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.

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A practical is carried out at the bench, in the classroom or outdoors. A practical with its model not built stands on its own; the page says where a step mentions the model. A calculation and data practical works from published figures by hand, with a calculator or in a spreadsheet. No Lab page includes an interactive model; the Concept Studio holds the demonstrations.

12 practicals

Geography · Landscapes and landforms

  1. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Angle of repose: how steep a slope of loose material can stand

    Loose material piles up to a fixed maximum angle that depends on the grains and their wetness, and a slope cut steeper than that angle fails.

    PracticalMedium risk
  2. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Contour lines from a model hill in a rising tank

    A contour is the line where a level surface meets the land, so raising water in fixed steps around a model hill draws the contour map of that hill.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  3. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Creek discharge from a cross-section and float timing

    Discharge is cross-sectional area multiplied by velocity, so a creek's flow in litres per second can be measured with a tape, a ruler and a floating orange.

    Practical, model not builtMedium risk
  4. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Dune formation: wind over bare and planted sand

    Wind moves dry sand grains and drops them where the wind slows, so any obstacle including plants starts a dune and holds it.

    PracticalMedium risk
  5. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Locating an earthquake from P and S wave arrival times

    P waves outrun S waves, so the gap between their arrivals at a station gives the distance to the earthquake, and three distances fix the epicentre.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  6. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Longshore drift in a wave tray, with and without a groyne

    Waves that arrive at an angle carry sand along the beach in the direction they travel, and a wall built across the beach traps sand on the side the sand comes from and starves the other side.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  7. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Reading a real topographic map: grid references, distance, area and gradient

    A topographic map encodes position, distance, area and height in a fixed grid, scale and contour interval, so real landform sizes and slopes can be computed from it.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  8. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Stream table: meanders, cut banks, point bars and a delta

    Flowing water erodes where it moves fastest (outside of bends) and deposits where it slows (inside of bends and at the mouth), so a straight channel becomes a meandering one and builds a delta.

    PracticalLow risk
  9. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Tectonic plates on a tennis ball and how far Australia moves

    The rigid outer shell of the Earth is the lithosphere, the crust together with the strong uppermost mantle, and it is broken into plates that move over the weaker rock below; their edges are where earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain building happen, and their motion is slow but measurable.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  10. Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

    Weathering: freeze–thaw on wet sandstone and acid on chalk

    Rock is broken down in place by physical stress (water expanding as it freezes) and by chemical reaction (acid dissolving calcium carbonate), and both can be measured as mass lost.

    PracticalLow risk
  11. Geography K–10 · Years 9–10

    Beach profile survey with two graduated poles and the horizon (Emery method)

    A beach's shape changes with waves and storms, and repeated profiles along a fixed line measure where sand has been lost or gained and by how much.

    Practical, model not builtMedium risk
  12. Geography K–10 · Years 9–10

    How fast is this beach moving: shoreline change from annual satellite shorelines

    Annual shorelines mapped from satellite imagery since 1988 show whether a coast is eroding or growing, and a line fitted through the positions gives the rate in metres per year.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk

For tutors and administrators

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