In our genchem program, we put out a cart that has all of the glassware and other materials that students will need for the experiment of the week. Chemicals are put out in the fume hood or next to the balances.

We have 24 students (max) in each lab section and students typically work in pairs. After the prelab activity, the students get their supplies from the cart and bring them back to their lab bench. On the cart, students find a list of the specific glassware/supplies that they need for their experiment. At then end of an experiment, students are responsible for cleaning the glassware/supplies and returning them to the cart so that they're available for the next lab period. Normally, at the end of the week, the glassware is cleaned by the student assistants responsible for glassware.

We have a team of dedicated student assistants who prep our labs. Each week, they prepare the chemicals for the following week's lab. They also lay out the supplies on the cart so that they're ready to go each week.

As an undergrad and TA, I was in labs where I had my own drawer of supplies. When I came to JMU I thought that it was odd to do things any other way. However, by the end of the first semester, I realized that this worked quite well for the types of experiments that we're doing in general chemistry. There are some issues with cross-contamination from glassware, but students are aware of potential problems and are on the look-out for this. I'm not sure that I would recommend this model for organic or analytical labs, but it works well for us when we have a dedicated time to prep (e.g. Friday afternoons) each week.

My biggest complaint about moving away from the drawer model is that students have no where to stow their safety glasses. We're constantly renting goggles to forgetful students.

our junior level laboratory is a huge room split down the middle by a row of hoods so it feels like two rooms. We often (usually) teach two labs in there simultaneously (organic and inorganic for example) on both sides.  We have a shared glassware model, and the problems are many.  Glassware moves from one side to the other.  Glassware doesn't get cleaned or put away, as there is no individual responsibility.  It only takes one person forgetting to put something away, and its amazing, but the glassware accretes there as if by magnetism! 

I have been very frustrated by the shared glassware model, and for the past several years in my inorganic lab, I provide little bins (Ziplock large rectangles I believe, about 10 inches by 5 inches by 2 inches) containing a small amount of glassware special to the inorganic lab (2-neck RBF, stir bars, NMR tubes, spatulas, and a gas inlet adapter).  We just bought a rolling cart that has 24 drawers and this coming spring I will use it to provide a slightly larger set of individual glassware to students.

The reason we went to a shared model (25 years ago?) is because we didn't want to have 32 sets of glassware when we only needed 8 per day, and the glassware didn't dry between weeks.  So, I don't know how we will handle these issues.  I don't think there is a perfect solution.

For our INTRO lab, we have staff and student support to get each lab station set up with all the glassware they need.  Students wash and return the glassware to their individual station, and each morning, the staff person checks that it is complete and adds or moves stuff as needed.

hope that helps,

Adam

1. We didn't have any mechanism in place to hold students accountable for their equipment. If a student broke something or misplaced it, we just gave them a replacement. If there's no accountability for the students, then checking into drawers seems a little futile.

2. Our new lab space has 6 drawers per work station, so if we needed to run more than 6 labs a week (which we often do...) then we were in trouble.

3. The students didn't really see the point in checking in and out of drawers (probably related to #1) and it was a big time commitment on the first and last day of lab.

As a compromise, we have a single lab drawer at each station that is used for all of the Gen Chem labs. We doubled up on some of the common equipment, and removed things that weren't used anymore. For the most part, this works well, but:

-1. Students have to be constantly reminded to wash their glassware and return it to the drawer. This has always been the case, but with individual drawer if the students left dirty glassware it was just for themselves.

-2. For some experiments, dry glassware is critical, but if the first lab of the day washes all their test-tubes then the second class has a drawer full of wet test-tubes. In these cases, we will typically put a cart of the glassware in question out and students can exchange wet (but clean) glassware for dry glassware.

As a student I really like having my own locker. That way you know that all of your lab equipment is in one place and you don't have to worry about anything else. I could see the bench idea working as well in theory but personally I'll go with the lockers.

For our gen chem and organic labs, each pair of students gets a glassware box (a plastic bin) with all of the needed glassware etc.  We store these in big metal cabinets, and so at the start of each lab, the pair of students goes and gets their bin, then they put it back at the end.  They can keep their safety glasses in there too which is nice!  For our upper division labs (i.e. inorganic) we have a shared glassware model.  Students re CONSTANTLY reminded to clean their glassware and put it back, which few like to do, at least until they learn that having to clean glassware at the begining of lab and/or getting knocked points is no fun!