EQUIPMENT

Certain common pieces of equipment such as instrumentation and balances have to be shared with your classmates. Leaving such equipment dirty or broken is not only rude and selfish, but will be penalized severely. To avoid problems remember this simple rule:

Leave it ready to go for the next user.

What does this mean? It means that you will clean up after yourself or face a laboratory penalty. These penalties will increase exponentially if you persist in bad habits such as leaving chemicals on the balances. If you use something, it is your responsibility to make sure that the next user can proceed unencumbered and without fear of contacting an unknown chemical. I don't care if the balance was dirty when you started -- when you are done with it MUST be clean. Likewise, if you notice that we are about to run out of a reagent, tell your instructors before we run out. It is extremely rude (and bad laboratory practice) to return an empty bottle of reagent to the shelf.

Each individual is assigned a drawer of equipment. Should any of this equipment be broken or misplaced, the student responsible should go to the Chemistry Stockroom located in Benton 318 to obtain a replacement. The stockroom staff will charge these items to your account. Items that are not on the chemistry stockroom inventory will be handled on a case by case basis at the discretion of the instructor. Students should NOT take other equipment from the laboratory to replace equipment that they have damaged or lost. Students are reminded that all glassware and equipment must be clean when returned at the end of the semester.

For some experiments you will need to sign out specific pieces of equipment such as addition funnels, conductivity cells, distillation apparatus etc. Students who are found using special equipment without signing it out will be penalized on their laboratory grade. ALL such equipment MUST be returned in clean and usable condition (even if it was dirty when originally checked out).