Lab
See the idea. Put it to the test.
956 practicals from Kindergarten to Year 12, in 9 subjects. A practical gives the idea, what you need, the steps, what you should see and a safety card. A teacher-led practical 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 practical 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 practicals 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 practicals 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 practical lists the NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes it supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
Find a practical
17 practicals
Biology 11–12 · Biology · Cells and transport
Catalase and hydrogen peroxide: reaction rate against substrate concentration
The rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction depends on substrate concentration. Many enzymes level off once their active sites are saturated, but catalase breaks down hydrogen peroxide at a rate proportional to its concentration over the range a school can use.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskConditions needed for photosynthesis: starch tests on treated leaves
A leaf stores the product of photosynthesis as starch only in the cells that had chlorophyll, light and carbon dioxide together, so an iodine test maps exactly where photosynthesis happened.
PracticalMedium riskEffect of pH on amylase activity by timed iodine tests
Each enzyme has a pH range in which its active site keeps the shape that fits the substrate; outside that range the rate falls.
PracticalLow riskEffect of temperature on lipase digesting milk fat
Lipase releases fatty acids from fat, so the pH falls as digestion proceeds; the rate rises with temperature until the enzyme denatures.
PracticalMedium riskFloating leaf discs: photosynthesis measured by the time discs rise
Leaf discs whose air spaces have been replaced by solution sink, then float again as oxygen from photosynthesis refills the spaces, so the time to float measures the rate.
PracticalLow riskGas exchange of plants and animals in light and dark with hydrogencarbonate indicator
Living things change the carbon dioxide concentration around them: animals always add it, plants remove it in light and add it in the dark.
PracticalMedium riskOsmosis in potato cylinders across a sucrose concentration series
Water crosses a partially permeable membrane down its own concentration gradient, so tissue gains mass in dilute solutions and loses mass in concentrated ones.
Practical, model not builtLow riskOxygen uptake by germinating seeds in a simple respirometer
Aerobic respiration consumes oxygen; when the carbon dioxide produced is absorbed, the gas volume falls at a rate that measures respiration.
PracticalMedium riskPhotosynthesis in immobilised algae measured by carbon dioxide uptake
Photosynthesising cells remove dissolved carbon dioxide, raising the pH of the surrounding solution, and the colour of a pH indicator tracks the rate.
PracticalLow riskPlasmolysis and recovery in red onion epidermis
In a concentrated salt solution the cytoplasm loses water and the membrane pulls away from the wall; the change reverses when water is returned, showing that osmosis acts across the membrane, not the wall.
PracticalLow riskProkaryotic and eukaryotic cells under the light microscope, with calibrated scale bars
Cells differ in size and internal organisation, and a measured field of view turns a drawing into a scaled record of what is there.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRate of photosynthesis in pondweed against light distance and carbon dioxide
Photosynthesis releases oxygen at a rate set by light and carbon dioxide supply, and light intensity falls with the square of the distance from a lamp.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSurface-area-to-volume ratio and diffusion into agar cubes
Diffusion supplies a cube only from its surface, so a larger cube has proportionally less surface for each unit of volume and its centre is reached later.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe light-dependent reaction: isolated chloroplasts reducing DCPIP (the Hill reaction)
Chloroplasts in light release electrons from water, and a blue dye that accepts those electrons loses its colour, showing the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis happening outside the living cell.
PracticalLow riskUnicellular, colonial and multicellular organisms in pond water by the hanging-drop method
A drop of pond water holds organisms at three levels of organisation, and watching them live shows how a single cell, a colony of like cells and a body of specialised cells each move, feed and respond.
PracticalLow riskVisking tubing as a model of a partially permeable membrane and a gut wall
Small molecules such as glucose diffuse through a partially permeable membrane while large molecules such as starch do not, which is why digestion must break food down before absorption.
PracticalMedium riskYeast fermentation of glucose: carbon dioxide production and budding cells
Yeast releases carbon dioxide as it respires glucose without oxygen, and the same culture shows cells reproducing by budding.
Practical, model not builtLow risk
For tutors and administrators
The materials and steps of every teacher-led practical are on the learning platform, with the safety card first. Sign in with a tutor or administrator account to read them.