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
13 practicals
Mathematics · Area and surface area
Which covers more: comparing areas by laying one shape on another
Area is the amount of surface a shape covers, and two surfaces are compared by placing one on top of the other, not by how tall or wide they look.
PracticalLow riskCovering a surface: area in rows and columns
Area is measured by covering a surface with identical units that leave no gaps, and the units line up in rows and columns so the count can be found by rows times columns.
PracticalLow riskPerimeter with string: the distance around a shape
Perimeter is the length of the boundary of a shape, so a string laid around the edge and then measured straight gives the same length as adding the sides.
PracticalLow riskSquare centimetres and a square metre: covering with a grid
Area is measured in square units of a fixed size, a square centimetre for small surfaces and a square metre for large ones, and 10 000 square centimetres fit in a square metre.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCut and rearrange: parallelograms and triangles from rectangles
A parallelogram cut along its height and rearranged becomes a rectangle of the same area, and a rectangle cut along a diagonal gives two triangles of half its area.
Practical, model not builtLow riskLength times width: where the area formula comes from
A rectangle on a centimetre grid holds rows of equal squares, so its area is the number of squares in a row times the number of rows, which is length times width.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSame fence, different paddocks: fixed perimeter, changing area
Rectangles with the same perimeter can have very different areas, and the area is largest when the sides are closest to equal.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMeasuring pi: circumference divided by diameter for real round objects
For every circle the circumference is the same multiple of the diameter, and that multiple, measured with string and a ruler, comes out a little over 3.
PracticalLow riskParallelogram and triangle area by cutting and rearranging
A parallelogram cut along a perpendicular height and rearranged becomes a rectangle with the same base and height, so its area is base × height whatever its slant, and any triangle is half of the parallelogram made from two copies of it.
Practical, model not builtLow riskArea and perimeter of a composite outdoor space, measured with a tape and trundle wheel
The area of an irregular site is found by dissecting it into rectangles, triangles and trapeziums whose dimensions are measured; two different dissections must give the same total, and the perimeter is measured and computed separately because area and perimeter do not change together.
Practical, model not builtLow riskArea of a circle: cutting sectors into a near-rectangle
A circle cut into many equal sectors and laid alternately point up and point down forms a shape close to a rectangle with height r and base half the circumference, which is where A = πr² comes from.
PracticalLow riskBuffon's needle: estimating pi by dropping toothpicks on ruled lines
When toothpicks as long as the line spacing are scattered at random over ruled lines, the long-run proportion that cross a line is 2/π (Buffon's 1777 result, whose proof needs calculus and is taken as given here), so the relative frequency of crossings estimates 2/π and hence pi, and the estimate tightens as drops accumulate.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSurface area of a cylinder: peeling the label off a tin
The curved surface of a cylinder unrolls into a rectangle whose length is the circumference and whose height is the cylinder's height, so the surface area is 2πr² + 2πrh.
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.