Chemical Safety and Scientific Ethics in a Sophomore Chemistry Seminar

A description of a course on chemical safety and scientific ethics is presented. The goals of this course are to impress upon the students the importance of safety in their professional lives; to empower the students to take charge of their own personal safety when working with chemicals; to illustrate and emphasize the vital importance of honesty and integrity within the scientific enterprise; and to explore issues of honesty and integrity through case studies that allow ethical decisions to be critically examined. The recent approaches and activities used to accomplish these goals are detailed. These include readings from chemical safety textbooks, chemical safety reports from news sources, and group discussions springing from problems in scientific ethics.