Rank the Risks: Workplace Safety

In this thought starter activity, opportunities for assessment, in the form of ongoing guidance and feedback, are embedded throughout the instructional practices.

• Use the initial invitation to select the top five workplace hazards as an opportunity to gather insight into learners’ current thinking, including how they understand the breadth and depth of impact associated with different hazards.
• Use the Workplace Hazards Worksheet to notice and support learners as they select relevant evidence, connect it to the criteria, and develop reasoned judgments about workplace risks.
• Use learners’ opportunities to reflect on and revise their initial selections, including discussion with peers, to support and guide flexible thinking and, where applicable, collaborative thinking.
• Use opportunities for learners to share their reasoning on the Ranking Ladder to support the development of clear communication, including the use of appropriate science-related terms.
• Use learners’ evolving Ranking Ladder and written explanations to guide feedback on how effectively they are using criteria and evidence to assess and prioritize safety risks.

• Learning Launch
• Developing Understanding
• Reflect and Revise

Learning Launch

If doing this activity with a group of learners, allow time for individual selection of the top five hazards before inviting sharing with the whole group. This supports independent thinking before discussion.

When inviting learners to share, encourage them to explain their thinking about why they selected certain hazards as more urgent and why others were of lesser concern. Emphasize that there is no single correct answer; the goal is to surface initial ideas and reasoning that can be revisited later.

If working with an individual learner, invite them to talk through their initial selections and explain their thinking. Where appropriate, prompt them with questions or additional information to support reflection, without evaluating or correcting their choices.

Support student voice in identifying safety risk. As learners assess and prioritize workplace hazards, emphasize that recognizing risks and being able to name concerns are important parts of workplace safety. Invite learners to consider how workers with different levels of experience or authority might notice hazards differently, and how evidence and criteria can support clear communication about safety risks. Here is the link to WorkSafe BC's Listen to your Gut campaign that empowers young workers to speak up when they think the workplace is unsafe.

Developing Understanding

When presenting the criteria, connect learners’ ideas to the criteria and consider revising or adding to the criteria if warranted. Use questions, examples, or additional information to support learners’ thinking, rather than correcting their ideas.

If doing this activity with a group of learners, allow time for paired or small group discussion as learners read the briefing sheets, record evidence under each criterion, and revisit their initial selection of the top five hazards. Encourage learners to explain their thinking and to listen for similarities and differences in how others are judging urgency. 

If working with an individual learner, encourage them to explain their thinking as they read and consider the details in the briefing sheets, record information under each criterion, and revisit their initial selection of the top five hazards.

Reflect and Revise

If working with a group of learners, use chart paper and markers to have pairs or small groups create a large-format version of the ranking ladder. This helps make learners’ thinking visible.

Invite groups to share their rankings and rationales and encourage others to listen for ideas, information, or reasoning that might prompt them to reconsider their own ranking. Emphasize that revising one’s thinking in light of new perspectives is an expected and valued part of the thinking process.