Australia's Science Forum

Oh my goodness!!! Are you all ok? That would have been such a fright! I hope the teacher and student teacher stuck around and helped with the clean up. So lucky no one was in the way of the plunger!

I just looked on YouTube and it's cool! They open and close. No idea what else would do this - good luck! Yeah it does look like fun. Our school is prep-12 so I've just asked the primary teachers if any of them have any pine cones stashed away in their store rooms for art/craft. The teacher said it...

A teacher wants to do a plant prac with placing one pinecone in water overnight and another in a warm, dry area overnight and then compare them. It is not pinecone season! I don't want to buy any... so do any of you have a recommendation for something else we could use that would offer the same/simi...

I ended up getting some from Mad About Science. They are being used in a prac exam in a couple of weeks so hopefully they will continue to use them for future years!

I wash and reuse zip lock bags all the time. Eventually they do have to go in the bin, sadly. Fortunately there are now some excellent compostable bags available. (Thankfully, my head teacher would never instruct me to not reuse something.) I find the regular ones don't even last the prac. Maybe ou...

Help! Does anyone know where I can get these from? The teacher asked me about them a few weeks ago and I completely forgot to look them up and now I can't find them in Australia! I'm slowly going through the suppliers I can think of but if anyone has seen them lately I'd love to hear about it! https...

In the interest of reducing plastic waste, has anyone tried the reusable zip lock bags for DNA extraction? I imagine that because they are a better quality plastic, the likelihood of breakages (loss of contents, starting again...) would be drastically reduced and actually make them worth the money a...

ELIZABETH wrote: ↑27 Jun 2023, 12:33 Yep....we use it all the time and it works well.

Good to know! Thanks!

Does anyone use glucodin for glucose pracs? Does it do the same job as proper, supplier-bought glucose powder? Eg for osmosis? I'm trying to work out why the previous labbie had a stash of it and do I keep it or toss? It is still in date.

I would imagine that for high school science either weight or volume would be accurate enough. This is where the % w/w or % w/v etc comes in. If you're weighing both it would be % w/w and if weighing the solid and measuring the liquid it would be % w/v. Mixing two liquids (eg Hcl) would be % v/v. Ha...

Has anyone tried the water drops on coins prac with play money instead of real money? Would it work? I should try it with my kids' play money but I never think of it at home! Just thought I'd ask on here in case someone else has already tried it.

Where did the directive come from? I haven't seen or heard anything (private school, nsw). I just bought a new one this year!

Taken from Science Assist, Microwave ovens Microwave ovens are not a suitable alternative to an autoclave or laboratory pressure cooker as they do not provide moist heat in the form of steam under pressure and therefore, will not sterilise. Microwaves penetrate unevenly and there can be ‘hot spots’...

I think I'd better not use the microwave, as the Science staff use it for food. (it's in my prep room but they heat their lunch in it). The pressure cooker purchase has been rejected, and I have been told to do it in bleach. I will do it in a big tub in an out of bounds area where it can be left ov...

Can I use a microwave (with the plates in an oven bag)? I read in another post that this is possible. My only concern would be making sure it is hot enough for long enough without destroying the microwave. I don't know if autoclave tape works in the microwave but that would at least tell you if it ...

Side note: The plates shouldn't be completely sealed by sticky tape. There should be a gap. If you're using parafilm, it goes all the way around. It's to do with tape creating an anaerobic environment and growing the wrong type of nasties. So are you saying being sealed with parafilm is ok because ...

I haven't bought any but westlab have a sale advertised via email this week for single channel pipettes. If you search that in their website they should come up or look through their 30 days of discovery, day 8.

Side note: The plates shouldn't be completely sealed by sticky tape. There should be a gap. If you're using parafilm, it goes all the way around. It's to do with tape creating an anaerobic environment and growing the wrong type of nasties.

Yep, cheap pressure cooker and oven bags. I have purchased some autoclave tape as well (so I can be sure it has reached the right temp for long enough) but haven't used it yet.

we use 0.001M. I try to get the teachers to make the kids wear gloves for it as well just as an extra precaution even though it is very dilute.