Australia's Science Forum

Jaimie - I take my hat off to you, you deserve a medal. I have 750 students, 5 Labs and 8 Science teachers and just myself to take care of them and I meet myself coming back some days, NO! - make that most days! Isn't there a magic formula for Lab Techs which says something along the lines of 'one f...

Do you have one of those incredibably useful booklets called "Getting it to Work - Physics Equipment for High Schools" developed by the Department in association with the Institute of Physics. I also know nothing of Physics equipment but am able to follow the instructions in the booklet. I...

Thank you All for your input regarding the RA's, the idea of the RA on the back of the Prac request and colour coding individual teachers RA's are very good ideas, however the HOD has decided to persevere with the present system which relies on me making sure they have the RA form and the MSDS's bef...

Dear All - We all know the teacher is supposed to do the Risk Assessment during the pre-lab work prior to the actual practical however this mostly does not happen as most do not seem to have the time for the pre-lab work and, I find I am having what I consider extra reponsibility placed on me to see...

Dear All - Some advise please - I have blue litmus paper that has been kicking around for some time and it has lost its colour, any suggestions as to restoring it to it's former glorious blue? Would drying it help? Looking forward to a reply. Cheers. Judy

Thanks for the input Sunray and Lou. Yes I know what you are talking about being the very last to know what's going on about the place! I am just so surprised for once I happen to be in the "know", things are looking up! I too will follow Sunray's lead and ring Chemwatch directly. Cheers. ...

Dear All - well actually this is one for the Catholic School labbies. Have you been able to access the new upgraded Chemgold 11 (ChemFFX) which was supposed to be completed by October 11th (yesterday) for all schools registered under the Catholic Education Commission and be accessed using the same l...

I recall having something similiar happen last year. We have IT people here who when they have nothing else to do (and that seems to be often!) like to modify the school network!!!!!!! I think there was some little pop-up box on the chemwatch page that needed to be unblocked - or maybe that was bloc...

Dear Narelle - All of the concentrated Sulphuric acid we have ever bought has been 95-98% acid and according to the "Laboratory Manual" is 18M, Molecular Weight 98.08, Density - 1.84g/ml Use directly from the bottle as supplied for a 1M solution place a vessel containing approx. 750ml dist...

Dear Kel - a 1% solution is a gram of solute (iron 111 chloride) in 100ml of solution. (I would just do the 100ml and not worry about adjusting for 25ml. - but of course you could divided the 1g and the 100ml both be 4, therefore .25g in 25ml) So it goes for other percentages e.g. 10% - 10grams in 1...

Dear CC - We purchased some this year from Westlab. Freecall: 1800 358 101 e-mail: sales@westlab.com.au They were not cheap ($59 each) however they are made of a thick dark blue material and have thirty pockets for the storage of safety glasses. We bought four, one for each lab. They look like they ...

Dear Lada - NO I am NOT counting casual admin staff, these people are all permanent employees! Judy

Dear Lada - I feel for you, I had the same happen to me, when class numbers went down I was told I had 4 days work per week. This was an absolute nightmare as every one made sure they got their prac requests in for the week and especially the rostered day off. So I found myself trying to fit 5 days ...

Thanks a lot for the advice Smee and Dime your comments duly noted. Like the idea of the baking paper and will definitely talk teacher out of using meat. Thanks - Cheers Judy.

Hi All - Welcome back to the new term. I'll get straight to the point - I'm here to pick your brains! We have had a drying oven donated by the local Water resources lab which is closing down. We have never had one, always used the Incubator or the Dessicator. Don't even know what it looks like yet, ...

Thanks for the input everyone - we are an independent school so the RA's have to be done and no, I am not writing them, just trying to keep them in some sort of order so I can access them easily. And because getting teachers to fill in the forms is like pulling teeth, we re-use the ones that have al...

Hello All - Just wondering how you guys organise your Risk Assessments. Do you store them in the Prep Room in a folder? Do you organise by Year level or by the Prac Title? Do you re-use the ones already prepared by getting the teacher to sign and date? Just trying to get a handle on this - at the mo...

Labbie - Many Thanks for that information. Cheers. Judy

Talking of Sulphuric acid - any one know how much dilute sulphuric needed to acidify Potassium permanganate for comparison reactivity of alkenes and alkanes - a few drops or more? Yhanks. Cheers. Judy

We had the same problem with our recently purchased Voltameter! (Q stores, I think) WD40 did the trick, however we don't like this one at all -the electrodes come almost half way up the side arms (with the taps) we have to keep filling because the electrodes quickly come out of solution, so we are u...