If you are here, I'm not here...
If you've landed on this page- it means that I am sadly absent.... Hopefully it's for a really cool reason, like I was helping orphans in Kazakhstan and missed my camel ride back. Or I have a cold...
Remember, to anyone is who less than awesome today- I have soooo many things for you to clean! Sinks, floors, different sized nails to be organized... I can keep you busy for days instead of working on class projects
Remember, to anyone is who less than awesome today- I have soooo many things for you to clean! Sinks, floors, different sized nails to be organized... I can keep you busy for days instead of working on class projects
6th Grade
Well, since the growth of robots is doubling about every 2 1/2 years, let's get to know our soon-to-be robot overlords! Let's spend the class period getting to learn more about current robotic advancements by completing my google form below. I want everyone to do this on their own to get the greatest variety.
Robots of tomorrow... Today! (<----------Google Form)
7th and 8th Grade
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”― Otto von Bismarck
I take safety VERY importantly both inside and outside the classroom.
Below are some real stories that have happened to young workers.
Directions:
Please read the passages below and complete the Google Form at the end of the passages. Yes this will be graded
Young workers have high rates of job-related injury. These injuries are often the result of the many hazards present in the places they typically work, such as sharp knives and slippery floors in restaurants. Limited or no prior work experience and a lack of safety training also contribute to high injury rates. Middle and high school workers may be at increased risk for injury since they may not have the strength or cognitive ability needed to perform certain job duties.
Fast Stats:
- In 2020, there were about 17.3 million workers under the age of 25. These workers represented 11.7% of the total workforce1.
- In 2020, 352 workers under the age of 25 died from work-related injuries2.
- In 2020, there were 26 deaths to workers under 18 years of age2.
- In 2020, the incidence rate for non-fatal injuries for workers, ages 16–19, was 149.8 per 10,000 full-time employees (FTE) and 141.8 per 10,000 FTE for workers, ages 20–243.
- In 2020, the rate of work-related injuries treated in emergency departments for workers, ages 15–24, was 1.5 times greater than the rate for workers 25 years of age and older
Directions: Read the stories below and answer the questions in step 2
1) Two young workers (ages 14 and 19) were killed at a grain storage facility in the Midwest when they were sent into a grain bin to “walk down the corn.” The grain bin was being emptied, and the workers’ task was to break up clumps by walking on them to make the corn flow out of the bin. The workers were not provided safety harnesses, and the machinery used for evacuating the grain was running. The suction created by the flowing grain pulled them in like quicksand and suffocated them. Workers should never be inside a grain bin when it is being emptied out, because a sinkhole can form and pull down the worker in a matter of seconds. OSHA standards prohibit this dangerous practice. This company ignored that rule as well as other protective safety requirements. In addition, child labor laws made it illegal for this company to employ a 14-year-old to work in a grain silo.
2) An 18-year-old worker died after becoming entangled in a portable mortar mixer at a residential construction site. The victim was cleaning the mixer at the end of his shift to prepare it for the following day. A painter working near the victim heard yells for help and saw the victim’s arm stuck in the machine and his body being pulled into the rotating mixer paddles. He ran to the mixer and attempted to turn it off, but could not disengage the gears, so he yelled for help. A co-worker heard the commotion, ran to the machine and shut it off. Emergency medical services was called and responded within minutes. Rescue workers dismantled the drive mechanism to reverse the mixing paddles and extricate the worker. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Workers must be trained in safety procedures. A safety procedure that applies to this case is “lockout/tagout,” which requires turning off and disconnecting machinery or equipment from its energy source(s) before performing service or maintenance. In this example, the worker died when he was pulled into a mortar mixer that was actively operating and not locked out.
3) A 17-year-old assistant pool manager was electrocuted when she contacted an ungrounded electric motor. She was performing her work duty of maintaining the pH level of the swimming pool by adding soda ash to the water. Standing barefoot on the wet concrete floor of the pump room, she filled the plastic drum with water, plugged in the mixing motor and placed the motor switch in the on position. In the process of adding soda ash to the drum, she accidentally contacted the energized mixing motor with her left hand and created a path to ground for the electrical current. She was electrocuted and died.
4) There are no real outside wounds except the small scar on my elbow, but because there was so much electricity pumped into me, my body couldn’t handle the heat. It was burning me from the inside out. I was 19 and working for a heavy construction company, we were lowering a fire hydrant into a water main. I was watching the power lines above; to make sure we didn’t hit them, and the bank below, to make sure it didn’t cave in on the guys working in the hole. I had cut cable line tucked under my arm. The boom of the truck (which is like an arm) struck the power lines above us, causing electricity to arc into the cable line under my arm. I was conducting electricity through the cable line, which had latched itself onto my elbow and I couldn’t pull it off because the current was too strong. The operator couldn’t pull the boom of the machine off the wire for what seemed like an eternity, but they said it was only ten to twenty seconds. But that was enough. Ontario Hydro estimated 12,000 volts and 800 amps went through my body. All I could smell was burnt flesh.
They took me to the hospital and the doctors did everything they couldn’t, but the only thing they could was make me a little less uncomfortable. There was really nothing that could have been done; most people that are electrocuted like that don’t live through it. In the year that followed, I was in physiotherapy and I had to go back to the hospital a few times, because of the side effects. If I overuse my arm, it gets sore and swollen and I have to go to the hospital so they can relieve the pressure. Eventually, I’ll get arthritis in my arm. But that, I hope, will be far off in the future. They said probably by the time I’m thirty I’ll have arthritis, but nobody knows for sure. Too many times, people go for jobs just for the money. They go into the job without knowing a thing and they get hurt or even worse, killed. It doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 45, you’re still an employee and you have that right to ask your employer about safety. In fact, it’s your responsibility to ask them. Ask them what safety guidelines are and if there is safety training you can take. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about what happened, and that’s probably the worst thing about it. But I know I’m a stronger person now. When your faced with dying when your 19, when you should be worried about other things, that’s a huge change. Life is too short, and I got a second chance.
-Sarah Heyink
Safety Stories- Google Form
Complete the questions to receive full credit!
Thanks and see you when I return!
Thanks and see you when I return!
