Why a checklist before every lab
An anatomy bench is the one place in a high-school education where a careless step can actually hurt someone. Scalpels cut, preservative fumes irritate lungs and eyes, and a specimen handled carelessly does not forgive inattention. A pre-lab checklist is not bureaucracy — it is the routine that makes safe, prepared work automatic, so that on the day a dissection gets tricky the student's hands already know what to do.
It also does something quieter: it forces the student to arrive ready. The most dangerous lab partner is the one who skimmed the procedure in the hallway. This checklist closes that gap. Print one for every lab, work top to bottom, and do not pick up a scalpel until the last box is checked.
The goal is not to follow rules. It is to walk to the bench already knowing the hazards, the steps, and the result you expect.
1 — Safety
Nothing below this section happens until everything in it is done. No exceptions, every lab, every time.
- Splash-proof safety goggles on — over the eyes, not pushed up on the forehead.
- Nitrile gloves on, correct size, no holes; sleeves down and long hair tied back.
- Closed-toe shoes and a lab coat or apron; no loose clothing near the bench.
- The handling notes read for every specimen and preservative in use — hazards, first aid, and disposal noted.
- The room ventilated — a window open or a fume extractor running — before any preserved specimen is unsealed.
- Sink, eyewash or clean-water source, first-aid kit, and spill supplies located — you know where each one is before you start.
- Sharps container and biological-waste bag identified — you know exactly where used blades and specimen waste go.
2 — Setup
With safety confirmed, build the bench so the work flows without scrambling mid-dissection.
- The full procedure read end to end — not skimmed — so you know what step comes next.
- All instruments and models gathered, clean, and laid out in order of use.
- The right measuring tool — stethoscope, blood-pressure cuff, spirometer, goniometer, or tape — selected to match the precision the step requires.
- Microscope focused, or the model at hand; you know which structures or measurements you need to record and in what detail.
- Specimen or slide located, labels double-checked against the procedure, and its condition confirmed.
- Dissection tray and kit set up safely — scalpel blades seated correctly and a sharps container within reach.
- Lab notebook open to a fresh, dated page with the title and question already written.
3 — Readiness: the pre-lab questions
This is the section that separates a technician from an anatomist. Before the first cut or measurement, the student should be able to answer these in writing — in the lab notebook, in their own words.
- What is the question? State, in one sentence, what this lab is trying to find out, identify, or measure.
- What is the anatomy? Name the structures or the physiological relationship the lab depends on.
- What is my prediction? A specific expectation — the structure you expect to find, the approximate resting pulse, the reflex you expect to see.
- What am I recording, and in what units? Name every structure or quantity you will record, its unit where it has one, and its uncertainty.
- What could go wrong? Identify the one or two steps most likely to introduce error, and how you will minimize them.
- What does success look like? Know, before you begin, what a reasonable result would be — so an absurd number raises a flag at the bench, not a week later.
A student who answers all six is not guessing their way through a recipe — they are running a lab they understand, with a result they can already roughly predict. That is exactly the readiness the lab-notebook entry is built to capture, and the kind of preparation a lab defense is designed to reward.