Safety training and oversight in academia generally pales in comparison to industry14–17. Correct attitudes and beliefs about laboratory safety should be cultivated from undergraduate students and even earlier. Michelle R. Bond ect. proposed that safety should not only be a routine process, but also a culture and training environment composed of core values such as "safety is above competitive goals" to improve the quality of safety training17. Teachers can help students develop early laboratory safety awareness through creating multiple methods such as online courses, self-study courses, laboratory exams and LSAT, etc[3]. We developed a laboratory safety training system specificly for undergraduate students based on Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills to overcome the current difficulties of huge numbers of students and limited class hours in our university. This laboratory safety training system was combined with online and offline knowledge of pathogenic biology to educate students with many elements.
The feedback of grade 2020 students showed that 93.46% of them believed the laboratory safety training was important and only 9 out of 1179 students denied the necessity of training. For further investigation, the average score of attitude session from 2021 students was beyond 30 (total 35) which refered that the minimum mean score of every item was 4.286. All those data suggested that after the training, students’ cognition of bio-safety was well-developed, considering that only around 10% students thought they understand the laboratory safety before the training.
We found that the differences in LSAT(K), and experimental related scores between male and female students were statistically significant through T-test analysis, which may relate to the learning habits of them. Xiaohong Liu18 and Zhongen Yu19 found that female students generally were more concentrate and efficient on the on-line studies with a better self-control than male students during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, male students showed higher self-assessment than female students for their understanding of "laboratory safety" before study. This may remind us to educator students in accordance with their aptitude, for example, in this case, helping female students to improve their self-confidence and helping male students to avoid self-conceited.
The clinical majors and other majors students from both grade 2020 and 2021 showed the identical self-assessment of the understanding of bio-safety, but further investigation of grade 2021 students indicated that the LSAT(K) score of clinical majors was distinct higher than that of other majors. This might related to the fact that longer class hours offered more time for clinical students to accumulate knowledge, and made them more cautious compared with other majors.
It takes certain time and process to convert knowledge into attitude. The experimental classes for undergraduate students could not provide a long term immersion as graduate research experiments did, so most of undergraduate students only finished their primary study. Moreover, because most of the experimental microbes used were non-pathogen or conditioned pathogen, the relevant laboratory safety risks were low and students could be deficient in equating the theory of laboratory safety with practice completely. For those reasons, unlike FAN Shujuan’s study which showed a strong correlation among K-A-P20, Knowledge(K) had no influence with A in our study.
There was a correlation between Behavior(B) and Attitude(A) in this study, which indicated that regardless of the superior or inferior of knowledge learning, good habits and behaviors were closely interrelated with correct laboratory safety attitudes. Therefore, the timely correction from teacher was critical to prevent them from improper actions.
Micro-video and virtual simulation program had been widely used in assisted teaching and were proved to be very effective, we furthermore, introduced one more multimedia– scientific comics to assist our training. We created two cartoon characters to present E.coli and S. albus, and through their humor and funny conversations to deliver the bio-safety knowledges. Form the feedback of grade 2020 students, we found that this new attempt was highly commended among students and they were eager for more. So we extended the scientific comics to 21 series and combined with more details of bio-safety. Compared with the grade 2020 students, the grade 2021 students showed an decrease favorite on scientific comics but an increase preference on multiple methods. Variety study methods could be a better way to inspire students and meet their diverse study habits. Even though, compared with videos and virtual experiments, scientific comics was still the most popular one. Many students agreed that the scientific comics were more amusing, easily catching their attention and grasping key knowledge in less time, and some students said they loved to draw comics and wished to join this project.
Till now, the training system had implemented in sophomore for two years and received very high appreciation from students. We will continue to improve the laboratory safety training system and provide essential support to students for their current studies and futurevocational development.
Supplement
Items | Choice |
Session 1 | | | | | |
1. Gender | A.Male | | B.Female | | |
2. Major | | | | | |
3. Do you know laboratory safety before this training? | A. not knowing | | B. medium | | C.knowing |
4.Are comics helpful for you to understand the bio-safety? | A.not helpful | | B. medium | | C. helpful |
5.Did the offline experimental classes help to deepen your bio-safety understanding? | A.not helpful | | B. medium | | C. helpful |
6.Which is your favourite online learning material? | A micro video | B science comics | C virtual simulation program | D combined |
7.Please share your understand and opinion of the laboratory bio-safety. | | | | | |
8.Any suggestions about the system and the method to help your bio-safety learning? | | | | | |
Session 2-Attitude | | | | | |
1. It is extremely important to know the correct laboratory safety knowledge. | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
2. It is necessary to take laboratory safety training before experimental operation. | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
3. It is your responsibility to learn about laboratory safety systematically and comprehensively . | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
4. If there had a training on laboratory safety but is not compulsory, will you be interested in participating? | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
5. It is necessary to check textbook or reference about bio-safety before facing a new laboratory condiction. | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
6. Do you agree that whatever potentially hazardous behavior must be correct immediately? | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
7. Without appropriate protection offered, will you refuse to do experiment? | A.negative | B.tendency to negative | C. medium | D.tendency to positive | E.positive |
Session 3-Practice | | | | | |
1. Do you consciously put on basic protection (lab white coat, gloves, masks, etc.) every time entering the laboratory without the reminder from teacher? | A.always | B. sometimes | C. seldom | D. never | |
2. Do you naturally put your drink water-bottle inside the laboratory? | A.always | B. sometimes | C. seldom | D. never | |
3. Do you sort the laboratory waste to dispose after every experiment? | A.always | B. sometimes | C. seldom | D. never | |
4.Do you wash hands assiduously after the pathogen biology experiment? | A.always | B. sometimes | C. seldom | D. never | |
5. Do you consistently follow the requirement of laboratory safety without slackening during your operation? | A.always | B. sometimes | C. seldom | D. never | |
Contributors
XZ led the bio-safety training system described in the article. LL wrote the first draft of the manuscript. CQ and HX led the statistics. CM and JM were responsible for questionnaire. ZY refined and finalized the manuscript. XZ and LL contributed equally to this study. ZY was co-corresponding authors. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.