A good test

You’ve been working with tools for decades. Think you could pass a test about their use?

Jennifer Hicks has a great Newsdesk article in the December issue of Woodshop News, describing a program being used in an Oregon school district. With safety in woodshop classrooms the primary goal, the program offers a series of online tool courses and tests, that allow educators and employers to see just how much a new student or employee knows about safe tool use. I decided I’d give it a try.

I went to the Teach Safely website, where you can choose to take a test as a student or employee, so I picked the latter and chose “Band Saw.” There’s a safety video those taking the quiz should watch first that covers everything on the test, but I thought I’d try based on my own knowledge. The band saw is the shop tool I’ve used the longest, so I figured I’d sail through it.

Well, the sea was angry that day my friends – I didn’t sail through it. Of the 17 questions, I got 13 right. After nursing my wounded pride, I watched the video to see what I got wrong. On the plus side, some of the questions required multiple checkmarks. I hadn’t realized that for some of them and just chose what I thought was the best answer.

The other two, well, let’s say I know better. In retrospect, they were obvious, but they were also things that after 40 years of using a band saw I’m not so strict about in my own use. While that might be all right in my own shop (rationalizing here), it’s certainly not OK in a teaching or work environment.

This is an excellent program. When I have a bit more time, I think I’ll go through all the tests. I’ll do it the same way – that is, I won’t watch the videos first – just to see how I do based on what I know. Hopefully, with a bit more attention to the questions I’ll do a bit better.