#1 Science Forum For Lab Technicians

Thank you Rosalie!!!

According to RiskAssess, sodium tetraborate decahydrate (borax) is a teacher only chemical meaning teachers can handle the chemical whereas students are not allowed.

Hi all, I have a lot of stained glassware that I am planning on cleaning before the end of the term. I would usually acid wash the glassware to remove these sort of stains (mainly brown stains from the potassium permanganate in elephants toothpaste), however I have quite a lot of glassware needing t...

Wow. What would us labbies do without you, labbie and Merilyn (I'm definitely missing people) xD Always going above and beyond!

Wow! That sounds amazing! That's a great idea to do a night thing as well. It is an idea we can probably work up to. Having science week recognised will be a good start!! haha That's very true! Baby Steps! It has taken us a few years to get that night to become what it was. Started off with an asse...

We also held a STEM Night last Wednesday and invited everyone from the community. Turn out was awesome with a lot of the students and their families coming along, as well as teachers from other schools and locals who just wanted to see what we have to offer. We had a number of different things runni...

I use something similar to the first two for coloured dyes. I haven't had any issues with the bottles deteriorating and they seem to be student resilient (I haven't had any returned broken). I would personally go for the one with a harder/thicker plastic as that is what I have here and it seems to d...

HI all< For this same experiment can anybody tell me how to dispose the of the waste generated? Thank you in advance for your help. Im not familiar with this prac but assuming you're talking about HCl and Sodium Thiosulfate, I would personally neutralise the HCl using Bi-carb soda and then wash to ...

littltesttube wrote: ↑19 Jun 2024, 09:30 Where are you located?

Im located in Western Sydney NSW. I have found a place that supplies eyes and hearts however I am still in need of liver's and kidney's.
Thank you

Thank you Nads!!

HI all< For this same experiment can anybody tell me how to dispose the of the waste generated? Thank you in advance for your help. Im not familiar with this prac but assuming you're talking about HCl and Sodium Thiosulfate, I would personally neutralise the HCl using Bi-carb soda and then wash to ...

Marama T wrote: ↑17 Jun 2024, 08:15 Don't bromine water, cyclohexane etc. have to be used in a fume cupboard? How will that happen? This prac is ridiculous.

Just confirming as I have a teacher asking for bromine water, cyclohexene and cyclohexane for a prac coming up. So it needs to be handled in a fumehood?

Hi all,

I have been asked to order in some hearts, eyes and kidneys for dissections. I haven't ordered these in before as we've always had stock in the freezer and was wondering where you ladies/gents order them from?
Thanking you all in advance

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone has an idea on what the shelf life is for 'Agar 1000 Gel' and 'Nutrient Agar'? Or if it has a shelf life at all? Myself and the other labbie have prepared quite a few agar plates for classes this term and, in my opinion, the growth on the plates has been a bit ...

My initial understanding of the titration prac is for the students to titrate a base into an acid until a basic/neutral solution is reached. If this is the case for your situation, i'd agree that their results wont be very accurate as Methyl Orange's 'transition colour' occurs at pH 3.0-to-pH 4.8 an...

Hi, i am try to neutralise hcl before pouring it down the sink - i have added NaOH - but it has gone the wrong way and has gone to ph11 - how do i bring it back to ph7 for safe disposal. thanks Hi Nic, As the solution is now basic (alkaline - anything reading above pH 7) you can add an acid, i.e. H...

Thank you Merilyn

Is it a legal requirement within NSW Dept. Schools to have/keep a chemical manifest on chemwatch? I agree it is a pain to use and would much rather create/use my own format.

Is there a specific part of the manual you were after? i.e. the recipes for stains, agar's, etc.

Hi all, i just wanted to ask for an update on how everyone is storing/displaying their element sets now that we have had time.... hopefully.... to rack through our brains and come up with different ways to keep our head teacher happy xD
Thanking you in advance