Australia's Science Forum

we use mung beans grown on cotton wool. The little medicine /plastic sample cups with half an eye cleaner/cotton square and about 6 seeds on a very wet cotton square. Takes less than a week for plants to show growth. Students then water them with different sol - nitrate or other element difficient o...

It is a stocktaking program that keeps track of all your stock and what qtys are required etc. As I get equipment in I add or take off any equipment and then at the end of the year when I do a stocktake it is very easy

I have used it for several years and find it great, (once it is set up). I had all my info in an excell file and the Scilist people transfered it on for me, I don't know if they still do that, as I was one of their first customers. I don't know that I would like to have to enter all my stock on to it.

I have a PVC pipe with a cap on the end about 1 meter long which I soak the burettes and pipettes in (put in a end of lesson) I then use a water suction pump. I have a beaker of soapy water and then one of really hot water and just suck it thru the pipettes or burettes. Makes cleaning them really qu...

I am only in Brisbane so our heat isn't as bad as up where you are. Our Workplace Health and Safety Officer also our maintenance supervisor has instructed me not to turn the air con off. He said it was put in for the chemicals not for me and therefore should not be turned off when I go home or over ...

We use cheap shampoo for our year 8 viscosity pracs. lots of bubbles in the clean up but better than oil. safe to heat, but goes "off" after heating. Can't be used a second time. We also use the old burettes, the plastic one when the taps crack are really great just pull the tap part out a...

We use chromotography paper or plates and 1% sol of known various amino acids plus an unknown amino acid spotted on to it the solvent n-butanol (120ml) + glacial acetic acid (30ml) + distilled water (60ml) left over night and then a 2% solution of ninhydrin in acetone is used to develop the spots wo...

The ticker timers demonstrate that the AC alternates its direction ie the the taping of the ticker timer each time the electricity changes (alternates) direction. In DC mode the ticker timer doesn't work as the the current is Direct. DC goes in a circle not back and forward as in alternating current...

I work in a girls catholic independent school in QLD We went thru the reclassification process a few years ago Classification was based on work required, level of responsibility and qualifications. The catch was it was what the school deemed required of the above not what we actually did. It was up ...

We have go links here and you can use multiple probes by using multiple golinks pluged into the same computer. We had Texas Instruments and venerier probes which the teacher always had trouble with, so they were seldom used except with senior science subjects. With the go links it is so easy that th...

The easiest way to remember how to make up molar solutions is that it is the molecular weight in grams in 1 litre of water eg I am making up a 0.1M of EDTA which has a molecular weight of 372.24g (from the packaging label) therefore I need 37.22 g in 1 liter of water (372.24 x .1) another handy form...

I'm in Brisbane but I usually use BOC they can supply the dewar and liquid nitroden. I usually pick it up but you must have a ute to do this otherwise they will deliver. My dry ice I get from a camping store.

If the burette has a glass tap try knocking gently with a large glass stopper around the area that is stuck. Quite often this works also works for glass stoppers stuck in bottles. Don't know why but it must be glass on glass to work.
Bernie

If you use chemwatch and you have your manifest on there you can go to each store and tick MSDS on each chemical in that store and then send them all to the printer all at once. I was able to send ours to a photo copier and do back to back saved me hours of printing & paper. (Our school has all ...

The MSDS expiry date is the date the company or person producing the MSDS puts on the MSDS ie 5 years from that date. I have just had to up date most of mine even thought it was only 2 years since I had printed them off as the manufacturers date on the MSDS was over 5 years old. We had a chemical sa...

This is a test for protein It consists of a 10% solution of sodium hydroxide (10g in 100ml water) and a seperate solution of 0.5% copper sulphate (.5g in 100ml water) to testing materials add several drops of sodium hydroxide mix well add several drops of copper sulphate. violet or purple colour cha...

We all hads to do this a few years ago in case we left, for any new people who came in. it is a very interesting exercise once you start. For a few weeks I kept an exercise book where I quickly jotted down what I did each day from this I was able to compile a work manual for any new person comming i...

When making delivery tubes I usually gat our handy man who has a fixed drill with a clamp to hold the rubber bung to drill them out. I then use small straight lengths of glass tube in the stopper and attach plastic tube to it to make the collection tube We have less breakage and the tube can be easi...

We have used the TI calc and data loggers in the past. We alway got problems with the links and down loading to computers so that only experienced teachers tended to use them and I was forever being called to check the links. We have now changed over to the Go links($135) and Go motion ($228) which ...

Here is my job description It is very in depth and states exactly what is expected of me Bernadette LABORATORY OFFICER ROLE STATEMENT The College requires the position of a Laboratory Officer to support the practical requirements of the Science Department in regard to the operation of successful and...