Lab sessions are one of a kind in NUS High, with exciting and new experiments aimed to add meaning and practical application to the content taught in Chemistry, Physics and Biology lessons. Students have and continue to cherish the vivid colours of titration experiments, explosive results in colliding carts experiments and the intricate dissections of a sheep’s heart in school labs. While these memories remain beloved and unforgettable, we often forget about the lab officers who work hard behind the scenes in setting up often complicated and heavy equipment, configuring and maintaining different instruments and more importantly, helping students with diagnosing and configuring experiments gone wrong. These lab officers, who generally only appear at the end of the lessons to clean up the students’ wet messes and unclean beakers, have such packed schedules that they rarely start conversations with students, let alone discuss about their work schedule and work life in school.

To answer the unanswered question of what lab officers really do, we interviewed Mr Leong over at the D&E Lab and Mr Joseph at the Physics Lab.

^{CASE STUDY 1: MR LEONG (D&E LAB)}

Mr Leong, a lively lab officer, took time out of his busy schedule to provide us with a glimpse into his world. His journey in NUSH dates to 2007, where he originally joined the school as a lab officer at the physics lab (present day D&E lab). He shared that in 2009, the school expanded the research lab circuit by constructing the current level 6 specialised research labs, designed to host advanced equipment for advanced experiments. During this revamp, a new demonstration lab and a new dry lab were constructed under the staff room. The old physics lab was reborn as the D&E lab, inaugurated by Professor Soo Khee Chee in 2012. Since then, Mr Leong has made its office his second home and he has helmed most of the activities happening there.

Above: Mr Leong’s role as a lab technician in the D&E lab requires him to carry out safety checks for equipment such as woodworking tools, and to set up equipment for practical lessons.

Mr Leong’s typical mornings are packed with routine systems checks for the various machines in the lab. These checks ensure safety and cleanliness when students and staff use them. For a simple laser cutter or 3D printer, he does regular A/B testing, ensures all subparts of the machinery are in perfect condition, and confirms that no anomalies are detected. He goes the extra mile to ensure the machine’s longevity by checking on its processes regularly. In addition to this, he conducts a regular inventory check where he weeds out defective parts before every scheduled lesson in the lab, keeping a collection of spare parts to ensure every workshop — be it a soldering module or Arduino coding project— goes smoothly. Another important aspect of lab maintenance is to ensure the definitive performance of all emergency appliances such as fire blankets, extinguishers and more, which he carries out dutifully.

Every afternoon, Mr Leong helps with DV lessons and ensures the safety of students using soldering and industrial equipment. By helping Dr Andre in practical sessions, he also aims to instil a sense of confidence and curiosity in every student. In one instance, a student who had never handled the big wood cutter machine before, was very nervous to position the wood and cut it for their Year 1 Speaker Box project. He gave the student a clear one-on-one demonstration, then placing his hand on side of the wood and helping them place their hand on the other side, providing a strong sense of assurance. They cut the wood using the machine together. Through him, many generations of students learnt more than just practical skills and were able to overcome their fears.

Mr Leong elaborated that being a lab officer means not only machinery checks and practical skills but also internal school events. He is a member of the Staff Innovation Committee, regularly helping in school events such as Convocation and other outreach workshops. Throughout his time as a member in the Innovation Committee, he expanded his work field to interact with external stakeholders and hold meaningful conversations on different issues, allowing him to learn more about the different cultures of various organisations. Besides conducting risk assessments for external school VIA projects and helping with administrative work, striking up conversations with NUSH students have been his favourite pastime. As a former MOE lab officer at a Junior College, his job scope left him yearning for more student interaction, something he feels NUSH has provided. “Through the failures of past students, I take the lessons learned from them and apply it to current students,” he says.

_{^{CASE STUDY #2: MR JOSEPH TAN (PHYSICS LABS)}}

Above: Mr Joseph’s typical workspace in the Applied Technology lab.

Having been with the school for 18 years, Mr Joseph who chanced upon the job opening in a newspaper’s classified section, has experienced many different phases of change since then. Originally, he worked in the old physics lab with Mr Leong, but with the inception of the research labs at level 6, he was shifted up to the applied technology lab. Most often, he is required to help teachers set up equipments for practical physics lessons, and he provides technical assistance in the experimental set ups. “Every day is different,” he remarked, “I have to make sure that there are no issues with the set up and help reset the equipment for the next class. Of course, if the students are good, they will reset everything by themselves.”

Mr Joseph does not just help with students’ practical lab sessions. Like Mr Leong, he is involved in various other staff committees serving a wide series of events and purposes around school. “I am in the safety and Emergency Response Group (ERG),” he added, which responds to emergency situations and is involved in fire and lockdown drills. When the alarm rings, he is one of the few you will see scurrying around the school to defuse tense situations. Special training is required, and all staff in the ERG must be certified to serve there.

Apart from that, he was also part of the speech day committee this year, helping to coordinate logistics and administrative details to ensure the event ran smoothly, especially with the arrival of the President celebrating the school’s 20^th anniversary. Similarly, he was part of the SIMC^2.0 logistics committee last year, helping to coordinate participants’ transport to free and easy venues as well as the airport. They also packed all the participants’ goodie bags and helped to resolve unexpected issues that arose on the ground during the event as a team.

Besides this, Mr Joseph is also an internal physics project mentor, organising the Singapore Young Physicists’ Tournament(SYPT)’s internal selections, as well as helping Ms Lim Jia Hui to provide logistical support for her Illustratum projects. He acts as an advisor, providing alternatives for better use cases to students and helping them to overcome any roadblocks that they face during their project. He also provides equipment assistance, for example, usage of the professional 3D printers in the applied technology lab.

Above: in the Applied Technology lab a collection of notable moments capture NUS High and its research scene in its infancy, Mr Joseph explained.

Coming from a mechanical engineering background, Mr Joseph felt that a lot of his knowledge could be transferred over to his new job at NUS High quite easily. He was in the engineering sector for 8 years before coming to NUS High, and he described the work experience as stressful. He said, “you may start at 9 but you can end way past 7. In NUS High, it’s the same [time] every day. You start at 7.30 and end at 5, no exceptions.” In schools, he elaborated, there was less pressure to get optimal results. You could fail and try again, unlike the business sector which aimed to profit, forcing him to try repeatedly in an effort to obtain the best outcomes.

Unlike Mr Leong, Mr Joseph does not take part in much student interaction, describing himself as down to the point and getting his ideas across clearly and effectively. However, he did have one thing to say to the students of NUS High: “This thing,” he said, picking up his phone, “is a distraction, so you must be focused!”