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
27 practicals
Biology · Plants and energy
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 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 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 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 riskAlgal balls and hydrogencarbonate indicator: photosynthesis and respiration in one tube
Photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from water and respiration adds it, and an indicator that tracks carbon dioxide shows which process dominates under each light condition.
PracticalLow riskLeaf surface temperature: transpiration as evaporative cooling
Evaporation removes heat from the surface it leaves, so a transpiring leaf runs cooler than one whose stomata are sealed, the same physics that makes sweating cool skin.
PracticalLow riskPondweed and light: oxygen bubbles against lamp distance
Photosynthesis in the chloroplasts of a water plant releases oxygen, and the rate of release falls as the lamp moves further away and less light reaches the plant.
Practical, model not builtLow riskStomatal density: counting pores on the two faces of a leaf
Stomata are the pores through which a leaf exchanges gases and loses water, and their number per square millimetre can be measured from an impression and a calibrated field of view.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTesting a variegated leaf for starch: where photosynthesis happens
Starch is made only in the parts of a leaf that hold chloroplasts and have had light, so the iodine test maps where photosynthesis occurred.
PracticalMedium riskTranspiration with a straw potometer: water uptake against air movement
Water that evaporates from a shoot is replaced by water drawn up the stem, so the rise of the lower end of the water column in a narrow straw measures how fast the shoot takes up water, which closely tracks transpiration.
PracticalLow riskWater transport in celery: dye rising through the xylem
Water travels up a celery stalk through xylem vessels, and the rate depends on how fast the leaves lose water.
PracticalLow riskFlower dissection: male and female parts and the ovules inside
A flower is a reproductive organ whose parts are arranged for pollen transfer and fertilisation, and its structure can be read from the outside in.
PracticalLow riskPollen tube growth on a slide: watching the step before fertilisation
A pollen grain grows a tube toward the ovule when it lands on a suitable surface, and that growth can be watched and measured on a slide within a double lesson.
PracticalLow 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 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 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 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 riskStomatal density from nail-varnish leaf impressions
Gas exchange in a leaf happens through stomata whose number per square millimetre can be measured from a surface impression and compared between leaf surfaces and species.
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 riskTracing water transport with dye in celery and white flowers, with stem sections
Water travels through xylem vessels, which stain along their length and can be located in a stem section, and adjacent vessels exchange water sideways.
PracticalLow riskWater balance in plants: water loss from cuttings with leaf surfaces sealed
Most water leaves a plant through stomata, so sealing the leaf surface that carries most stomata cuts water loss sharply, showing how stomata and cuticle together let a plant balance water uptake and loss.
PracticalLow riskWater uptake by a shoot in a bubble potometer under changing conditions
Water lost from leaves by transpiration is replaced through the xylem, so the rate at which a bubble travels along a capillary measures the pull generated by evaporation.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFlower dissection and hand pollination of rapid-cycling brassicas
A flower's parts are organised for pollen transfer and fertilisation, and moving pollen by hand between chosen parents is the basis of artificial pollination in plant breeding.
PracticalLow 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 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.