Standalone, Multitier Chemical Safety Curriculum Using RAMP to Support Risk Judgment Development

Abstract

Chemical laboratory safety education in higher education is frequently framed as compliance training, which limits the development of students’ risk judgment. This study presents a stand-alone, credit-bearing chemical safety curriculum structured across general education, undergraduate, and graduate levels, with the explicit goal of supporting risk judgment development through tier-specific instructional emphases. The curriculum adopts the RAMP (Recognize–Assess–Minimize–Prepare) framework as a unifying analytical language to maintain coherence while allowing differentiated instructional emphasis at each educational tier. Introductory courses focus on hazard recognition and conditional risk awareness. Undergraduate courses emphasize interpreting laboratory rules through risk-based reasoning, and graduate courses require integrated judgment and systematic risk assessment in research settings. By positioning laboratory safety as an independent, multitier educational pathway, this framework offers a scalable approach for strengthening both chemical safety education and academic safety culture.