A lesson on blood-typing turned out to be the last class taught by Miyoshi McMillan. She allowed her students to prick their fingers with lancets packed in lab kits to find out their own blood types. Students then cleaned the needles with alcohol swaps before other classes used them.
"I had to monitor. I couldn't just sit at the desk and lollygag. I had to really walk around the room and were the alcohol wipes enough? Would that be enough? From my prior knowledge, I thought it was," she said. "We don't want students, first of all, sharing a needle and second of all having any type of human blood in the classroom."
The original lesson plan called for using synthetic blood. McMillan plans to head back to school to get her PhD.
