A science laboratory is an unusual space in an arts institution. However, the Grow Lab falls under the same UAL’s Health and Safety Policy requirements as any other workshop (UAL, 2023). As a technician, I must commit to doing all possible to protect the safety, health and wellbeing of students, staff, contractors and visitors.
The pedagogical challenge is: providing appropriate health and safety training for the individualized nature of projects students develop here. For example, a student wanting to work with a new chemical reagent, like sodium periodate, that we have no previous experience with.
Like any workshop, there are standard methods, equipment and rules that are easy to establish and enforce: no eating or drinking in the lab, mandatory PPE use, and compliance with the traffic light system for equipment and machinery (UAL, nd).
CLEAPSS (an advisory training provider for practical work in science) notes that safe laboratory practice requires “vigilance…which must be maintained” (CLEAPSS, 2008), and this vigilance becomes complex when the unique nature of student’s projects is incompatible with the increasing cohort numbers and amount of dedicated time each student has with technicians.
As technician I must assess proposed activities for their viability and safety, research unfamiliar procedures, if the student’s skill set is compatible with the proposed activity, determine what level of independent work is safe for each student, and offer the training they require in language appropriate to their background. As Hofstein and Kind (2008) said: In practical work, it is important to avoid excess information and overload of students to ensure a simple and safe way towards learning.
Despite standardization being insufficient to cover all project safety needs, we try to optimize time, support student independence and guarantee safety by:
- Students undergo basic H&S induction at their first term, and are reminded through signs and constant communication.
- Students have their methods checked frequently by technicians for safety and viability, with unsuitable elements substituted, reduced, or forbidden
- A series of resources is available: guides, lists, protocols and external references, working as FAQs that reduce variables for common methods
- Specific methods that impose higher risk have individual training and supervision. Some procedures are done exclusively by the technician and explained to the student.
In the example of the sodium periodate, I:
- Reached out to an external chemist advisor (CLEAPSS) for protocol and risk evaluation
- Studied the protocol and consulted colleagues before final decisions.
- Explained the conditions, concerns, and procedures to the student.
- Isolated the work area.
The experiment was performed with excessive care, but guaranteed minimal risk, and achieved a positive result.
Good laboratory safety balances structure with flexibility. It is fundamental to say yes to students’ interests, curiosities and aims. However, the most valuable trait to have is recognizing when I don’t know something and working together with them within my means to find solutions while ensuring everyone’s safety.
We are currently limited by time and number of core users to have more personalizd time with each student. Hopefully, by creating extra video inductions for less common processes, we can free up technicians time to more one on one problem-solving, and to be able to say yes to new, more challenging cases.
References
CLEAPSS (2008) Health and safety in the school laboratory and the new science teacher. Uxbridge: CLEAPSS.
Hofstein, A. and Lunetta, V. N. (2004) ‘The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty-first century’, Science Education, 88(1), pp. 28–54.
University of the Arts London (n.d.) Studio and workshop safety. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/health-and-safety-for-students/information-and-resources/studio-and-workshop-safety (Accessed: 17 March 2026).