Australia's Science Forum

Hi All, This is a general question out of curiosity... We had some rain the other day and I had some pot plants sitting outside in tote trays. I thought I should probably go check on them... The water has several 'wiggly things' which I have identified as baby mosquitoes and will get rid of. There a...

Is anyone going from the airport Thursday morning? It could be good to join forces to tackle the public transport system... I (theoretically) land at 7:45am...
Rosalie

I worked out 0.5g equals one tablet (10g tube = 20 tablets). The prices must have gone up because I just paid $13 for 2x 10g tubes (including postage). Still seems like a pretty good deal considering we only use such a small amount each year. These 2 tubes should last for ages!
Rosalie

You can also get it from 'simply junket' in SA. If you google it, you'll find them. Or just go to simplyjunket.com.au and that's them. We have an IGA just down the road and that was the only place I didn't try looking for it! I ended up gettting some from Tamworth High (thanks Liz!) and have done a ...

We are doing the pH saliva one today and I am making up the starch solution. Do I need to use the soluble starch or potato starch? Does it matter which?
Rosalie

What is a millipore filter and where do you get one? I have been looking into filters in case we can fit one in the budget as we stopped using our still because of water restrictions and started buying the bottled distilled water. If this one wastes nothing it might be worth looking into.
Rosalie

I have been looking into data loggers as well. You can get a LabQuest (recently released) from Vernier which has its own screen and you can use it without the computer and get your graphs etc on the screen. You can save it to the USB for later use on a 'real' computer as well. We've also been lookin...

I don't know a whole lot about macs but at UNE they have mac computers which have windows on them as well. It was all very confusing when I first tried to use them but I eventually worked it out. Would the installation of that help you out any? Might be cheaper to go that way rather than to get all ...

Hi All, I am wanting to order some more beakers but I am looking for the ones that are graduated to their volume. So far I have only come across the ones that are less than their volume. Eg a 50ml beaker graduated to 40ml. 1000ml beaker graduated to 900ml. I am looking for 50ml graduated to 50ml and...

Hi Everyone! I hope you've all had a good break. I was just wondering how people go about keeping plants in various schools. We (some of the teachers and me) have just been talking about setting up a greenhouse over time to have plants (and hopefully flowers) handy when we need them instead of going...

Hi All, I know there has been a lot of talk about servicing and repairing microscopes, but I need to purchase several microscopes for next year - both monocular for the junior classes and binocular for seniors. Are there any companies/brands/models that stand out from the rest? Or are they all fairl...

I came across a summary page of concentrations (w/w, v/w, M, m, N) after reading this thread which I assume came with an order at some stage from Southern Biological. If I had a scanner I would scan and attach it, but maybe you could ask them for a copy. It's called "Confused by Concentration&q...

Has anyone had trouble contacting people at Chemwatch? I e-mailed them several days ago and have not yet had a reply. I remember ringing them ages ago as well and couldn't talk to anyone but I don't remember if I left a message for them to ring me back or not. No-one here seems to know the password,...

Great mental images there... I just laughed so hard the other teachers wanted to know what was so funny! I told them this really is an educational website - honest!!
Rosalie

A quick google search came up with the "Sargent-Welch" Chemistry website and it said (among other things): Balsam, Canada WLC94808-02 $30.10 Shelf Life - Indefinite Storage Code - Flammable There are probably more sites out there with more info. I can't really imagine anyone in our positio...

We just have one class set in each lab, but from what others have said, this isn't good enough. See the post 'Safety glasses hygiene' for more discussion on this topic.
Rosalie

Thanks for all your ideas. I think it will go in the 'too hard' basket (in this case the broken glass bin). We are needing new slides anyway so I'll just add a replacement for this one to the order and hope it gets approved for next year. Liz - do you want me to bring the Canada Balsam back?
Rosalie

FYI... I looked up the CSIS before I started playing with this stuff and it said OK for K-12, harmless etc... I just looked up the MSDS on the internet which I have attached. They don't tell the same story!
Rosalie

I think you should put it back so the rest of us can see what all the fuss was started by! I must say that yet again I am enjoying a good read!
Rosalie

Hello again, I had never heard of Canada Balsam before this. Liz very kinldy dropped some off to me. It is very thick though. Is this normal? Should I heat it to soften it? I thought using a toothpick to put it on the slide would be the go but it just pulled out like toffee. Next time I try I will a...