Australia's Science Forum

Can't say I noticed...but I do only visit 2-3 times a year so don't remember what the page looks like

If it's turning red over time, possibly the solution is absorbing CO2 increasing the overall acidity. Make sure it's stored in a sealed bottle.
If this is what is happening, then a bit more NaOH to elevate the pH will return it to blue.

Got it. Thanks

Same here. We have hundreds of Science and Maths texts to dispose of. The only group I've found in SA, who collect books to send to less fortunate overseas countries, don't want text books! I hate to throw away such a resource, but I can't keep storing them here. If anyone finds a group (especially ...

Not sure I'm paid excessively..my wife definitely thinks I'm not - but somewhere in the range of a 3-4th year teacher in SA (but without the benefit of 12 weeks holidays per year). Sad thing is that even though I've been here 20 years, this is as good as it gets - there's no moving up and I probably...

At the end of the day, it is not our responsibility to over-ride management decisions. I regularly over-ride 'management' decisions and consistently re-design practical activities (sometimes on the run) based on what I'd do if I was teaching the class. ie I provide what they need - not what they th...

Hello all! It's been a while since I've been on here since moving to the UK and then back (I don't even remember what my old username was!). I've been given some tasks left by the previous technician and HOD; and this is one of them - the radioactive sources. Do your schools have a radiation superv...

If anyone has a copy of the booklet referred to in this post, I'd be interested in a copy! Thanks in advance.

david.peterson790@schools.sa.edu.au

Hi Purple, RiskAssess labels Tollens' reagent as an 11-12 only chemical, due to it being highly corrosive to skin and eyes, not to mention the potential for explosive byproducts. I would not let year 7 or 9 run this experiment, we've only ever done it with year 11. As for a recipe, I've tried a few...

I'd be more worried about younger kids getting the Silver Nitrate all over the place and staining themselves, their clothes and benchtops! (Year 12s are bad enough!) Other than being impressive as a demonstration - As a Chemist, I don't believe the concept/theory of the reaction is relevant to any y...

Great idea!
I would have cleaned the oxidation off the surface of the magnesium first though......should be nice and shiny

I use these units, purchased from Scientrific:

Reverse Osmosis Deioniser System
Order code: SC93010

Very happy with these units.

I just generate my own NO2 / N2O4 and seal into flasks for equilibrium demonstrations

No warning is usually necessary (except for offal/phenolphthalein agar etc - then 24 hours is normally more than enough). I provide an on-call service. If they want something, they ask for it. If it fits what I would do if it were my class then I prepare it. I'm older than all my teachers and have b...

We also use RiskAssess..."Teacher only" is pretty self-explanatory!

I was just wondering if anyone used dichromate to illustrate the reactivity of primary v secondary v tertiary alcohol? It seems odd that a school lab would be without dichromate. Also rather than doing esterification prac, we often do the reverse and recover the carboxylic acid and alcohol - dichrom...

Understand that some sites have room shortages, actually our school officially is over-capacity and we're supposed to be getting extra buildings. Luckily our timetabler & Assistant Principal is the senior Physics teacher so there's no way she'd ever put non-science classes in our labs. We do hav...

But, if you have a number of teachers going in and out of the lab all day, especially non-science teachers you're likely to have more damage caused by the students.

Why on earth would non-science teachers be using laboratories?

We do Periodic Table BattleShips occasionally (or should I say, 'Periodically'?)

Thanks for sending me a copy, and thanks for compiling it all as a collection.
Most of the stuff we already do, but it's great to have it all in one document.