Select, order, and maintain materials and supplies for teaching and research, such as textbooks, chemicals, and laboratory equipment.

“Select, order, and maintain materials and supplies for teaching and research, such as textbooks, chemicals, and laboratory equipment.” is a core task performed by Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary. Among the occupation's 28 rated tasks, workers place it 13th by importance (#16 most important). About 94% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Select materials or equipment for operations or projects. in Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Replenish inventories of materials, equipment, or products. in Monitoring and Controlling Resources
• Purchase goods or services. in Monitoring and Controlling Resources

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemical separation. · importance 4.8
• Establish, teach, and monitor students' compliance with safety rules for handling chemicals, equipment, and other hazardous materials. · importance 4.7
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory performance, assignments, and papers. · importance 4.6
• Supervise students' laboratory work. · importance 4.5
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records. · importance 4.4
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work. · importance 4.4
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others. · importance 4.4
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts. · importance 4.4
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, and course materials and methods of instruction. · importance 4.3
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students. · importance 4.2
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media. · importance 4.1
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions. · importance 4.0
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences. · importance 3.9
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-20072,
  title  = {Select, order, and maintain materials and supplies for teaching and research, such as textbooks, chemicals, and laboratory equipment.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-20072}
}