There's no such thing as just a school science technician

Could you manage without a technician to support your chemistry teaching? Discussions at a recent conference highlighted to me just how lucky many of us are to have these dedicated professionals working behind the scenes, not everyone is in the same fortunate position.

The ChemEd Ireland conference was a bit of a whirlwind meeting and like all good conferences, some of the most illuminating discussions occurred in the breaks and in general discussions during workshop sessions. My most surprising discovery was that community schools in Ireland don’t have science technicians. I initially thought that this applied only to a few cases, but over the day it emerged as the single biggest issue being discussed.