Australia's Science Forum

Nice idea.
If we have it is not the feathered kind.......

thanks for the thought Rhonda, but they must be the flat counters.....
I have no idea where the blue ones all went to unless they are useful at the Casino.....
~R

G'day all,
does anyone know where I can find a supplier of blue coloured 22mm counter discs?
For some reason we are very short of blueones only and I am reluctant to buy another pack of 1,000 assorted colours.
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hi All,
we use tonic water, bought in packs of 4 from the supermarket. The quinine within is the bitter component.
No complaints so far....
Also using -
sweet=sugar solution
salt=salt solution
sour=lemon juice in water
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hi All,
we all have those moments, don't we, where our teachers give apologies and reasons why a prac request is delivered to us late.
Would you like to share those wonderful excuses here?

~Robyn

Dear m, you can buy rubber latex and cast your own moulds of your trilobites. One latex/hardener supplier would be Serrata P/L. I have been thinking of just making impressions of ours from plasticene and pouring Plaster of Paris into them. Perhaps then even painting them or staining with coffee. I m...

Dear Alice,
I have just put damp paper over them and they love it!
They've come from everywhere for the moisture. Will change their bedding soon.
Thanks,
~Robyn

Dear Richard,
we keep them as simple uncomplicated pets, for invertebrate studies and 'handling of insects' skills....am trying to teach them tricks but they seem to be slow learners, still.... we all work for a school.....
~Robyn

Dear Richard,
Wow!
what a diet - I had no idea those foods existed.
Sounds delicious!
Will make every effort to up the nutritional qualities of our meal worms diet.
Thank you,
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hi All, does anyone else keep meal worms? If so, can you advise what medium they prefer to live in? We keep ours in rolled oats but I wonder if they would prefer bran? We feed them apple slices. Is this enough moisture? The numbers seem to be going down although they mostly live out of sight so it i...

Hi Donna,
I wonder if you have some contamination from phenolphthalein?
We have found that this indicator is notoriously hard to rinse out of dropper bottles, especially the rubber droppers assembly - the end points seems to be about the same....
Good luck,
~Robyn

Hi Labman,
we have in a metal projectile launcher, made by Pasco in the US. I can PM you if you wish with more details.
Cheers,

~Robyn

Hi chemical,
In the past I have found glucose syrup in the supermarket. Quite cheap.
It is Queen brand, 500grams and lists its uses as sweetener in drinks, cooking, confectionery and cake decoration. It is very thick but still runs......
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hello there, Are the empty containers from chemicals such as NaOH and NaCl?? We have used these for the disposal of waste chemicals such as oils, hydrocarbons, silver nitrate, etc. We then keep them, labelled with their new contents, in the waste chemical store for collection by the waste chemical c...

Hi All, watch out with Calcium Oxide and moisture over time. We had a plastic screw top container of this chemical, hardly ever used and one day I noticed it had split its container open. It is very exothermic and a little moisture over the years when opened caused it to escape its container. Would ...

Thank you!
I like the idea of clear plastic tubing at the end of the glass rod much better - looks like I have just become modern!
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hi All,
we have always put a small piece of rubber tubing to fit at the bottom of all our glass rods used for stirring to avoid glass to glass collisions, even though we round the ends by polishing. Does anyone else do this or am I just old-fashioned?
~Robyn

Hi Joh, I can't say I've ever seen delivery tubes for sale. I guess they cannot mass produce them as the size of the holes in the stoppers can vary. A couple of ideas may help - * standardising the diameter of the glass tubing you order to the standard holes in the rubber/cork stoppers (I know you c...

Hi all, our Practical Request Forms , on A4 paper that is taped to the prac tray, incorporates the Risk Assessments involved in that prac, whether it is for biology (microscopes, pond water, etc) physics (electricity, van der graaff, etc) or chemistry (chemicals). As the teacher submits the prac req...

Hi All, just a quick note about those 'weak' beakers when such beakers are to be used with magnetic stirrers making up to X litres of agar solution. The quality of glassware has deteriorated over the years according to the country of origin, so it maybe it is an idea to source a better quality of be...