Risk to Resilience: Science-Driven Workplace Safety
An understanding of science can help us anticipate workplace hazards and inform tools and strategies that reduce the risk of harm.
Overview
Through this group work activity, learners collaborate to examine how scientific ideas help explain workplace hazards in ways that inform safer designs.
By exploring the science behind common workplace hazards, learners identify and apply the scientific ideas most useful for designing innovations that improve workplace safety. Learners focus on a specific workplace hazard as a context for evaluating the usefulness of different scientific ideas. Learners then apply these ideas by using a selected workplace hazard and creating a sketch illustrating how science could inform a safety innovation.
Instructions
What you'll need
- "Understanding the science behind the hazards" slideshow
Per student:
- "Scientific ideas" briefing sheets
- "Scientific Ideas and Workplace Hazards" worksheet
- "Using Science to Design Safer Workplaces " worksheet
- "Workplace Hazards" briefing sheets
Learning Launch
- Slide 1- Invite learners, in pairs or small groups, to think about workplaces they are familiar with (e.g., part-time jobs, co-op placements, family workplaces, or jobs they may pursue in the future). Explain that scientists and engineers draw on many different scientific ideas when designing safer workplaces.
- Slide 2- Provide learners with the Workplace Hazards briefing sheet and ask them to briefly skim the descriptions to remind themselves of common workplace hazards. Explain that they are not expected to analyze the hazards yet.
- Slide 3- Provide learners with a list of eight broad scientific idea areas (from the briefing sheets, without details) and explain that these ideas may be familiar or new and represent different kinds of scientific thinking used to improve workplace safety. Ask learners to work individually or in pairs to respond to the following prompt: “Which scientific ideas do you think would be most useful for designing innovations that improve workplace safety?”
- Slide 4- Invite learners to select two or three scientific ideas they think are most useful and briefly explain their thinking.
- Optionally, invite a few volunteers to share their initial choices and thinking. Remind learners that these are initial ideas that they will revisit and revise as they examine evidence.
Developing Understanding
- Slide 5- Explain that learners will focus on one common workplace hazard as a real-world situation for deciding which scientific ideas are most useful. Groups may be assigned a hazard or may choose one that feels relevant to their experiences or interests.
- Slide 6- Provide learners with copies of the Scientific Ideas briefing sheets. Explain that learners will use scientific ideas as evidence to help decide which ideas are most helpful for improving workplace safety.
- Slide 7- Introduce the following criteria for deciding which scientific ideas are most useful for designing innovations that improve workplace safety:
- helps explain why the hazard happens
- helps identify when or where the hazard is most likely to occur
- helps suggest practical safety strategies or design ideas that reduce the risk of harm for different workers and situations
- Ask learners to carefully read the briefing sheets and determine which scientific ideas are most helpful for explaining their selected workplace hazard, using evidence from the scientific ideas.
- Provide learners with the Scientific Ideas and Workplace Hazards student worksheet. Ask learners to use the scientific ideas and the criteria to identify up to three scientific ideas that are most useful for understanding the selected hazard and reducing the risk of harm. Instruct learners to record evidence from the scientific ideas to support their choices, and indicate how they will help reduce risk.
- See teaching notes for more information on what this thinking might look like.
- Slide 8- Invite pairs or small groups to share examples of scientific ideas they now see as more useful, along with the evidence that helped clarify or change their thinking. Use this time to clarify scientific ideas as needed and to highlight how different scientific ideas can point to different approaches to improving workplace safety.
Reflect and Revise
- Provide learners with the Using Science to Design Safer Workplaces worksheet.
- Ask learners to use two of their scientific ideas identified on their Scientific Ideas and Workplace Hazards worksheet to sketch a safety strategy or design idea that could reduce risk in the workplace hazard they explored. Explain that the purpose of the sketch is to show how scientific ideas can inform safer workplace designs, not to create a finished or detailed solution.
- Invite learners to label or annotate their sketch to show:
- which scientific ideas they are drawing on, and
- how those ideas help reduce the risk of harm.
- Encourage learners to use the same criteria they applied earlier (why the hazard happens, when or where it occurs, and how risk could be reduced) to guide their design thinking.
- Invite learners to share their sketches and explanations with a partner or small group, listening for ideas that might help them refine or clarify their thinking. Then give them some time to apply any changes to their sketches.
- Finally, invite learners to briefly reflect:
- Which scientific ideas became more important to you as you worked through the evidence and design task?
- What helped refine or change your thinking from your initial ideas at the start of the activity?
Modify or extend this activity
- Learners can be invited to add additional scientific ideas. This could be lightly gamified by having learners introduce a new scientific idea and challenge peers to identify how it might apply to a workplace hazard.
- This activity can be extended by inviting learners to act on their selected hazards and scientific ideas by designing or prototyping an innovation that improves workplace safety.
Curriculum Fit
This activity also supports learning connections in Science 10, Chemistry 11, Physics 11, and ADST 10–12
Science for Citizens 11
Big Ideas
- Scientific knowledge and technological design influence human health, safety, and quality of life.
- Evidence-based reasoning supports informed decision-making about personal and community issues.
Content
- Applications of scientific knowledge to issues related to safety and well-being
- Consideration of risks and benefits associated with hazards and technologies
- Decision-making using evidence and scientific reasoning
Curricular Competencies
Questioning and predicting
- Ask questions to clarify how scientific ideas relate to workplace hazards and safety concerns.
Processing and analyzing data and information
- Use provided scientific information to identify cause-and-effect relationships related to workplace hazards.
- Use evidence from texts and diagrams to support decisions.
Evaluating
- Use criteria and evidence to reason about risk and safety in personal and social contexts.
- Consider how hazards and safety strategies may affect different people or situations.
Applying and innovating
- Apply scientific ideas to propose or sketch a safety strategy that could reduce risk.
- Transfer scientific understanding to a new, real-world context.
Communicating
- Communicate scientific reasoning using appropriate language, representations, and evidence.
- Explain how scientific ideas inform decisions about workplace safety.
Assessments
In this group work activity, opportunities for assessment, in the form of ongoing guidance and feedback, are embedded throughout the instructional process.
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Teaching Notes
These teaching notes contain more information on the following sections of the activity:
- Learning Launch
- Developing Understanding
- What student reasoning might look like
- Reflect and revise
Learning Launch
If doing this activity with a group of learners, allow time for individual thinking before small-group sharing and discussion about which scientific ideas were most helpful for the selected hazard.
When inviting learners to share, encourage them to explain why they selected certain scientific ideas as more useful. Emphasize that there is no single correct answer at this stage and that learners will revisit and revise their thinking as they examine evidence.
Developing Understanding
If working with a group, allow time for paired or small-group discussion as learners connect scientific ideas to workplace hazards and record evidence from the briefing sheets. Encourage learners to explain their reasoning and to listen for similarities and differences in thinking.
When introducing the criteria for useful scientific ideas, connect learners’ emerging observations to the criteria and emphasize that the criteria are meant to support thoughtful judgment, not to identify a single correct answer.
If working with an individual learner, encourage them to talk through how the scientific ideas relate to hazards and how the evidence might change their initial thinking.
Support student voice by using evidence to support safety communication. As learners connect scientific ideas to workplace hazards, highlight how scientific evidence can strengthen explanations of safety concerns. Encourage learners to consider how understanding the science behind a hazard can help workers explain risks clearly and justify the need for safer practices or designs.
What student reasoning might look like (for teacher reference)
In this activity, students use evidence from the Scientific Ideas briefing sheets to explain why certain scientific ideas help them understand a workplace hazard and how those ideas can inform ways risk might be reduced.
For example:
A learner examining exposed electrical wiring might connect Electricity and Materials and their properties. Using the briefing sheets, they could explain that electricity can cause shocks or burns when insulation is damaged, and that different materials vary in how well they insulate, conduct, or degrade over time, especially in environments with moisture or wear. These ideas help explain why the hazard is dangerous, when or where risk is greatest, and how scientific understanding can inform directions for innovation or design that could reduce risk, such as improving insulation, protecting wiring from moisture or damage, or limiting contact through barriers or controls.
Note: This example is not a model answer. Different scientific ideas or combinations of ideas may be equally valid, as long as students use criteria and evidence from the briefing sheets to support their reasoning.
Reflect and Revise
If working with a group, allow time for small-group sharing and discussion of how scientific ideas were applied to the selected hazard. Encourage learners to listen for ideas that might prompt them to reconsider which scientific ideas are most useful or how they might apply them.
Emphasize that revising one’s thinking based on evidence and discussion is an expected and valued part of the learning process.
Career Connections
This activity supports the Career Life Education curriculum by helping students explore how workplace safety, well-being, and professional behavior connect to real-world careers.
Through this activity, students consider:
- Strategies for maintaining well-being in personal and work life, including attention to workplace safety
- Appropriate workplace behavior and workplace safety
- ways to contribute to community and society through work, taking cultural influences into consideration
Safety-Related Careers at BC Hydro
The concepts explored in this activity relate to a range of safety-focused and operational roles at BC Hydro, including:
- Occupational Health and Safety Advisor
- Safety Program Specialist
- Field Safety Officer
- Electrical Safety Officer
- Power System Operator
- Substation or Transmission Technician
- Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Specialist
- Compliance and Risk Management Specialist
These careers involve identifying hazards, following safety procedures, protecting workers and communities, and supporting safe, reliable electricity delivery across British Columbia.
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From the unit:
Gr. 10-12
Workplace for safety Innovation
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