Tbh these numbers dont surprise me much given my experiences as a lab coordinator. The highschool students were far far more prone to mistakes and accidents than the college students were and those were the gifted students. Theyd do stuff like leave broken glassware and glass shards in the dirty glassware bins for me to find. One tried to cause an explosion by turning the gas on for all the bunsen burners and walking out. (Instructor reprimanded for leaving them in the lab unattended, student was expelled) The point is I am not surprised by these numbers at all.
That sounds genuinely shocking to me, in what country? Do you not have supervisors for the high school students? At uni you shouldn’t need much supervision, but for teenagers that’s mandatory.
This was at a community college in the US. Instructors are supposed to be supervising them with lab coordinators supporting them. The lab that had the gas incident was downstairs and the student was left unattended or otherwise gained access to the lab after class. Hence the instructor’s supervisor had a chat with them about not doing that. The biology lab coordinator responsible for those labs found the gas was on and had to shut off the gas.
As for the broken glass, theyd break something then throw it in the dirty glassware bin hoping no one would find out. Which is sad because students shouldnt be afraid of it being found out that they broke glassware on accident. Almost everyone breaks glassware on accident eventually. I just want that broken glassware to be dealt with correctly so I dont find out what they did when dealing with the dirty glassware after class.
