Sometimes seeing what not to do is a good way to learn. We had a technique award in a group in which I did graduate work. The award was a bottle of chloroform with a Pasteur pipet inside and a pipet bulb swollen to the size of a kumquat floating in the solvent, plus a pair of tweezers (forceps) which had obviously been dropped in an attempt to retrieve the pipet before the person gave up and just put the jar back on the shelf. The award was rotated around the lab, being placed above the bench of whoever had some humorous misadventure and remaining there until someone else earned it.

While I don't think a technique award would be a good idea in Chem 113A, we have had several students make anonymous contributions to our bloopers files. Enjoy and learn from them....................................see if you can pick out what is wrong before reading the answers at the bottom of each page.