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
23 practicals
Science and Technology K–6 · Biology
Celery in coloured water: how plants move water
Water travels up a plant through fine tubes to the leaves, which is how a plant gets the water it needs; in celery those tubes run up the crisp leaf stalk.
PracticalLow riskHow much water do living things need in a day
Living things need water every day, and the amount can be measured and compared.
PracticalLow riskLeaves: sorting by shape, edge, texture and smell
Plants have external features that differ from plant to plant and can be observed with the senses and used to group them.
PracticalLow riskMinibeast close-up: drawing and grouping features through a bug viewer
A magnifier shows features that are too small to see by eye, and counting those features, legs, body parts, antennae and wings, sorts every small animal in the schoolyard into groups.
PracticalMedium riskSeed in a jar: watching a bean sprout
A seed is a living thing that grows a root first and then a shoot when it has water, air and warmth.
PracticalLow riskSorting animals by their external features
Animals can be grouped by features anyone can see and count: number of legs, body covering, wings, fins or shells.
PracticalLow riskWhich part of the plant do we eat: making a class salad
Foods come from named parts of plants: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds.
PracticalLow riskDo seeds need air: germinating under water and on damp cotton wool
A seed needs water and air together: seeds on damp cotton wool grow roots, the same seeds held under still water swell and rot, and dry seeds do nothing at all.
PracticalLow riskGrowing lettuce and radish from seed to plate
Food plants are grown by giving them soil, water and light, and the time from seed to harvest can be counted in days.
PracticalLow riskMealworms: watching a life cycle
An animal changes form as it grows, and the stages happen in a fixed order that can be recorded over weeks.
PracticalLow riskSchoolyard minibeast survey: where small animals live
Small animals live in places that give them what they need: damp, shade, food and cover.
PracticalMedium riskSeedlings lean towards the light
Plants grow towards the light they need, so a seedling lit from one side bends that way.
PracticalLow riskWhat do plants need: seedlings with and without water and light
Plants need water and light, and a fair test that removes one need at a time shows what each one does.
PracticalLow riskWhich side do snails choose: damp or dry
An animal moves to the conditions its body needs, and a choice chamber lets the animal show its need.
PracticalLow riskBean in a jar: watching a plant life cycle begin
A seed germinates into a seedling with a root and a shoot, the first stage of a plant life cycle that a learner can measure day by day.
PracticalLow riskWho lives in leaf litter? A funnel survey and a food web
A handful of leaf litter holds consumers and decomposers that depend on the producers above it, the trees that dropped the leaves, and sorting what lives there by what it eats builds a real food web from the school grounds.
PracticalMedium riskDecomposers at work: what rots in a sealed bag?
Decomposers such as fungi and bacteria break down dead plant and animal material and return nutrients to the soil, while made materials such as plastic are not broken down.
PracticalMedium riskBlubber glove: how a fat layer keeps a seal warm in cold water
A structural feature, a thick fat layer, slows heat loss and lets an animal survive in cold water, and the effect can be measured as the temperature a thermometer holds inside a fat-lined glove.
PracticalLow riskCamouflage hunt: which colour survives on the grass?
Colour that matches the habitat is a survival feature, and counting which coloured items a class of predators finds first turns camouflage into data.
PracticalLow riskLeaf shape and water loss: flat leaf, rolled leaf, waxy leaf
Plants in dry habitats have small, rolled or waxy leaves because water loss depends on the surface exposed to air, which a learner can show with paper leaves of equal mass and a balance.
PracticalLow riskWhich beak for which food? Tongs, tweezers and spoons as bird beaks
A bird's beak shape suits the food in its habitat, and modelling beaks with tools shows how a structural feature decides what an animal can eat and where it can survive.
PracticalLow riskLight or dark: how light changes the way seedlings grow
Light is a physical condition a plant needs to make its own food, so seedlings in darkness grow tall, thin and yellow and then collapse once the food stored in the seed is used up, while seedlings in light grow short, sturdy and green.
PracticalLow riskSchoolyard habitats: measuring physical conditions and counting who lives there
Places a few metres apart in one schoolyard have measurably different temperature, light and soil moisture, and the number and kinds of small animals living in each follow those physical conditions.
PracticalMedium 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.