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
12 practicals
Geography · Landscapes and landforms
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 riskContour 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 riskCreek 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 riskDune 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 riskLocating 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 riskLongshore 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 riskReading 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 riskStream 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 riskTectonic 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 riskWeathering: 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 riskBeach 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 riskHow 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
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.