Australia's Science Forum

I read somewhere that in the past (in the UK at least) May Day was the first day of summer and so 21st June, summer solstice, was midsummer's day. Not sure why this has changed over time though.

Ditto for me in the UK, solstices and equinoxes. I think that is known as the astronomical season. I always thought of June as summer though even though it didn't start until 21st (if at all!). And winter definitely starts earlier than 21st December there. Even after 5 years here I still find the se...

I was told to freeze them in shape (as sometimes the two halves can separate) and then put them in the metho while still partly frozen. They still usually fell apart!

When I first started here the 8/9 students used to do an investigation using Urea to cool things down. Haven't done it for a few years so can't remember the details.

Hi all Our eye wash stations do not have the drainage plumbed in so every time I test them I have to try and catch the water in a bucket, mop up any splashes and leave the bucket under the station to catch drips, as they drip for a while after. I talked to our WH&S committee about this and appar...

Does anyone do this kind of prac with year 9’s? We have done something similar with Year 12 Chem, but I think it is too full on for year 9’s and we need a simpler version. Flame tests and precipitates etc. then unknowns to identify.

When I ordered our brains from Dissection Connection they recommended 24 hours in 20% metho which is what I did. Seemed to work fine.

Our Year 12 physics class are doing Nuclear energy next term. Any ideas for pracs? We have never done any in the past for this topic but we have a new teacher who was asking for ideas. The only one I could think of was half-life using M&M's!

So the glucose definitely works with the Livingstone ones? Maybe I'll have to order some. If I can get that bit to work it is so much easier than the dialysis tubing.

HI guys I tried this out for the prac we do, with starch and glucose solution inside the dialysis tubing, in a beaker of iodine solution. Iodine moves into the tubing, glucose moves out. With the snap lock bags the starch/iodine bit worked really well but the glucose didn't transfer at all. I was us...

Waft with me, waft with me.....
Fab!

We bought some pdf posters from a company called Graphic Education. All our teachers have macbooks and there are projectors in the labs so it is easy to project the poster instead. I thought they were a great idea but I don't think they get used much either. Every time I mention them the teachers sa...

We recently bought a Wallfile system from Southern Biological. It took us a while to get it fixed into the wall well enough to hold the weight. Every time we put it on it pulled the screws out of the wall. It seems to be holding well now (the groundsmen did something with big screws!) and it looks g...

Got my nail varnish yesterday. Very excited! I am struggling to get it to work every time though. Very embarrassing saying to my HOD "look how cool this is", take the magnet away and it looked exactly the same!

If they don't listen to you just be as awkward as you can and disrupt as many lessons as possible. And if they complain don't make up their solutions for them. Sorry, feeling militant today!

We have 4 labs and one fume cabinet which is between the prep room and the lab we use for senior chemistry. I am the only one who ever uses it though. Although there is access from the lab it is only a small fume cabinet and it would be difficult to use for a demo or group exercise. I wouldn't be ha...

After having a look through the different MSDS's for different brands, some say hazardous and some say not, and some say goggles and gloves and some say you don't need to. They all have similar compositions though. In fact the Boral's MSDS for casting plaster says non hazardous but the Chemwatch ver...

I think the age thing was a bit misleading. Having read a couple of different articles about it I think she was actually 16 when it happened and this story was from when it went to court, by which time she was 19. And I don't suppose it became an issue until it started to set and got hot. It was a v...

Warning – Graphic images

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ar ... ght-424409

Here is a cautionary tale about plaster of paris and not doing risk assessments. Do not look if you are easily upset.

How cool is that! I want some for myself, and I may get some for the school too. Was it from a chain of chemists?