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
12 practicals
Earth and Environmental Science 11–12 · Environment and sustainability · Resources and sustainability
Effect of salinity on seed germination and seedling growth
Dissolved salt lowers the water potential of soil water, so germination and growth fall as salinity rises, the mechanism behind lost production on salinised land.
PracticalLow riskPorosity and permeability of sand, gravel and clay columns, with Darcy’s law
Pore space stores groundwater and connected pores let it flow, so the same measured columns show why an aquifer holds water and a clay layer confines it.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSoil erosion prevention: bare, mulched and planted trays under a measured rainfall (syllabus practical)
Cover protects soil from raindrop impact and slows runoff, so the same rain on a covered tray moves far less sediment than on bare ground.
PracticalLow riskSurveying an introduced species with quadrats and a transect (fieldwork)
The abundance and spread of a weed such as lantana can be measured, not guessed, by sampling along a line with quadrats and recording cover and frequency.
PracticalMedium riskTreating turbid water: coagulation, settling and sand filtration measured by turbidity
Fine suspended particles that will not settle are clumped by a coagulant into flocs that do, and a sand bed traps what is left, the two steps at the heart of a water filtration plant.
PracticalLow riskWater quality of a local creek or pond: pH, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and temperature (fieldwork)
A handful of measurable properties show how land use upstream changes a waterway, and comparing them with published guideline values turns observation into evidence.
PracticalMedium riskWhere the Earth’s water is: a 1000 mL model of oceans, ice, groundwater and rivers
Only a fraction of a per cent of all water is fresh, liquid and at the surface, which is the quantity that people, plants and animals draw on.
PracticalLow riskComposition of household or school waste: a sorted and weighed audit (syllabus practical)
What goes in the bin is measurable, and the mass fractions of food, paper, plastic, glass and metal decide which management options save the most resources.
PracticalMedium riskFinding microplastics in soil or sediment by density separation
Plastic fragments less dense than saturated salt water float free of sand and mud, so a density separation reveals pollution the eye cannot see and a blank shows how much contamination the method itself adds.
PracticalLow riskOutput of a solar cell against light intensity and angle
A photovoltaic cell’s short-circuit current follows the light it intercepts, so tilt, shading and time of day set the yield of a renewable energy resource.
PracticalLow riskOverharvesting a renewable resource: a fishing model and maximum sustainable yield
A renewable population replaces itself fastest at half its carrying capacity, so a harvest above that maximum sustainable yield drives it to collapse, however large the stock looks at the start.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWind turbine output and wind speed: the cube law and the Betz limit
The power carried by wind rises with the cube of its speed and with the area the blades sweep, and no turbine can capture more than 16/27 of it, which sets where wind farms are worth building.
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.