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
956 activities
Every subject and year · page 13 of 20
The Bernoulli effect measured in a Venturi tube
Where a flowing fluid speeds up through a narrow section its pressure falls, which a pair of water columns shows as a measurable height difference that Bernoulli’s equation predicts.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe candle in a closed container: separating observation from inference
What is seen (the flame goes out, the water rises) is an observation; “the oxygen was used up” is an inference, and a designed test shows the rise is caused mainly by heating and cooling of the trapped gas.
PracticalMedium riskThe length of the NSW coast: measuring a fractal pattern with dividers
The measured length of a coastline grows as the measuring step shrinks, an irregular pattern Richardson found and Mandelbrot described with a fractal dimension, so a coastline has no single true length.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe ‘life’ of an alkaline cell under different loads
A battery’s life is not one number: an alkaline cell delivers less charge at higher current, so an inference drawn from one test holds only for the load and schedule tested.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTiming a falling object: what quantitative data reveal that the eye cannot
A falling object gains speed at a constant rate, and only timed measurements show that a dense ball falls at about 9.8 m/s² while a light ball is slowed measurably by air.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCalibrating analogue and digital thermometers at two fixed points
Every thermometer carries systematic error; checking it at two fixed points, melting ice and boiling water corrected for the day’s air pressure, exposes that error and separates accuracy from resolution.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskControl groups and blinding: a double-blind taste test with a binomial test
Blinding, random order and a probability calculation separate a real ability to tell two products apart from chance and from expectation.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDiffraction as a measuring tool: a CD, a laser and an X-ray diffraction analogue
A regular pattern too fine to see spreads light into a predictable pattern, so measuring the pattern reveals the spacing; this is the principle that let X-ray diffraction reveal the helical structure of DNA.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskEarthquake-resistant design on a shake table: resonance, bracing and base isolation
A building sways most when the ground shakes near its natural frequency; bracing raises that frequency and base isolation lowers it, both moving the structure away from resonance as Newton’s second law predicts for a mass on a spring.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMeasuring the Earth with two shadows, the Eratosthenes method
Two shadow angles measured at local noon at places a known north–south distance apart give the Earth’s circumference by geometry, the method Eratosthenes chose because the Earth could not be measured directly.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPressure and volume of a gas: Boyle’s law and a hidden systematic error
For a fixed amount of gas at constant temperature, pressure times volume stays constant; air hidden in the connecting tube is a systematic error that bends the data until it is counted.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPriestley’s restored air made measurable: algae and hydrogencarbonate indicator
Priestley inferred that plants restore air that burning or breathing had spoiled; hydrogencarbonate indicator lets a learner measure the same effect as carbon dioxide removed in light and added in darkness.
PracticalLow riskReaction time from a falling ruler: reliability, sample size and outliers
One measurement of reaction time is unreliable; repeated trials and larger samples shrink the uncertainty of the mean, and each outlier has to be judged against a stated rule rather than deleted.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRefraction to telescope: building a two-lens telescope
The laws of refraction that shape a lens also fix a telescope’s design: two converging lenses separated by the sum of their focal lengths magnify by the ratio of those lengths.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskSample size and sample selection: drawing beads from a bag
Small samples scatter widely around the true proportion and the spread shrinks with the square root of sample size, while a biased way of choosing the sample misleads at every size.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTemperature and gas volume: Charles’s law and an estimate of absolute zero
At constant pressure a gas’s volume is proportional to its absolute temperature, so extrapolating measured volumes to zero estimates absolute zero, and the equipment limits how good that estimate is.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskTemperature and reaction rate: stopwatch against light sensor
The rate of the thiosulfate–acid reaction rises steeply with temperature, and the technology used to detect the end point, the eye with a stopwatch or a light sensor, decides how reliable the result is.
PracticalMedium riskTesting a label claim: how much acid does an antacid tablet neutralise?
An efficacy claim on a medicine label can be tested quantitatively: a back-titration measures how much acid one tablet neutralises and compares it with the stated active ingredient.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskTesting a sunscreen claim: how much UV gets through a thin layer?
An SPF is measured at a set thickness of sunscreen; a thinner layer lets through far more UV, so testing the claim shows why the amount applied matters as much as the number on the tube.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTesting the Doppler prediction with a swinging buzzer and a phone
A source moving toward a listener is heard at a higher frequency and moving away at a lower one; a swinging buzzer and a spectrum app turn Doppler’s prediction into a measured test.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskFair shares: dealing a collection into equal groups
Sharing one at a time gives every group the same number, and sometimes some are left over.
PracticalLow riskFeel and name: sorting 2D shapes by their features
A shape is named by its features, such as how many straight sides and corners it has, and not by which way up it is.
PracticalLow riskHalfway: folding a ribbon to find the middle
Half of a length is one of two equal parts, found by folding the length end to end, and the fold marks the halfway point.
PracticalLow riskHeavier or lighter: comparing masses by hefting
Mass is how much stuff is in an object, felt by hefting one object in each hand, and it is not the same as size.
PracticalLow riskLonger or shorter: comparing lengths end to end
Two lengths can only be compared when one end of each is lined up on the same baseline, so that the other ends show which is longer.
PracticalLow riskOur day in order: sequencing events and o'clock times
The events of a school day happen in a fixed order, the days of the week repeat in a cycle of seven, and when the minute hand points to 12 the hour hand points to the hour.
PracticalLow riskPackaging sort: objects that stack, roll or do both
Three-dimensional objects can be sorted by testing them: flat faces let an object stack and slide, curved surfaces let it roll, and an object such as a can has both.
PracticalLow riskSeeing how many without counting: dot cards and ten-frames
Small collections up to 5 can be recognised in an instant from their arrangement, and a ten-frame shows a number and how many more make 10 at the same time.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSorting our shoes: a graph made of real objects
When objects are sorted into rows that start on the same line and each object takes one equal space, the longest row shows the most common group without counting.
PracticalLow riskTen-frames: counting and comparing collections to 20
A collection keeps the same number however it is spread out, and two ten-frames show a teen number as one full ten and some more, so two collections can be compared by looking at the filled squares.
Practical, model not builtLow riskUnder the cup: the parts that make a number up to 10
A collection can be split into two parts in several ways, and knowing one part and the whole tells you the other part.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhat comes next: repeating patterns with beads and pegs
A repeating pattern is built from one unit that repeats, so knowing the unit tells you what comes next and what is missing.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhere is the bear: position words with real objects
The position of an object is described in relation to another object or person (on, under, beside, between, in front of, behind), so the same object can be described differently from a different place.
PracticalLow riskWhich covers more: comparing areas by laying one shape on another
Area is the amount of surface a shape covers, and two surfaces are compared by placing one on top of the other, not by how tall or wide they look.
PracticalLow riskWhich holds more: filling and pouring
A container's capacity is how much it holds, found by filling it and pouring into another, and a tall container does not always hold more than a short one.
PracticalLow riskBalancing with cubes: mass in uniform informal units
The mass of an object can be measured by how many identical units balance it, and a heavier unit gives a smaller count.
PracticalLow riskBead frame: making ten to add and subtract within 20
Numbers to 20 are ten and some more, so 8 + 5 is solved by moving 2 to complete the ten and seeing 3 left over, and subtraction undoes the same moves.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBundling sticks: tens and ones to 120 and beyond
Ten ones make one ten, so a large collection is counted by making bundles of ten, and the same number can be named in tens and ones in more than one way.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCalendar count: dates and the days between events
A calendar sets out the days in rows of seven, so the days between two dates are counted as whole weeks down the columns and extra days along a row, and the months have different lengths.
Practical, model not builtLow riskClass shop: paying and giving change with Australian coins
A coin stands for a value rather than a count of one, so the same amount can be made with different coins, and change is found by counting on from the price to the amount paid.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCovering a surface: area in rows and columns
Area is measured by covering a surface with identical units that leave no gaps, and the units line up in rows and columns so the count can be found by rows times columns.
PracticalLow riskCube towers: skip counting by twos, fives and tens
Equal towers turn counting by ones into counting by twos, fives or tens, and a staircase of towers that grow by the same step is an additive pattern whose missing terms can be predicted.
Practical, model not builtLow riskEqual groups and arrays with counters
Equal groups arranged in rows make an array, and turning the array shows that 3 rows of 4 and 4 rows of 3 hold the same number.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGeoboard shapes: sides, corners and parallel sides
A two-dimensional shape is classified by its straight sides and corners and by features such as opposite sides that are parallel, not by its size or which way up it sits.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGive and follow directions on a floor grid
A route is a sequence of steps and turns, and the same words move a person or a floor robot to the same square when followed exactly.
PracticalLow riskHalf past and quarter past on a geared clock
The minute hand and the hour hand move together: while the minute hand travels half way round, the hour hand moves half way from one number to the next.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHalves, quarters and eighths by folding
Folding a whole in half again and again makes 2, 4 then 8 equal parts, each part half the size of the one before.
PracticalLow riskHow long is a minute: comparing and measuring durations
Duration is how long something takes, and it can be compared by starting two events together or measured by counting repeats of a fixed timer.
PracticalLow 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.