Three young chemistry students from Thurso have been given a taste of science outside the school lab in a tie-up with a locally based research team.
Karen Black (16) and 17-year-olds Matthew Maycock and Amy Sutherland are the latest high school pupils to take up summer placemants with North Highland College UHI's Environmental Research Institute (ERI).
The trio carried out fieldwork on three separate projects as part of bursaries awarded by the Nuffield Foundation.
They have since written up their reports and received certificates from the National Science Trust, set up during the Second World War by the founder of Morris Motors.
The advent of the ERI has increased opportunities for senior secondary science students to take part in the scheme. The trio worked under the supervision of PhD students based at the Thurso centre which carries out a range of trail-blazing research.
Karen's project focused on measuring ammonium nitrate and phosphate levels in local watercourses, including the River Thurso, Thurso Bay, Loch Calder, Loch Watten and Loch Stemster.
Matthew was involved in working out a way of extracting and quantifying any pharmaceuticals found in water supplies. Reassuringly, he was unable to find any trace of the commonly used painkiller, paracetamol, in the River Thurso.
amy worked on a project designed to detect and quantify the presence of pesticides in marine sediments.
All three have successfully completed their stints, which involved presenting their findings to staff at ERI.
They have been invited to an event in Edinburgh to celebrate the achievements of the latest batch of Nuffield bursary students in Scotland.
Their placements also earned them Gold Crest awards with the Brittish Association for the Advancement of Science.
Matthew said: "It was a brilliant experience. We are lucky to getthe opportunity to do the research on our own doorstep."
Karen added: "It was great to get the chance to find out what it's like to work in a laboratory and carry out live research."

The ERI is committed to continuing it's link with local high schools. Principal investigator Dr.Kenneth Boyd said: "We're very keen to make our resourses available for this sort of thing. "It giges the pupils a chance to find out what it is like to work in a real laboratory and it also gives our PhD students the opportunity to supervise somebody."
Dr. Boyd said he was very impressed by the enthusiasm and initiative shown by the Thurso High School trio.