Australia's Science Forum

Need some clever suggestions, which I'm sure I'll get. We've just purchased 10 Moh's Scale of Hardness Sets. All the rock samples are numbered but with a glued on label. I know that they'll be lucky to last one period with our new batch of excited Year 7s next year and I'll be left with 90 un-numbered, unidentified rocks. Any ideas of making the labels impossible to remove? The HT suggested araldite over the label, but that is so messy and fiddly. I've tried clear nail polish but I'm not at all confident. My next step was white paint, hand write number and then nail polish, but before I do that I would like to hear about any other, easier, solutions.

Thanks all.

use liquid paper to create a dot then write on that

if you don't have time to do it before they get sent out, maybe take a digital photo of one of the sets with everything in the right place so you don't have to do too much sorting and research if/when they come back without numbers

I like the photo idea. I think I'll do that anyway!

Funny, we have found that the numbers they come with stay on fine. The only trouble we have is with the corundum on the stick, we have to glue some back on occasionally.
~Robyn

I have just used some Araldite to adhere new numbers to rocks. It wasn't messy and quite easy. You might be surprised!
Good luck which ever you go.
Maree

Why don't you take a photo of the set, in order, as suggested, and tape a copy to the inside of the lid of each kit. Then the kids can put them back in order themselves, and a teacher can even do a quick scan to see if the set matches the picture. I did something similar with my circuits kits. Even the learning support teacher aides approve.