On Sunday 8th July, 38 students from 17 countries made their way to the beautiful city of Tallinn. The round of introductions already told us a lot about the individuals, much more than they intended. On Monday 9th July, armed with a little information and lots of things to think about, from the earlier sessions, the students set off, in their teams, to collect sea water samples (Photo on the left). All managed to complete the task but for some the waters were muddied, in more ways than one. Finding out the next day, Tuesday 10th, that salinity measurements are not trivial was a rich learning experience and shed light on many of the pitfalls awaiting the unsuspecting sampler/analyst.
These issues were then further embedded and clarified in various lectures (parts of the resource or process requirements of the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 namely chapters 7.1, 6.1 to 6.6, 7.1-7.8). Already on Tuesday evening the various laboratories (TEAM ONE, JCPT, K2Y, Cool Lab, Djam, We Click!, Elk Analytical, G.I.M.M., ISO CHEM and MONALU) had clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each of their staff. This was about to be tested when they got started on their measurements in the laboratory on Thursday afternoon, following a review of basic lab skills the day before.
Once in the lab the mixture of more and less experienced people really proved to be invaluable for both. It was really lovely to see the exchange of advice, with younger people sharing their intimate knowledge of software such as excel and what it can do and slightly older people providing perspective on what’s really important with respect to fitness for purpose decisions etc. (Ready for the lab! Photo on the right)
When the students had completed five full days of the summer school and were unwinding a little bit in Mektory’s lovely garden, sharing national food, drink, language tips, jokes, songs, (tall) tales from their countries, the idea of filming a mini ‘TV’ novella on Lab Safety was born. It just shows that free time is needed for creative juices to flow!
Saturday the 14th July was simply amazing. From learning that Estonians were Vikings too and what that actually meant, to learning some basic Viking skills (axe throwing and long bow shooting), followed by a hike to the magical Saula Springs, canoeing or long boat river excursion (Photo on the left) and finally ancient singing and dancing games (intermingled with dinner) left all feeling physically exhausted but mentally refreshed and ready for the World Cup Final on Sunday (preceded by a guided tour of Tallinn) and needless to say, another week of interactive learning.