Australia's Science Forum

or after you have spent several hours testing the prac to make sure it works, gathered together the multiple pieces of equipment and then lugged it the 500 metres to the next block and up to the second floor (thankfully there is a lift) they decide not to do it after all. Instead of letting you know...

When I first started here the head Teacher wanted some Jasper from a site 1 hour away from Tamworth to make Aboriginal weapons. Being very new to the job that's what I did on my weekend. Drove all the way out there and collected rocks that incidentally were never used! If asked the same now I would ...

When I tried to print some pages out I found I had to alter settings on the Print page. Page size and orientation to A4, the margins and from "print sheet on one page" to "No scaling" and then alter column sizes to fit. It seems a wonderful resource, thanks to all those that spen...

Not a Prac but you could make a laboratory Christmas tree for them

It was very informative.
Thanks to ASET and all those involved in the organisation of the day.

Don't know what weather is expected that far ahead but you could have sub-zero temps overnight. Then a pleasant day. As to the venue, layers are the suggestion as it depends. If the heaters have been turned on early enough ( and are working) it can be rather warm but without heaters its chilly. Look...

Interesting thing with regards to the manifest and the Fire brigade. When we had the fire here 3 years ago that destroyed 2 labs and the prep room no one was at all interested as to what chemicals were on site. This comes from one of the firies who also was the lab Assistant at one of the other scho...

This is what worries me about the GHS and our storage of the chemicals. I have been looking through our range of chemicals (so far I have checked about 30 of our 370odd chemicals) to try and work out how to store them. So far I have discovered that Hydrochloric, Formic and Butyric acid have the &quo...

From my notes, Ammonia 28% to make a 1M solution 68 mls Ammonia concentrate made up to 1Litre with 932 ml water From "The Laboratory" Ammonia 29% 56ml made up to 1Litre for 1M Therefore to make a 0.1M you would need about 6.8 mls made up to 1 Litre. I would probably make up a small quantit...

It's amazing how much you count on Chemtalk until it is not there. I have not been able to get in all week and being someone that logs in several times a day to see what is happening it has been like leaving your watch or mobile phone at home. it just doesn't feel right. :-( Glad to be back in touch...

We have an Ag farm and 3 Ag teachers, They all have Science classes also and reside in the Science Staff room. One of the Ag teachers is also Head Teacher Admin (or something) and and head Teacher Ag. Incidentally our Science Head Teacher and one of the other Science Teachers are also qualified to t...

We have 2 HUGE gas bottles, both enclosed within locked fences, in 2 different areas of the school.
They also have a sign on the fences warning there are 2 bottles in connection, turning one lot off is not enough, they have to go to the back of the school and turn the other off to work on the lines.

I am in Government school with just on 1000 students. There is only me and I work in Science 27.5 hours a week. I have to do trained monkey work in the library 4 hours a week! I have 7 labs, 3 prep rooms and 10 teachers. There are 6 science classes in years 7-10, 2 Biology in 11 and 12 and one physi...

My solid sulphur is Chem Supply Sulphur Roll. It comes in a 1kg jar and contains 4 rolls about 12cm long and 3.5 wide. These I have broken up into smaller chunks about 2cm square. It cost $75 for the jar. I bought the jar over 5 years ago and still have over 800gms left as rods. Greater initial outl...

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There has been some student help with carrying, especially this time as it's and of term and the teachers are too lazy to teach so are glad to have some occupation for the students. It doesn't help though when a teacher decides to lock the room on you whilst you have 4 students wit...

I have had 2 demountable labs for the last 2 years following our major fire in March 2012. Last week we were givent the keys to the new labs so I have been spending a lot of time and energy transfering the equipment from one place to another. This is what the demountable labs and prep rooms look lik...

YES

Isn't the action of Silica gel to remove the water?
Maybe you are drying it out too much.
I just looked at mine and 2 of the jars that are now over 20 years old are liquid!

I store mine in a metal locker in the chem store (they won't all fit into the flammables cupboard so it is the best alternative I could come up with) I have 8 x Metho 5 x Methanol 7 x Ethanol 7 x Propanol 5 x Butanol 1 x Pentanol 1 x Octanol 6 x Diesel and 3 kero When they are ordered for junior cla...

Our Chemistry teacher has decided after 10 years of doing the Shipwreck elective she will change for this Year 12 and do the Forensic elective. I welcome the change as I have had enough of rusting nails in every available liquid :crazy: I know this will involve electrophoresis but have no idea what ...