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
137 practicals
Chemistry · page 2 of 3
Radioactive decay with 100 dice: chance, half-life and the decay curve
Each unstable nucleus decays at random with a fixed chance per unit time, so a large sample loses a constant fraction in each equal interval and the count falls along a curve with a constant half-life.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRed cabbage indicator: reading acids and bases by colour
An indicator is a substance whose colour depends on how acidic or basic a solution is, so it turns the invisible property of pH into something a learner can see and rank.
PracticalLow riskRutherford's gold-foil experiment as a rolling-ball model of the nucleus
Most of an atom is empty space with a tiny, dense, positively charged nucleus, because most alpha particles pass straight through a foil and a very few bounce back.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWeighing a flame: how much carbon dioxide a burning candle adds to the air
Combustion moves carbon that was stored for millions of years in petroleum into the air as carbon dioxide, and because oxygen from the air joins it, the carbon dioxide produced weighs about three times as much as the wax burned.
PracticalMedium riskWhich antacid neutralises the most acid
A carbonate in an antacid tablet neutralises acid, so the volume of acid a tablet can neutralise before the indicator changes compares how much base different brands contain.
PracticalLow riskCatalysts: manganese dioxide and liver speed up the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide
A catalyst increases the rate of a reaction without being used up, so the same amount of product forms sooner and the catalyst can be recovered.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskChlorine, bromine and iodine: reactivity down group 17 by displacement
A more reactive halogen displaces a less reactive one from its salt, so a grid of halogen against halide solutions orders the group.
PracticalMedium riskFlame tests: identifying metals by the colour of their light
Each element gives out light of its own colours when its electrons drop back to lower energy levels, so a flame colour identifies the metal in a compound.
PracticalMedium riskGas volume against time: reading a rate from the gradient
Rate is the gradient of a product-against-time graph, steepest at the start when reactant concentration is highest and zero when the magnesium has all reacted.
PracticalMedium riskLithium and sodium in water: reactivity down group 1
Elements in the same group react in the same way and their reactivity changes in a regular order down the group, which the periodic table was built to show.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalHigh riskLumps against powder: surface area and the rate of reaction on a balance
Only particles at a surface can collide with the acid, so the same mass of solid in smaller pieces reacts faster although the total gas made is the same.
PracticalMedium riskMaking a plastic from potato starch and changing it with glycerol
A polymer's properties depend on how its chains are held together, so adding a plasticiser such as glycerol turns a brittle starch film into a flexible one, and a starch plastic can be broken down by soil organisms that cannot digest polyethylene.
PracticalLow riskMetals competing for salts: building a reactivity series on a spotting tile
A more reactive metal displaces a less reactive metal from a solution of its salt, so a grid of metal-against-salt tests orders the metals.
PracticalLow riskSalt, sugar and wax: properties that reveal ionic and covalent substances
Ionic substances such as sodium chloride have high melting points and conduct only when their ions are free to move, while covalent molecular substances such as sugar and wax melt easily and never conduct.
PracticalMedium riskSynthesis, decomposition and displacement: three reactions, three patterns
Reactions fall into patterns that can be read from their equations: two substances joining, one splitting, or one element taking the place of another.
PracticalMedium riskThe disappearing cross: how concentration changes the rate of reaction
Rate rises with concentration because more particles per volume means more collisions per second; the time for a fixed amount of product to form falls in proportion.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskWarm it up: how temperature changes the rate of the thiosulfate reaction
Raising the temperature makes the particles move faster, so they collide more often and more energetically, and the reaction goes faster.
PracticalMedium riskZinc in copper sulfate: a displacement reaction you can measure by its heat
In a displacement reaction a more reactive metal takes the place of a less reactive one in its salt solution and releases energy, so the temperature rise in the same copper(II) sulfate solution compares how readily different metals displace copper.
PracticalMedium riskA circus of reaction types: synthesis, decomposition, combustion, precipitation, acid-base and acid-carbonate
Chemical change shows itself as a new substance with new properties (a gas, a precipitate, a colour change, a temperature change or light), and each reaction type has a predictable product pattern.
PracticalMedium riskA spontaneous endothermic reaction: barium hydroxide octahydrate with ammonium chloride (teacher demonstration)
A reaction can run on its own while absorbing heat because the large increase in entropy (solids to a slush of ions, water and ammonia gas) outweighs the enthalpy cost.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalHigh riskBoyle's law and Charles's law with a sealed syringe, pressure sensor and water bath
For a fixed amount of gas, pressure times volume is constant at fixed temperature, and volume is proportional to absolute temperature at fixed pressure; both are limits of PV = nRT.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBuilding a metal activity series from reactions with water, dilute acid, oxygen and metal-ion solutions
Metals can be ranked by how readily they give up electrons; a more active metal displaces a less active metal from solution and reacts faster with acid.
PracticalMedium riskBurning magnesium in a crucible: mass gain and the empirical formula of magnesium oxide
Elements combine in a fixed whole-number mole ratio; the mass of oxygen gained by a weighed strip of magnesium gives that ratio directly.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskCalorimetry of ethanol combustion: measuring the enthalpy of combustion and explaining the shortfall
The heat released by burning a weighed mass of fuel is captured by a known mass of water; the enthalpy of combustion per mole follows, and the gap from the accepted value measures heat loss.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskCatalysts for the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide: manganese(IV) oxide, potassium iodide and catalase
A catalyst speeds a reaction by providing a pathway with a lower activation energy and is left unchanged; different catalysts lower the barrier by different amounts.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskClassifying substances as ionic, covalent molecular, covalent network or metallic by conductivity and melting behaviour
Whether a substance conducts as a solid, as a melt and in water, and how readily it melts, follows from the kind of particles and bonds it contains.
PracticalMedium riskComparing the specific heat capacities of aluminium and copper by the method of mixtures
Equal masses of different substances heated through the same temperature change store different amounts of energy, and the specific heat capacity in q = m c delta T measures that difference.
Practical, model not builtLow riskConservation of mass: vinegar and sodium hydrogen carbonate in an open cup and a capped bottle, and a precipitation on the balance
Mass is conserved in every chemical reaction; an apparent loss in an open system is the mass of gas that left, which the balanced equation predicts.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFlame tests of metal ions and the line-spectrum model of energy levels
Each metal ion emits its own colour because electrons drop between discrete energy levels; the emitted wavelengths are fixed for that element.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskGalvanic cells with a salt bridge: measuring and predicting cell potentials
A spontaneous redox reaction split into two half-cells drives electrons through a wire; the measured voltage is the difference between the two half-cells' reduction potentials.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskHeating hydrated copper(II) sulfate: water of crystallisation and the molar mass of a compound
The mass lost on heating a hydrate is the water of crystallisation, and the mole ratio of water to anhydrous salt fixes the formula and the molar mass.
PracticalMedium riskHess's law: the enthalpy of hydration of copper(II) sulfate from two dissolution measurements
An enthalpy change that cannot be measured directly is found by combining changes along another route, because enthalpy change depends only on the start and end states.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskMagnesium and hydrochloric acid in an inverted burette: whole-number mole ratio and the molar volume of a gas
One mole of magnesium releases one mole of hydrogen, and the volume of that gas at the room's temperature and pressure gives the molar volume.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskMagnesium in hydrochloric acid: gas volume against time, surface area and concentration
The gradient of a volume-time graph is the reaction rate; it is steepest at the start, falls as reactant is used up, and rises with surface area and acid concentration.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskPredicting and building molecular shapes with Lewis diagrams, VSEPR and model kits
Electron domains around a central atom spread as far apart as possible, so counting bonding pairs and lone pairs predicts a molecule's shape, and the shape with the bond polarities decides whether the molecule is polar.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPreparing a 0.100 mol/L sodium carbonate standard solution and a tenfold dilution
A standard solution has a concentration known from a weighed primary standard made up to an exact volume, and dilution keeps the number of moles constant while the volume grows.
PracticalLow riskReactivity of Group 1 and Group 2 metals with water down and across the periodic table
Reactivity with water rises down Group 1 (lithium to sodium) and is lower for the Group 2 metals, following the trend in first ionisation energy.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalHigh riskSeparating a sand, salt and water mixture and finding its percentage composition
A heterogeneous mixture is separated by physical properties (particle size, solubility, boiling point) and the recovered masses give the percentage composition by mass.
PracticalLow riskSimple distillation of salt water: boiling-point plateau and purity of the distillate
A homogeneous mixture is separated by boiling point: the thermometer reads a plateau at the boiling point of the volatile component while the dissolved solid stays behind.
PracticalMedium riskSodium thiosulfate and hydrochloric acid (the disappearing cross): rate against temperature and concentration
Reaction rate rises with concentration because collisions are more frequent, and with temperature because a larger fraction of collisions carry the activation energy.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskTemperature changes on dissolving ionic solids and on burning a fuel: classifying reactions as endothermic or exothermic
Energy released or absorbed by bond changes shows up as a temperature change of the surroundings, measured in an insulated cup and predicted from enthalpy data.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskThe iodine clock: a sharp end point for measuring rate with a data logger
A reaction whose product is masked until a fixed amount of a second reagent is consumed gives a sudden colour change, so the time to that change measures the average rate exactly.
PracticalMedium riskWeighing 50 mL of different gases: Avogadro's law and relative molecular mass from the ideal gas equation
Equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure hold equal numbers of molecules, so the mass of a fixed volume is proportional to the molar mass.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtMedium riskWeighing out 0.100 mol of elements and compounds: a mole display
Equal amounts in moles contain equal numbers of particles but have different masses, because the mass of each particle differs; the molar mass converts one to the other.
PracticalLow riskA calibration line from published atomic absorption data for copper in water
Atomic absorption spectroscopy measures how much light free atoms of one metal remove from a beam at that metal's own wavelength, so a line fitted through standards of known concentration turns a sample's absorbance into a concentration. A school may have no atomic absorption spectrometer, as the NSW Department of Education Module 8 guide recognises, so the standards are prepared by hand and the absorbance readings are taken from published data, which the syllabus allows, since its Module 8 content accepts processing data as well as conducting an investigation.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskAnalysing household substances: the ethanoic acid content of vinegar and a back titration of an antacid tablet
Titration measures the acid or base content of everyday products, with a back titration used when the sample is a solid that reacts slowly or is insoluble.
PracticalLow riskBuilding and naming structural isomers with model kits: alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, esters
The same molecular formula can be assembled into different carbon skeletons or functional groups, and each arrangement is a distinct compound with its own IUPAC name and properties.
Practical, model not builtLow riskColourimetry of copper(II) solutions: a calibration curve, the Beer-Lambert law and an unknown from a brass or ore digest
Absorbance is proportional to the concentration of a coloured species, so a calibration line from standards converts the absorbance of an unknown into its concentration; the same principle underlies UV-visible spectrophotometry and atomic absorption spectroscopy.
Practical, model not builtMedium 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.