Concept Studio
See the idea. Put it to the test.
956 activities from Kindergarten to Year 12, in 13 subject areas. A practical gives the idea, what you need, the steps, what you should see and a safety card. A teacher-led demonstration gives the idea and its hazards; its method is for tutors on the learning platform.
Review
Reviewed before publication (owner’s confirmation, 24 September 2026). That covers every activity here, and a practical’s page lists the sources its author read.
A safety card on every page
The risk, who supervises and the hazards. The 38 teacher-led demonstrations show their idea and hazards here; their materials, steps and sources, and any result, control or note that states a number or an amount, are for tutors and administrators on the learning platform.
School laboratory, not for home
207 activities are medium or high risk. Each says so on its page: In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.
Curriculum references
Each activity lists the NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes it supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
Find an activity
60 activities
Chemistry 11–12 · page 2 of 2
Precipitation titration of chloride in seawater with silver nitrate and a chromate indicator (Mohr method)
Silver ions precipitate chloride quantitatively, and the first excess of silver forms red-brown silver chromate, marking the end point so the chloride concentration can be found by titration.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskPreparing a red cabbage indicator and mapping its colours across the pH scale
An indicator is a weak acid whose acid and base forms differ in colour, so its colour reports the pH and changes reversibly as the pH is moved back and forth.
PracticalMedium riskPreparing an ethanoic acid and ethanoate buffer and testing how it resists added acid and base
A mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base holds its pH when small amounts of acid or base are added, because the added ions are absorbed by the equilibrium between the two forms.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskReversible or not: copper(II) sulfate hydration, iron(III) thiocyanate, burning magnesium and burning steel wool
Some changes can be driven back to the starting substances by reversing the conditions and some cannot; the difference decides whether a system can reach equilibrium.
PracticalMedium riskSolubility rules from mixing ionic solutions, and predicting precipitates from Ksp
Whether two ionic solutions give a precipitate follows a small set of solubility patterns, and quantitatively from comparing the ion product with the solubility product.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskSubstitution against addition: bromine water with cyclohexane in sunlight and in the dark
An alkene takes up bromine at once and in the dark, because the double bond adds bromine directly, while an alkane takes up bromine only in light, because that reaction is a substitution which cannot begin until a photon splits a bromine molecule into two atoms. Light is therefore the variable that separates the two mechanisms.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskSynthesising aspirin: percentage yield and purity by melting point
An ester made in the school laboratory can be weighed against the mass its equation predicts, and its purity read from the temperature and the width of its melting range, so yield and purity become measured quantities with stated uncertainties rather than claims.
Teacher-led demonstrationPractical, model not builtHigh riskTesting for carbon-carbon double bonds with bromine water and acidified permanganate on a microscale
An alkene adds bromine across its double bond and decolourises bromine water at once, while an alkane needs light and time to substitute; the difference identifies unsaturation.
PracticalMedium riskTesting organic unknowns for carbon-carbon double bonds, hydroxyl groups and carboxylic acids
Three quick bench tests sort small organic molecules by functional group: bromine water for alkenes, an acidified oxidant for alcohols, and hydrogen carbonate for carboxylic acids.
PracticalMedium riskThe nylon rope trick (condensation polymerisation) with a model of addition and condensation polymer chains
Monomers join into long chains either by adding across double bonds or by condensing with loss of a small molecule; the repeat unit fixes the chain's composition and the properties follow from the chain's structure.
Teacher-led demonstrationPractical, model not builtHigh riskTitrating sodium hydroxide of unknown concentration against a standard acid
The volume of a standard solution needed to reach the end point, with the mole ratio of the equation, fixes the unknown concentration to four significant figures.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTitration curves with a pH probe and a conductivity probe: strong and weak acids against a strong base
Logging pH and conductivity as base is added reveals the shape of the curve, the equivalence point, the buffer region of a weak acid and the pH at which an indicator must change.
Practical, model not builtLow risk
For tutors and administrators
The materials and steps of every teacher-led demonstration are on the learning platform, with the safety card first. Sign in with a tutor or administrator account to read them.