Australia's Science Forum

I recently ordered some polaroid filters through Q-Stores (page 730) in the Education Catalogue, 2008. Price in there is $7-58, when I got the bill I was charged over $44 each. I rang them and was told the Tax Invoice had the correct price. My argument was that having had the catalogue over 10 month...

I cannot believe that you don't have a plague of rats, mice, ants or cockroaches trying to get to your burger. Here, you only need to drop a crumb on the floor and before you get to pick it up the cockys are after it! The only place I actually see the dead cockys is in the ChemStore - they are all o...

Thanks Graeme,
I will try that, didn't even think of it myself.

I have created a "Loan sheet" which has the teacher's name, Year group, subject and each teacher of senior classes has his students write their name, the code number of the text book, then sign it. At the end of each year the students cannot sign out until they are cleared by both the teac...

My chem store has an exhaust fan; but one of our science teachers also stores all the camping equipment (esky, hotplates/bbq gear, flyspray, papertowel, toilet paper, frisbees, - everything) in the Chem store room too, during the year. The only time the camping gear is not there is one week each yea...

Tina, We have the following recipe for making slime: Ingredients: 60ml PVA Glue 8 drops glycerine 1-2 drops Food colouring 2 teaspoons Hand Cream 50ml distilled water 100ml saturated Borax solution Method: 1 Mix PVA glue, hand cream, glycerine, water and food colouring in a container. 2 Add 1 teaspo...

Thanks for all your support, suggestions and stories. At this stage, the HT has agreed that some chemicals can be disposed of, and has gone through them with her; and appears to be supportive of her problems at this stage. She feels that her SAM is also being supportive (at this stage) and hopefully...

I have copied all your comments and am emailing them to her now. Thank you all so much. I will let you know what eventuates.
Sue

Sorry, I forgot, she also has a bottle of what some of the older teachers think..... could be Napalm???? Still not allowed to dispose of it.

Sue

A desperate friend is in need of advice and assistance. She is new to the job, trying to clean up, and get rid of some really old chemicals. Some of those she has, include: Chloroform, Pot. Chromate, Mercury, Antimony, etc. She wants to get rid of these but the HT won't let her. So many of the chemi...

Hi Annette,
Am I too late to get that list? My email address is:
sue.cox2@det.nsw.edu.au

Thanks.
Sue

I bought 10 Natural Gas bunsens from Westlab at $10 each. However, we have LPG, of course! I didn't even look. I am willing to pack the 10 bunsens up, and post them to anyone who is willing to buy them off me for $7 each - only one bunsen has actually been used, ONCE! I can be contacted on 02) 6583-...

We also just purchased our copy - $90 for us, but if the private schools want one, the online form says it will cost $225! Now that doesn't quite sound fair. However, I arranged to have the one I purchased through DET paid for by the school's SASS Professional Training funds. It IS there to help tra...

We bought some from Serrata about 2 years ago. They were $120 a pair. Good luck with them.
Sue

Morning all, Having just seen the chemicals at Sharon's school, I reckon she is going to need a B-Double all for herself to get rid of the chemicals there. Should we mention some of them, Sharon? Perhaps just the dates - 1974, 1981, 1986, etc and the teachers say you are NOT to get rid of it? Defini...

Good morning, That is really interesting. I have occasionally been given a bird, or small possum to preserve. I think I used to put them in a solution of Metho and water, but I cannot remember the quantities. I don't do it anymore. I agree, our preserved specimens are in desperate need of refurbishi...

Hi Lorrae,
I didn't say I disposed of them!! I have arranged to have them pulled apart, cleaned, bases painted, and put back together again; and hopefully we will be able to keep them as spares. If it works out they are not worth repairing, I guess I might give them to the scrap metal man!

Quality is great, design is much better than others we have purchased. The collar fits well and so far hasn't jammed. Teachers are impressed too, probably because the bunsens haven't been clogged up with melted "gunk" yet, and dear students haven't pushed broken bits of matches into the tu...

If I am allowed to give a "thumbs up" to a product, I would like to say we just purchased 30 LPG bunsens from Westlab Supplies in Ballarat Vic. We have never used this company before, but the bunsens are great, best ones we have ever bought, and only $9-90 each. I am ordering another 45 to...

Hi Rosalie, Our superconductor magnet broke into a few pieces a few years ago. We did purchase another one, but for an additional $15 or $20 we could have purchased the whole kit again!! I have always obtained our dry ice from the local winery (for free); but when I rang the other day they told me t...