A DCHAS-L member who preferred to ask this question
anonymously
asked
me to post this...
- Ralph
Our industrial
laboratory has previously allowed high school students
(under
age 18)
to shadow researchers in the laboratory. The parents
must
sign a
release form to allow emergency medical treatment and
disclose
any
prescription medications the student is currently
taking.
There
is a lengthy and serious safety presentation with the
students
and
their mentors prior to entering the lab. The students
are
allowed
to observe low risk experiments, e.g., room
temperature
reactions,
pipeting non-BBP materials into multi-well plates, use
of
microscopes
and surface analysis equipment and HPLC's, etc.
The
students are
not allowed into high hazard areas such as hazardous drug
labs
or to
observe experiments that involve pyrophoric reagents
(hydrides,
etc.). The mentor must accompany the student in
the
laboratory
100% of the time.
We have had a recent request from management to
allow a
high school
student (< 18 years old) to actually conduct
experiments
in our
research laboratory during the summer. Do any
industrial
labs allow
high school students to participate in a summer
research
project?
What are the limitations? Do you have any
guidelines to share?
We have considered having a local university
allow
the student to work
in their lab and our company sponsor the
project.
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