Australia's Science Forum

Hey Lab Technicians,

I hope that you've all had a good year and have a nice Christmas lined up.

I've been reflecting on my year and I've been looking for some ways to improve things for 2023, especially in regards to making things more time-efficient. I found this year that my big gain was labelling all of the drawers and cupboards in the prep room accurately, which has saved me HEAPS of time looking for stuff.

What about you guys? anything you've tried or looking to test out?

I think it always helps to have teachers who are organised and give plenty of notice for pracs. So have rules about time frames, remind teachers at the start of the year and enforce it for repeat offenders. I'm always understanding of teachers who forget, have plans changed etc. Teachers who order late pracs as part of their regular teaching pattern get disappointed. A couple of warnings and then "no".
Encouraging teachers to do the same pracs for each class is a great time saver as well. This is a tricky one to negotiate as we can't dictate to the teachers but often if they know it helps us they will try to work towards that.
In quiet times, always be planning for the busy times - making sure droppers are topped up, stock solutions are on hand, fiddly pracs (cutting cardboard, foil or paper) are organised ready to go.
I have a stocktake list of nearly all our equipment showing the location. If I'm not around, teachers can find things themselves (I trust my guys).

And learn to say "no" to things outside of Science if you feel they are causing you stress.

Retire

I try to order or organise things well ahead of time, once I've seen the Scope and Sequence for the year. Order things in, Dissections etc.,

Oh Macca!

I try and try to find out the scope and sequence for the year, but do you think I am privvy to it? i am definitely getting too old, I can't be bothered chasing it up. I am completely happy with the fact they must submit requests 48hrs in advance and even better if the prac requires a grocery item then they need at least 5 days notice. And I have been practising "NO" in the mirror. (where is the old and cranky emoji?)

Loopy wrote: ↑12 Dec 2022, 13:36 where is the old and cranky emoji?

That would be a picture of me

I got my hands on a copy of the week to week curriculum plan for each year level and gone through all the pracs and lessons. So I know exactly when each year level is doing what topic and what pracs are required for each. I have spent a bit of time looking at it because I only started a few months ago.

I am testing out a new program called LabLogger and preinput all of the pracs for each term with all the needed info. This will help manage stock as well as bookings. Ideally the teachers can just add the session and date and it will be all good to go (Hopefully)! Mind you I am lucky and only have to look after years 7-9 at my campus.

RodD wrote: ↑15 Dec 2022, 13:32 I got my hands on a copy of the week to week curriculum plan for each year level and gone through all the pracs and lessons. So I know exactly when each year level is doing what topic and what pracs are required for each. I have spent a bit of time looking at it because I only started a few months ago.

I am testing out a new program called LabLogger and preinput all of the pracs for each term with all the needed info. This will help manage stock as well as bookings. Ideally the teachers can just add the session and date and it will be all good to go (Hopefully)! Mind you I am lucky and only have to look after years 7-9 at my campus.

Just looked up lablogger, if we didn't have Risk Assess I'd probably go with something like that, looks fancy.

Thanks Anna! The first year is free to try so thought we might as well give it a shot