without your help.
Unpreparedness penalties
You are expected to have completed a number of tasks before you enter the lab. The TAs will check and sign that they have been done. Minus 2 marks for being unprepared.