Australia's Science Forum

I totally get your enthusiasm Sunray! I'm nuts about my stickies....& super happy as 4 of our 5 have matured in the last week, so we have 2 males & 2 females all decked out in their new green & gold, with stripes, spots & gorgeous markings! :wub: The've started to mate as well, so ho...

Yep, I find inocculating the agar while liquid works a treat, & you get the bacteria growing all through the agar, so the clear zones are much more distinct. If the plates have condensation on the lids, it also makes zones easy to see on the underside of the plate when held up to the light. I've...

I have a Wallfile rack from Southern Bio in my prep too, it's a brilliant system & holds over 50 posters

40 x 75 cat # is BPEZ040X075 50 x 75 cat # is BPEZ050X075 Do a search for 'zip-lock' & it'll show all the sizes...the biggest is 360mmx x400mm! :w00t: Ditto what Lada said too, we get the kids to set up 3 bags: glucose, starch, starch+amylase all in beakers of water....then test for sugar & ...

Hiya, a cheap & cheerful tip for digestion & absorption pracs....instead of dialysis tubing, you can use tiny zip-lock bags. Livingstone International have them in all sizes, 40mm x 75mm $3.50 for a box of 1000, 50mm x 75mm $3.65 for a box of 1000. They're semi-permeable & the kids don't...

Our bunch take them on a field trip to the coast every year & fling them around on the dunes! They've lasted ages, only need a quick rinse on return, & only come back with an elbow missing every few years

It might not work on the pointed tips, but a cheap & chearful way to sharpen scissor blades is to fold a piece of alfoil 4 or 5 times into a thick pad, & cut strips of it with the scissors.
I think it's from Better Homes & Gardens.

I made ours out of PVC pipe & elbow joints too.
I glued the elbow joints on to 2 pieces of pipe, & left 2 with no joints. That way you can pull apart & store easily, & the kids just slot the bits together to use.
Here are ours apart & assembled....

Does anyone do Nutrition/Food Science as a year 12 subject?

I'm trying to find some new pracs other than the usual energy in food, or work that's already done in biology.
Any ideas or prac sheets would be hugely appreciated

Cheers

I've had bull hearts before....but they're usually only 3-4 times bigger than the sheep's.....I've NEVER seen one the size I got today :w00t: I don't want to throw it out tomorrow......it's my new favourite thing :wub: She brought me in a bullocks pluck once OMG it was freakin huge and heavy. Lol......

HUGE is the answer.....just had to share this....I picked up sheep's hearts this morning for our yr 11 classes to dissect, & the butcher said "Do you want a bull's heart? I've got one I was going to throw away because it's a few days old" I said "yippee, yes thanks" of course...

Smiley posted the answer a while ago - thanks Smiley! :clap3: And I use those little starch packing beads. I will never use starch powder ever again! Experiment a little, but from memory it's between 5 packing beads per 100ml for a strong solution. I think I ended up at 10 beads per 500mL for last y...

Oh David, I say that just means Chemistry's not as much fun as Biology coz it's too predictable :giggle: I reckon the more organic & less predictable biology pracs are cool....even if they don't always work as expected :crazy: .....& do Chem classes get to play with anything living? Nup........

What?....... 'mouse divided by cheese' & 'milk squared' don't make sense to him?

Hi Superbug! You'll be Chemtalking in no time.....there are heaps of useful resources already here in the forum, just do a key word search & you're bound to find someone's posted an answer :thumbup: As a warm welcome, & to give you the general idea of the kind of humour you'll find here, :cr...

On the topic of fungi.....I just popped out to buy some stuff for a prac, & found THIS gorgeous thing growing in a garden bed just inside the school fence....

I'd say all the black colonies are Aspergillus niger...the fairy rings & the plate covered in it. It sometimes grows in circular patterns....any idea how the double ring effect happened? Looks cute

It's really an educated guess when you're trying to identify bacteria/mould based on colour, texture etc.....but you can tell them that the glossy round yellow ones are probably Staph aureus, the fuzzy green, white & black ones are mould/fungi.....green probably Penicillium species, black probab...

Happy Birthday Smiley!!

I hope all your teachers & kids behave themselves & make it an extra special day for you

but then if you think of the insects in the wild, no one gives them a heat pad.. 8O :giggle: Very true....but apparently if you keep a nice constant temp their growth is a little faster.....another Adelaide labbie, Danielle, shared a good idea....put a small thermostat-controlled aquarium heater in...