Australia's Science Forum

Going to Canada for 6 weeks to visit my wife's family. It was an ordeal getting LSL approved as it is hard to find replacement labbies....

I'm embarrased to say I've had a mental blank.....probably because I'm in long Service Leave mode.....last week until term 3 yay!

Not to be technical, however it is Friday pm and I feel like stirring the pot (it's been a long week and I'm sure it has been for you too)......

I say this in the friendliest way....it's either 0.99M or 0.99mol/L......(not 0.99M/L)

2 OH- is neutralising 2H+ (from H₂C₂O₄) therefore mole ratio is 1:1.

Or another way to look at it. 0.05M H₂C₂O₄ is equivalent to 2 x 0.05M = 0.10M H+

I keep no living things in my labs....

Any suggestions of what to do as demos using dry ice?

Haines has PMP (polymethylpentene) burettes - good price

I love this prac - one of the few Biology pracs that actually works (probably because it relies on Chemistry - which always works!)...spoken by a true chemist........

I just leave them unlabelled, but it probably is a good idea to identify the nature of the crystal and any major safety issue. Might start doing that from now on!

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

Our Lab Association and SASTA (Science Teacher's Association) have a CD containing Word files of common SOPS. I still had to write site specific ones for those not covered already

Do you need SOPs in NSW? When we were audited 4 years ago, we had to have SOP's in place for all equipment & activity.

I showed these to our senior chem teacher, he got upset because the wrting on the blackboard behind the cat was incorrect and made no sense....

Yes, I know about the polystyrene and they banned cutting it with hot wire years ago. I don't like the texts we have been using for many reasons, but now with the Aust Curriculm coming it gives us an excuse to ask for more money (outside our budget) for new texts. Let's hope that the new ones are be...

We do this regularly and never have any problems - heats water very quickly. We never have a lamp in the circuit. Other than to prove to the students that there is a current running through the circuit I see no point. It would, however, eliminate any chance of short circuiting if the wire coil you u...

Just wondering what datalogging system you all use.

We use Vernier LabQuest - mainly for Physics (motion etc) but also temperature recording for Chem enthalpy pracs.

These are the lists I use in SA. Anything else not in this list I put on general storage shelves

Is this the ratio of YOUR HOURS/TOTAL SCIENCE TEACHING HOURS per week?

If it is, I'm 0.346

This doesn't account for Ag Science, that involves little and occasional input on my part. If It did, I'm down to 0.288

Does anyone use skype for work purposes?

My line manager has suggested I investigate setting up / joining a skype network for lab personnel. Is there one already? Or do you all just use this forum?

I use the principle that it does work, I've had no problems with contamination. You need to keep the lids off though (UV treat them separately) as not all plastics allow UV through to the gel. Same with glass plates - glass is good for filtering UV and the gel surface doesn't end up being treated. E...

Had mine for about 10 years I guess. It isn't very big and probably isn't designed for plates, but I do it anyway I use mine for dissecting equip and safety glasses, sometimes vials when they do pracs on factors that make food rot (it eliminates bacteria that was originally in the vial etc as a sour...