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
53 practicals
Chemistry · Chemical reactions and conservation · page 1 of 2
Fizz in a sealed bottle: a new substance, and no mass lost
Bicarbonate of soda and vinegar react to make new substances, including carbon dioxide gas, an irreversible change; in a sealed bottle the total mass stays the same, and it falls only when the gas is let out.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskLemon cells: chemical energy into electrical energy
Two different metals in an acidic fruit make a cell that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy; one cell gives less than 1 V and a tiny current, so cells are joined in series to light an LED.
PracticalLow riskRusting steel wool: what it needs and how much air it uses
Rusting is an irreversible change in which iron combines with oxygen and water to form a new substance, so steel wool rusts only when both are present, rusts faster with salt, and uses up the oxygen in the air around it.
PracticalLow riskEnergy from a burning fuel: heating water with a spirit burner
Burning a fuel transfers energy to its surroundings; the temperature rise of a fixed mass of water shows how much of it reaches the water, and the flame also heats the air and the apparatus, so only part of the energy is captured.
PracticalMedium riskHow much of the air is used up when iron wool rusts
Rusting uses only the oxygen in trapped air, so the water rises to replace about one fifth of the air column and no more.
PracticalLow riskMaking and testing three gases: hydrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide
A gas produced in a reaction is a new substance, and each gas has a test that identifies it.
PracticalMedium riskWarmer or colder: measuring the energy change of four reactions
A chemical reaction transfers energy to or from its surroundings, so the temperature of the mixture rises (exothermic) or falls (endothermic).
PracticalMedium riskWhat a burning candle makes: testing for water and carbon dioxide
Burning is a chemical reaction with oxygen that produces new substances, and the products of a hydrocarbon flame can be caught and identified.
PracticalMedium riskWhat makes iron rust: nails in air, water, both and neither
Rusting is a slow chemical change that needs both oxygen and water, and a controlled comparison shows which conditions matter.
PracticalLow riskBurning magnesium in a crucible: the mass goes up
Mass is conserved in a reaction, so when magnesium combines with oxygen from the air the solid product weighs more than the metal by the mass of oxygen it took in.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskConservation of mass in an open flask and a sealed bottle
The total mass of reactants equals the total mass of products; an apparent loss in an open container is the mass of gas that left.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGetting a metal from its oxide: heating copper(II) oxide with charcoal
Carbon is more reactive than copper, so heating copper(II) oxide with charcoal removes the oxygen and copper metal remains, the reaction behind extracting metals from their ores.
PracticalMedium riskHeating metal carbonates: which ones break down, and by how much
A decomposition reaction turns one compound into simpler substances; heating some metal carbonates breaks them down into a metal oxide and carbon dioxide, and how easily they break down follows the reactivity of the metal.
PracticalMedium riskMagnesium in acid: predicting the volume of hydrogen before you collect it
A reaction between a metal and an acid makes a salt and hydrogen, and the mass of metal fixes the volume of gas, so a prediction can be tested.
PracticalMedium riskMaking a salt: copper(II) sulfate crystals from copper oxide and sulfuric acid
An insoluble base neutralises an acid to make a soluble salt and water; using an excess of the base and filtering it off gives a pure salt solution from which crystals of the salt can be grown.
PracticalMedium riskNeutralisation: how the pH changes as acid is added to an alkali
Adding an acid to an alkali neutralises it: the pH falls only slowly at first, then very sharply at the point where the alkali has just been used up, and an indicator shows that point as a sudden colour change.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskRadioactive dating with dice: half-life as a rule, not a clock
Each unstable atom has a fixed chance of decaying in a given time, so the number left halves every half-life; counting the parent left in a mineral against the daughter formed gives the rock's age.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRadioactive 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 riskMeasuring the enthalpy of neutralisation of a strong acid with a strong base, and comparing a weak acid
Neutralisation releases the same heat per mole of water formed for any strong acid with any strong base, because the reaction in every case is hydrogen ion with hydroxide ion.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskCollecting primary data for the law of conservation of mass
Mass is conserved in every reaction; an apparent gain or loss means matter crossed the boundary of the system, and even a sealed balloon can mislead a balance through buoyancy.
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.