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
16 practicals
Mathematics · Functions and their graphs
The length of the NSW coast: measuring a fractal pattern with dividers
The measured length of a coastline grows as the measuring step shrinks, an irregular pattern Richardson found and Mandelbrot described with a fractal dimension, so a coastline has no single true length.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGalileo's ramp: a rolling ball's distance grows with the square of the time
A ball rolling from rest down a straight incline covers a distance proportional to the square of the elapsed time, so the distance-time graph is half a parabola, distance against time squared is a straight line, and the distances in successive equal intervals go 1 : 3 : 5 : 7.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBouncing ball: rebound heights as an exponential decay
Each bounce returns a fixed fraction of the height it fell from, so successive rebound heights form a geometric sequence and the graph of height against bounce number is an exponential decay rather than a straight line.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCompound interest as exponential growth, checked against Moneysmart
An amount that grows by a fixed percentage each period follows A = P(1 + r/n)^(nt), an exponential relationship whose graph curves upward, and the compounding frequency changes the outcome by a computable amount.
Calculation and dataLow riskLogarithmic scales: what one unit of earthquake magnitude means
On a logarithmic scale each step multiplies rather than adds, so one unit of earthquake magnitude is ten times the shaking amplitude and about 32 times the energy, and two magnitudes from a real catalogue can be compared as a ratio.
Calculation and dataLow riskA 440 Hz tone on a phone oscilloscope: amplitude, period and transformations of sin x
A pure tone is a sine wave whose period is the reciprocal of its frequency, and changing volume, pitch or start time performs the dilations and translations the syllabus describes.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBeats from two close tones: a sum of sines rewritten as a product
Two tones a few hertz apart add to a tone whose loudness swells and fades, and the sum and difference expansions rewrite the sum as a product that predicts the beat rate exactly.
Practical, model not builtLow riskEarthquake magnitude: the 1989 Newcastle earthquake on a logarithmic scale
A one-unit step in earthquake magnitude multiplies the recorded wave amplitude by 10 and the energy released by about 32, which a logarithmic scale compresses into equal steps.
Calculation and dataLow riskPendulum: period against length and rearranging T = 2 pi sqrt(L/g)
A formula becomes a relationship the learner tests by measurement: doubling the length does not double the period, and plotting L against T^2 gives a straight line whose gradient contains g.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSound level against distance: the inverse-square law on a decibel scale
Sound intensity from a small source falls with the square of distance, and on the logarithmic decibel scale that appears as a fixed drop of about 6 dB for every doubling.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhy A4 is 210 by 297: the surd sqrt 2 and index laws in the A-series paper sizes
A sheet that keeps its shape when folded in half must have sides in the ratio sqrt 2 : 1, and fixing A0 at one square metre makes every A-size an exact power of 2 that the index laws predict.
Practical, model not builtLow riskA reducing balance home loan and a credit card balance at current RBA rates
Each month a loan balance grows by interest and falls by the repayment, so a spreadsheet of the reducing balance shows why early repayments are mostly interest and why extra repayments save so much.
Calculation and dataLow riskBouncing ball: bounce heights as a geometric sequence with a limiting sum
Each bounce returns a fixed fraction of the previous height, so the heights form a geometric sequence and the total distance travelled is a finite limiting sum.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHow fast does a car lose value: declining balance depreciation from advertised prices
A car loses a roughly constant fraction of its value each year, so real advertised prices by age follow a declining-balance curve rather than a straight line.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSimple and compound interest at a real savings rate from the Reserve Bank
Compound interest adds interest to the balance each period, so the balance grows geometrically, and compounding more often at the same annual rate adds slightly more each time.
Calculation and dataLow riskSuperannuation as an annuity: 12 per cent super guarantee over a working life
Equal contributions that each earn compound interest add to a geometric series, so the future value of an annuity has a closed form and grows much faster than the sum of the contributions.
Calculation and dataLow 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.