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

Clear all

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.

11 practicals

Geography · Maps and spatial tools

  1. Geography K–10 · Kindergarten

    Bird's-eye view: from a model of the classroom to a pictorial map

    A map shows places as they look from directly above, so objects keep their positions relative to each other when a room is drawn as a plan.

    PracticalLow risk
  2. Geography K–10 · Years 1–2

    Wind vane, compass and a class wind rose

    Wind has a direction that can be named by the compass point it comes from, and a month of daily readings shows which directions are most common at the school.

    PracticalLow risk
  3. Geography K–10 · Years 3–4

    Measure the playground and draw it to scale

    A scale is a fixed ratio between map distance and ground distance, so measured ground lengths become map lengths by division.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  4. Geography K–10 · Years 3–4

    States, territories and neighbours on a real map, with scale-bar distances

    Australia and its neighbours are located by direction and distance, and a printed scale bar turns a string length into kilometres.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  5. Geography K–10 · Years 5–6

    Climate graphs for two Australian stations from Bureau data

    Two places at different latitudes have different patterns of monthly rainfall and temperature, and a climate graph makes the pattern comparable at a glance.

    PracticalLow risk
  6. Geography K–10 · Years 5–6

    Latitude, longitude and the shortest route: string on a globe against a flat map

    Latitude and longitude fix any place on the globe, and the shortest route between two places is a great circle, which a string pulled tight on a globe follows and a straight line on a flat map does not.

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

    Where our things come from: a label survey and a flow-line map

    Everyday goods connect a household to producing places around the world, and counting labels and drawing flow lines with measured widths turns that connection into a map.

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

    Who lives within walking distance: buffers around services on a scaled map

    Access to a service depends on distance, and a circle of fixed ground radius drawn to the map scale shows which homes are within that straight-line distance of it, which is not the same as being within that walking distance.

    Practical, model not builtLow risk
  11. Geography K–10 · Years 9–10

    Mapping advantage and disadvantage: a choropleth from ABS SEIFA scores

    Wellbeing varies across places within Australia, and a choropleth map of an index shows the pattern, but the classes chosen for the map change what the pattern appears to be.

    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.

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