Australia's Science Forum

Dear Brains Trust,

our 12 IB teachers want to do a new prac investigating muscle contraction, & I need to source some ATP solution.
I tried Southern Biological but they don't stock it.....have any of you wonderful people had to get hold of some, & if so, where from?

Thanks

Yep, thanks to the great idea posted by Ian from Macarthur in NSW a while ago, I now use the peppercorn Bacillus culture too :thumbup: , unless a senior kid wants E.coli or another specific bacteria for a research prac. The peppercorn broth works very nicely. It's cheap, safer, & inoculating the...

Happy to hear it!
I'm sure it'd take more than some pesky bacteria to knock an awesome labbie like you over!

I think someone from here suggeseted this a while ago, so I can't take credit for the idea, but just collect some of those biodegradable packing peanuts, they're usually made of cornstarch. I have a big bag stashed in a cupboard, & when a simple starch solution is required I just dissolve a hand...

Capsicum tends to be expensive these days, so I just puree a big 'ol bunch of spinach. Much cheaper & works a treat. Responds to temp & conc variation really nicely, but we haven't done pH. I think it would be fine though. I've banned the use of liver :yuck: but there's always one that will ...

Pyroneg is a powder (you can also get it in liquid form) for cleaning lab equipment, surgical instruments etc. It's great for cleaning glassware, especially good at getting stubborn stains & greasy/oily/biological goo off. Soak your dirty glassware in warm water with a spoon of pyroneg sprinkled...

Post-it notes
Double sided tape
Pyroneg

Coffee!!

Goliath stick insects....my very first 2 babies have hatched, 1 week & 3 weeks old
Hoping for a bunch more & some Spinys as well.

G&T for me thanks Ocker!

Also can't do without-
dishwasher
silicon oven mits
nitrile gloves
Chux Magic Eraser sponge (removes grafitti off benches etc, including permanent marker)
& a twisted sense of humour

Big blue trolley is a Rapini Jumbo flat bed trolley, we got it years ago from Adelaide Merchandising, but you can get it from a few companies....just found it at RJ Cox Engineering online for $302.50 (GST incl). Google jumbo flat bed trolley & you'll find heaps.....just found a collapsible alumi...

Trolleys!! We have our waterbaths & microscopes on trolleys so they can roam from lab to lab, the electronic balances are in a small trolley with pull out drawers, & my favourite is our big blue trolley. It's a tough, sturdy flat bed type with big wheels, & the handle folds down so you c...

Hi brains-trust......I'm hoping someone can help....we've been testing the effect of household cleaners on bacterial growth, & I brewed up a nice Bacillus broth with peppercorns (thanks Ian for the recipe), but for some reason the zones of inhibition are a bit strange this time. Plate1.jpg There...

Another case of hazard overkill I found recently.....using Risk Assess I listed metre rulers as equipment for a prac, & the potential hazard the program states is "may be used for sword fighting"

:yuck: Not looking forward to tomorrow......2 IB classes have just finished setting up the egg white & pepsin prac....because of the replicates they do, they've filled all the waterbaths with 180 test tubes......that's 180 eggy farty stoppered tubes at 40 degrees....that they'll be opening tomor...

I give them sheets of regular wide address labels, so they can fold them in half around the toothpick & have enough space to write. I also give them cheap pencils with dissections, so they don't use their own. The pencils go in the clean-up bucket with the dissecting gear, & get sterilized &...

I give the kids toothpicks & long sticky labels, & they make 'flags' by wrapping the label around the toothpick.
They just go in the sharps container at the end of lesson.

Warm Fuzzy Birthday wishes for your special day!!

Similar to you Nicky, we get the kids to fill in an 'apparatus sheet' , in an attempt to get them to think about what they plan to do & figure out exactly what they'll need......of course there are still the usual changes of mind/pinching someone elses gear etc so I don't think there's any foolp...

It takes longer to prepare six individual experiments than it does for six groups of the same experiment.

6? Try 30! Usually by the end of it I need a holiday! Lol

Hi all, we're about to start the catalase enzyme prac, & last week a labbie from another school & I found that capsicum isn't giving the lovely perky foam it has in previous years for some reason. Could be because of the looong hot summer we've had in SA, but capsicum we bought from several ...

Does anyone use PTC taste test papers.....or have any ideas or suggestions for an alternative?

Thanks