Australia's Science Forum

Last I heard the advice on borax was to make a 4% solution to make it safer, although according to RiskAssess even then the hazards are unknown at that concentration. Higher than that and you get warnings about fertility and long-term health effects. Probably best to avoid it as Merilyn says.

I'm in need of Open Day ideas in a new job without access to my old resources, so could someone send me this booklet please?
Anthony.Wise@acu.edu.au

I'd start by getting the head teacher on board with it, it's then easier to get the others to do it with that support. Emphasise that it's a legal requirement and will cover them in case anything ever goes wrong.

We buy ours from a local reptile-focused pet shop. They're frozen and intended as food for snakes but happy to sell to a school for dissection, and they're relatively cheap. So it's worth checking pet shops near you.

I got some 200 boxes from Winc (stationery supplier) recently.

Hmm that's odd! Try turning up the voltage, or cleaning the electrodes?

I've also had teachers ask for these larger crystals for diffusion demos, and struggled to find a good source. Having bought the Gold Cross brand from a chemist, I found them still to be fine flakes, and not any better for this.

It needs some ions I think, for conductivity. We use 6% sulfuric acid in our voltameter.

Do you mean the caps with holes in them? Companies that sell the cap/teat/dropper combo might be willing to send you just the cap if you ask them. Otherwise I can see solid caps for those bottles at Haines. I see what you mean about the brushes, it's hard to find ones with cotton ends. But Southern ...

As documented in this thread I bought a microwave solely for use in Science prac prep! Whenever I have to deal with agar I feel very appreciative that I have it.

If you remelt it and put it in a bottle it will last until next year!

I went looking everywhere for meat tenderiser last year, and couldn't find it in any of the big supermarkets or smaller shops. I guess it's just gone out of fashion. I did eventually find some at my local Supa Express (Supa Barn), which works. It has added spices but that only affects the smell I th...

We did an early trial to make sure it worked, and there was indeed a bright, immediate reaction between potassium iodide 0.1M and lead nitrate 0.002M. Perfectly viable in my view.

We swapped out our dropper bottles for 0.002M solutions. Precipitation pracs are next week so I'll report back if they work.

I've been getting them at Haines recently. A bit more expensive than Officeworks but good quality.

Yes it's in the prep room, which directly adjoins the Science office. For now I've just written on it in texta, need to get around to making a sign.

Indeed it does. I ended up buying a new microwave for us last week! Now I just need to make sure nobody uses it for their lunch...

It's my time of year to do this again. Last year I saved the leftovers for the first time, and it seems to have kept well in the fridge. For any others that do this, what method do you use to re-melt the agar for pouring? I'm reluctant to use the microwave method since we don't have our own science ...

There's an old thread right here that has a few suggestions! http://www.chemtalk.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1979&p=43583&hilit=electrode#p43583 Nitric acid works, but will need to be done in a fume cupboard. Bigmack's method works for cleaning rusty electrodes, not sure about removal of...

We did a a fake blood activity a couple of years ago, although it was more "making fake wounds" than blood splatter. I asked the drama teacher what they used for this, and if I recall correctly their method used chocolate topping and red food colouring; if you want it thicker you can add c...