We are renting a house in Hervey Bay for a week and running a couple of afternoons of workshops. But we think we can run a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure thing where instead of offering only one workshop we can offer a range of topics to be run concurrently and you choose which one you want to do. We’ll do it under the mango tree in the backyard at the house.
It’s a bit experimental but we think we can make it work.
We’re trying to find a way to offer more flexibility in a program and not lock people into doing the workshop of our choice or wait for the next opportunity to roll around. What do you think? Is it too crazy?
4 June 2014 Piglet dissection workshop for secondary science teachers and lab techs 11 June 2014 Eye dissection workshop for primary teachers and teacher aides
Venue: the fabulous new labs at USC Gympie
One of my favourite things about conferences is catching up with the other suppliers and checking out all the cool new stuff they have for you. In Cairns in June the lovely lads from Scientrific gave me a sample of the Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector with instructions to try it out as a dissection mat and report back.
Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
The mat comes as a sheet or a roll and you can easily cut a piece to the size you need. It’s designed with all sorts of lab tasks in mind, it’s chemical resistant and absorbs spills.
Foreground – waterproof back of mat, Background – slip resistant front of mat. Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
The front of the mat is slightly fuzzy and the back has a waterproof coating to stop ‘yuck’ from soaking through on to the bench. I’m going to test it out on an eye dissection to see how it goes.
Porcine eye dissection performed on Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
The slip resistant surface of the mat held on to the specimen nicely and stopped it from scooting out from under the scalpel blade. Porcine eyes aren’t very big so your fingers are quite close to the blade. The less slippage, the better. Once the eye was opened the mat soaked up the vitreous humour that spills out and usually makes your dissection tray a bit slippery.
Aftermath of the porcine eye dissection on Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
I didn’t bother with a dissection board – I just used the mat directly on the table. You can see the back of the mat here hasn’t let any of the moisture leak through and hasn’t been cut by the normal use of the scalpel.
Waterproof back of mat following porcine eye dissection on Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
I tested a direct slice with the scalpel onto the mat and it did go straight through but that wouldn’t be a problem during a normal dissection. Pushing the scalpel straight down through the layers of the cornea onto the mat didn’t cut through it at all. You would probably use the mat on top of some sort of dissection board in the classroom anyway to avoid any damage to your benchtops.
Hole cut with scalpel in Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector from Scientrific
At the end of the dissection your boards and benches should just need a quick spray and wipe down with some disinfectant unless someone has really gone to town with the scalpel on the mat. The mat can be cut to size and then the leftovers can be wrapped up in it and disposed of so there is very little wastage and it will help with tidy up at the end of the class.
All in all, I think this would be a valuable addition to the lab. Not only for dissections but for all sorts of experiments in the classroom as well as for jobs in the prep room. Don’t forget it is chemical resistant as well so it can be used to protect your benchtops from chemistry experiment spills and thrills. Next time you see Scientrific at a conference then ask to have a look at a sample.
The Nalgene Super Versi-Dry Surface Protector sample was supplied free of charge on the understanding that it would be honestly reviewed on this site without influencing the outcome of the review.
