Australia's Science Forum

We have used cotton covered wire for making electromagnets since I got here 15 years ago. Our supply of this wire which built up during the years when the schools were supplied with stuff based on their numbers is now just about used up and I am trying to locate more. I have looked at the Serrata, H...

I have used cornflour for the last 15 years and have had no problems. My method is to mix a little of the powder in water then add hot water and boil for a minute or 2 to "crack" the starch granule. If you don't boil it separates out. This give a whitish, viscous liquid that has the tendan...

Spinach works beautifully for pH. We use HCl at 0.05M which has a pH of about 2.42, HCl at 0.01M pH 4.34, tap water pH 6.4, NaOH 0.01M pH 9.03 and NaOH 0.05M pH 11.9. I we found that a lot easier than trying to make the pH a specific figure as the basis of the experimint is to show the different rea...

Blended green capsicum or silverbeet works beautifully also.

You then can work on all liquid measurements rather then hoping bits are cut the same size.

Also much nicer to clean up.

Don't you need a very low pressure with the eye wash as other wise it could cause damage to the eyes?

I am slack and have no regular schedule of checking the eyewash and safety showers apart from the end of year clean up and check on just about everything.

Here Ag is also attached to the Science Faculty with 3 teachers teaching both. We have an Ag assistant 3 days a week, who is as Dime mentioned, under different conditions pay and leave wise to us. I do some Ag photocopying and getting Science equipment for them when needed. This doesn't happen often...

Pyroneg is a specially formulated powder designed for cleaning glassware.
I have used it in the past and it works very well.
I now use napisan which also works very well and is cheaper and easier to obtain.

This problem was solved for me by arsonists! I had been deliberating what to do with them but it's not a course of action I would recommend! All my preserved specimens were kept in the prep room that was destroyed when the entire block was torched last year. I don't miss the calf foetus, snakes, car...

Picking up a topic from 2 years ago. our school has just received our 10 STELR kits and I was wondering how other school who already have the kits store and use them. Basically have you left the kits in the original cardboard boxes that they came in and the whole box goes out to the students for the...

Our year 10 students have to do an assessment task on this. They pick a biotechnology and do a written and then oral report. These are the guidelines thay can pick the technology from Transgenic Species The term Transgenic Species describes an animal or plant that has been genetically altered. Xenot...

img033.jpg Ours are still in the original box from way back when. This was the best explanation as to how they would have been used in the labs http://papers.xtremepapers.com/CIE/Cambridge%20International%20A%20and%20AS%20Level/Physics%20(9702)/9702_nos_ps_8.pdf They have not been used in the 14 ye...

Talking about the how large the Core Science is made me think of Messell that those of us over a certain age had to lug around. It was hard cover and had over 1,000 pages. If you did 1st level Biology as well you also had "Web of Life" which had over 800 pages. All this in your globite sch...

Does anyone have or have heard of this chemical. My husband has recently started working as a maintenance electricial in a Lime mine. He has to have a container of this chemical on his belt at all time in case of the lime getting on his skin or more importantly in his eyes. I have Googled it and won...

I don't know anything about a course advertised in the SMH. However I am at the moment doing a Certificate IV in laboratory techniques via Flexible delivery ( essentially online with a couple of weekend workshops through out the semesters ) through Armidale TAFE They are at the moment planning the c...

I use 1m sulphuric acid.
That way the I don't have to wait for the small amount of concentrated sulphuric acid to diffuse through the water.

Nitric acid and copper producing nitrogen dioxide. I discover this very early in my time as a labbie, not knowing any different pouring an "unknown" down the sink which happened to have some bits of copper lying in the bottom. Luckily it only produced a small very small amount of brown gas...

Mine is also on the floor in the chemicals store room in a bucket, he is however accompanied by younger brother Nitric Acid 4M and baby brother Nitric Acid 1M.
It is not used much at all we have had the same bottle for the 14 years I have been here.
I do not have a corrosive cabinet

I am at a Government school and only have Mini SDS. This is a choice made on the photocopying and paper use. I have 368 chemicals. Mini sds + 368 sheets of paper at 0.02 cents a copy = $ 7.36 and fille 3 large A4 binders. Full SDS at 10-17 sheets per chemical= 3,500 -6,200 sheets = well over $100 fo...

If I am allowed to say so I get my rock specimins from Serrata.
They come in packs of 10 are around 3-4cm in size. Cost varies according to the specinim but the bags are generally around $20.
They have over 40 different Minerals, 16 odd igneous, 11 metamoprhic and 12 sedimentary.

I go around most Thursday afternoon's during sport to make sure the labs are stocked with handtowel, soap and that the class sets of test tubes, beakers, glue ,calculators etc. are there. Just as it is not my job to pick up my husbands' or sons' dirty clothes, I do not consider it is my job to clean...