Australia's Science Forum

Our Year 7s make their edible cell models at home as an assessment task and then bring them to school for marking. We get a fantastic array of cakes, pizzas, hollowed out fruits and jellies. They have to label the organelles. If the teacher can't mark the model within the day, they take a photo and ...

I actually bought a small hand-held lamp at Woolworths a couple of years back. It runs on batteries and I found it in the party aisle. Does the trick and was only a few dollars.

Thanks for the feedback - so it's not just me having difficulty finding what I want! At the moment I still am able to order elsewhere , though our Office staff seem to like Officemax. Not as easy for Science I guess. Just on the prices, why should I pay $9 for a themometer from Officemax when I can ...

Have been looking at items we need in the Officemax site and have had some difficulty finding exactly what I want . For example if I type in themometer, none of the items on offer are spirit thermometers -10 - 110deg, only mercury, for $6, which I won't issue to juniors. By chance I typed in immersi...

Thanks from me too! Will show the teachers and I'm sure they'll be impressed too!!

I thought the plastic ones would be great too. But, teachers being teachers!! One didn't know to twist the top to open the bottles to dispense the chemical and had the kids snip the tops off with scissors!! Didn't realise they needed lessons to use the bottles !!!! Otherwise the bottles are great.

We did this one just this morning and I also substituted the potassium bromide for the sodium bromide - no complaints from the teacher!

Ha, I remember at uni when we were doing a prac assessment identifying bacteria when the lecturer sidled up to me and advised me not to touch my face again as I'd just put a big splotch of crystal violet on my cheek!! Didn't I feel silly! It did take some time to wear off!!

So I guess thinking about it supermarket items such as borax, metho etc would be a no no to buy and then bring back to school??

Oh, was that from Southern Biological??

Have looked at the amylase thread. Has anyone had success using the clarase rather than the diastase in enzyme pracs?? I see the clarase is supplied as a powder (50g) and is much cheaper from Southern Biological than diastase (10ml). If only cost didn't come into it!

I'm a bit confused here. When I look at the Chemwatch site (link as supplied by the det) I still find copper sulfate listed as DG 9. Where are you looking to see it as DG6? It's also DG9 on the label of a newly purchased container.

We use sheets of acetate with grids copied onto them. They are cheap to replace. Students just use drops of chemical and if the sheets are placed over black card (or a white tile) ppts are easily seen and then just rinsed off at the end of the prac. They are used by juniors and seniors. Our meagre b...

Yes I use contact on my all labels too. I found it useful too when I had to relabel many bottles when CSIS came in - large and small.

We've had to move our fire blankets to just inside the prep rooms as some students delight in pulling them out of their covers and throwing them in the bin! On several occaisions the blankets have been tossed out in the rubbish by the poor, unsuspecting cleaners. Moving them has cetainly cut down on...

I did actually try this many years ago when our budget was really tight ( as it is now come to think of it) and it was successful for a while. Of course of you wash the thermometers the marks will disappear again over time. Stil it was better than nothing.

I bought a tip cleaning set from Q Stores thinking that at last I had a solution but alas even the smallest wire is too thick to fit into the hole of the bunsen. Perhaps the plumber who initially showed me them had an impirical set??? So for me it's abck to the stripped electrical wire, hot water etc!

We even had to move the fire blankets into the prep rooms just inside the door. It was just too tempting for the students who more than once pulled the blankets out by the tabs and threw them into the bins. More than once an unsuspecting cleaner then threw our blankets into the rubbish skip and bye ...

Thanks for that! Some very useful things there. The kids will love making that lung model. Have put all the info in my folder which I keep for my replacement when I'm on leave later in the year.

i Kimmy,
I'd love a copy of the lung model. After 13 years here I still haven't managed to get to the St Marys Conference - often clashes with our school formal and I'm one of the organisers. Thanks so much
Robyn
robyn.l.dean@det.nsw.edu.au