We have two weeks before we welcome back our undergraduate students and meet the new first year students who are beginning their Lancaster University experience. There are four people in the Teaching Technician Team of Lancaster Environment Centre, and we have a lot to do before the academic year begins.

Today we are sorting out new lab coats to give to the new students along with their new lab books. We are expecting about 120 students to join us so there are quite a few boxes to organise. There are two labs dedicated to the undergraduate students and the smaller lab currently has some equipment servicing happening. All of the department has their pipettes serviced, which is a vast number, there is a contractor doing that for about 10 days. We also had Dale in to Service our flame photometer equipment yesterday, luckily everything is working well so that equipment will be used later this term in a practical looking at pollution.

I am overly excited to be getting my new dishwasher plumbed in tomorrow as it is probably the piece of kit which is used the most and makes my job much easier. Who doesn’t like a brand new dishwasher!

I have also been attending a couple of training courses this week while I have the opportunity. The Institute of Science and Technology run a lot of online training courses for technicians, and we have a moment to think about training and skills. Once practical work begins we have students in the labs most days and are very hectic.

The other technicians and I are really looking forward to having the students back and although it is exhausting it is the part of the job which gives us the most satisfaction, when a student improves their technical skills, learns how to use a piece of equipment or simply has a fun time doing some lab work.

First thing this morning an academic brought in several bags of plant material to dry in our ovens to calculate the biomass and last thing this afternoon a different academic is due to bring us some soil samples for the students to analyse at the start of term.

We have two benches full of field work equipment boxes of first aid kits, trowels, sample bottles, wellies, and lots of other assorted items which will be going with the students on a fieldtrip for a week before term starts. Let us hope they get nice weather for that!

Finally, by the end of the week we need everything to be clean and tidy for open day on Saturday. The labs form an important part of the Environmental Sciences Degree programmes, and we want to make sure they are looking their best. Hopefully, we can impress on the visitors how great Lancaster University is so they will be receiving their new lab coat in 12 months’ time.

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