Australia's Science Forum

Lab coats became an OH&S issue for us many years back so we got around the expense issue by buying second hand lab coats. They served the purpose. A number of the coats were from the food and hospitality area so they came with name tags and assorted logos but they kept the kids clean and safe fr...

Go to Science Assist. They have a document - Guidelines for best practice for Microbiology in Australian schools - with SOP's on handling a range of microbial growths etc. I have just had a quick browse through the document and it covers pretty much all that we have to deal with when students are do...

Yes I did check Science Assist for that information. I would probably use kerosene as a last resort if there was no other option until such time as a supply of paraffin was available. Question: I have paraffin (heavy) and paraffin (light). Does anyone know what the difference is? Have been reluctant...

Don't cut it up until you have liquid to store it under. Kerosene will work if you don't have any paraffin oil for storage. Once it is cut and exposed to air any moisture will make it burn violently. I would probably advise never to cut sodium into smaller pieces without storing straight away into t...

I just use the Meker burner as it is. Just sit it on a heat mat and rotate the glass rods over the top of the flame until it gets red hot and then gently roll it on the heat mat and try to squash the end a little while the glass is still pliable. Take extreme care when doing this as you don't want t...

Sodium Fluoride: DG 6.1 Highly Toxic with severe chronic effects. Known sensitiser. Contact with acids liberates very Toxic gas. Not required in curriculum. This has been on a banned list of chemicals for the NT and South Australia schools for quite a while now. I don't know what the situation is i...

Potassium aluminium sulphate - more commonly known as alum (can be purchased in chemist shop). Green dye in powder form or try green food colouring. You can buy this sort of thing in kit form (possibly Toyworld or Spotlight perhaps or a hobby shop). Nothing too obnoxious to handle. https://www.scien...

Yes it was a bit of a rant. One of those days. If your budget is so desperate that you are being asked to do this then my other suggestion is that your science department invests in a MEKER burner. This will produce a much stronger heating surface than an ordinary Bunsen burner. This type of burner ...

Seriously just put them in the broken glass bin. They are damaged, broken, don't fix them. Bin them. Just get rid of them. Tell whoever left them that they are unrepairable. What were they thinking asking you to do that. If you have the Risk Assess program online it specifically says to discard any ...

Yeah, either bucket chemistry or perhaps a percentage solution - 1% up to 10% (1g per 100ml, 10g per 100ml). Apart from that the drawback with the one spec in a litre of water is that you end up copping the flak for the prac not working and that sucks.

What is it for?

I have downloaded the Chemical Management Handbook and placed it into the school Risk Management folder online. It forms part of the background information that is relevant to the Science Chemical Register. I have also downloaded the SOP's and placed them in an SOP folder on my desk. So anyone who i...

Have a read of the attached document and keep a copy on hand for when someone asks you what it is that you do.

For the first time ever my phenolphthalein agar blocks have been an absolute disaster. Cooked it last Friday according to my tarted up recipe in The Laboratory. Put it in the fridge while it was still warm. Checked it today and it is looking and behaving like jam. Only one tray appears to have set a...

Some of the best science teachers I have ever had were not trained as science teachers. They had done perhaps a science unit as part of their teaching course but were not science teachers. One was a home economics teacher, one was a maths teacher and another was a primary school trained teacher. One...

I very rarely (perhaps never) send out the glass dropper bottles with the glass and rubber pipettes. I have lots of empty bottles stored in trays but these do not get used. Over the years I seem to have trained the science teachers (senior) to accept that the chemicals now come in plastic dropper bo...

We have a first aid kit in each prep room. They hold burn gel, antiseptic cream, alcohol free cleansing wipes, eyewash and wound irrigation ampoules, sharp scissors, tweezers, safety pins, splinter probes, surgical gloves, fabric dressing strip, adhesive tape, paper tape, gauze bandages (assorted si...

For a school with roughly 1100 students and 10 science teachers and if you are the only lab tech on site you have your work cut out for yourself. Is there another labbie to help with the workload? How many laboratories do you have to look after and how many prep rooms? I hope your science department...

A big thank you to Westlab for reopening this valuable site for Australian lab techs. In the time that it was down there would have been many of us wondering how we would cope without it. When something is gone you realise how much you relied on the everyday contact with people you are never likely ...

Bases - light red, dark red, yellow, white, green, purple, light blue, dark blue (current batch - 10ml & 25ml). Have yet to assess their staying power. But they are glass and yes they can self destruct (with a little help :whistling2: ). As for the bases yes I have had some split but it depends ...