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
26 practicals
Mathematics · Shapes and geometric reasoning
Feel and name: sorting 2D shapes by their features
A shape is named by its features, such as how many straight sides and corners it has, and not by which way up it is.
PracticalLow riskPackaging sort: objects that stack, roll or do both
Three-dimensional objects can be sorted by testing them: flat faces let an object stack and slide, curved surfaces let it roll, and an object such as a can has both.
PracticalLow riskGeoboard shapes: sides, corners and parallel sides
A two-dimensional shape is classified by its straight sides and corners and by features such as opposite sides that are parallel, not by its size or which way up it sits.
Practical, model not builtLow riskQuarter, half and full turns with bodies and clock hands
A turn is measured by how far round something goes, so two quarter turns make a half turn, four make a full turn, and three quarter turns one way end where one quarter turn the other way ends.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRoll, stack or slide: sorting 3D objects by what they can do
The flat faces and curved surfaces of an object decide whether it can roll, stack or slide, so objects can be sorted by testing them.
PracticalLow riskFold and mirror: lines of symmetry and turning symmetry
A shape has a line of symmetry when folding along it makes the halves match exactly, and it has turning symmetry when it fits its own outline before a full turn.
Practical, model not builtLow riskOne straight cut: splitting a trapezium into new shapes
A single straight cut splits a shape into two shapes whose kinds depend on where the cut starts and ends, and the pieces can be joined again into shapes with different features and the same area.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSharper or wider than a right angle: angle testers and turns
An angle is an amount of turn between two arms, and every angle can be compared with a right angle (a quarter turn) to name it acute, right, obtuse, straight or reflex.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSkeleton models: faces, edges and vertices
A prism or pyramid can be built from edges and corners alone, and counting the faces, edges and vertices of each model identifies its key features and lets different objects be compared.
PracticalLow riskTangram: seven pieces, one square
Composite shapes are built from familiar shapes, and the seven tangram pieces are fractions of one square, so every shape made from all seven pieces has the same area as the square.
Practical, model not builtLow riskAngles on a straight line and at a point
Angles are measured in degrees with a protractor, the angles on a straight line add to 180 degrees and the angles around a point add to 360 degrees.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCoordinates on the floor: the Cartesian plane in four quadrants
A point is named by its distance right or left of the origin and then up or down, so negative coordinates place points in all four quadrants.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSlicing prisms: parallel cross-sections
Every slice of a prism parallel to its base is the same shape and size as the base, and objects that are not prisms give slices that change.
PracticalLow riskSlide, flip, turn: transformations with tracing paper and tessellations
A translation, a reflection or a rotation moves a shape without changing its size or angles, and shapes tessellate when the angles meeting at each point add to 360 degrees.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTwo strips and a split pin: quadrilaterals from their diagonals
Two strips pinned together act as the diagonals of a quadrilateral, and measuring the sides and angles of each shape they make, and folding it along its diagonals, shows which quadrilateral it is and which diagonals are lines of symmetry.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhich nets fold into a cube
A net is a flat arrangement of faces that folds into an object, and only some arrangements of six squares fold into a cube.
PracticalLow riskA transversal on parallel lines: measuring the three angle relationships
When a transversal crosses parallel lines, corresponding angles are equal, alternate angles are equal and co-interior angles add to 180 degrees, and none of these hold when the lines are not parallel.
PracticalLow riskAngle sum of a triangle: torn corners on a straight line, checked with a protractor
The three interior angles of any triangle, placed together, make a straight angle, so they sum to 180 degrees whatever the triangle's shape.
PracticalLow riskInterlocking cube models: top, front and side views and isometric drawings
A solid built from cubes can be represented by its top, front and side views and by an isometric drawing, each of which shows some features and hides others, and outline views alone can fail to fix how many cubes a model contains.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCompass constructions: bisectors and an equilateral triangle, then measured
Constructions made with a compass and straight edge produce equal lengths and equal angles by design, and measuring the result with a ruler and protractor confirms the properties the construction guarantees.
PracticalLow riskWhich three measurements fix a triangle: congruence tests by construction
Triangles constructed from three sides, two sides and the included angle, two angles and a side, or a right angle with the hypotenuse and a side always match when overlaid, while three angles fix only the shape and two sides with a non-included angle can give two different triangles; the same tests explain why a diagonal splits a parallelogram into two congruent triangles.
Practical, model not builtLow riskNetworks from the school map: degrees, Euler trails and Euler's formula
A map of buildings and paths becomes a network of vertices and edges, and counting the vertices of odd degree decides whether every path can be walked exactly once, as Euler showed for the bridges of Königsberg.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe angle in a semicircle: measured, traced with a paper corner and proved
Every angle subtended at the circumference by a diameter is a right angle, and conversely the corner of a right angle sliding against two fixed pins traces a semicircle on them as diameter, which a deductive proof with isosceles triangles explains.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe school grounds as a network: minimum spanning tree and shortest path from measured paths
Buildings joined by measured paths form a weighted network, in which a minimum spanning tree connects every building with the least total length and a shortest path may use edges the tree does not include.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHow many people can leave per minute: network flow through measured doorways
The largest flow through a network of doorways and corridors is limited by its narrowest cut, so widening the wrong doorway changes nothing.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSetting up the hall: critical path analysis from timed activities
When activities depend on one another, the longest chain of dependent activities fixes the shortest possible completion time, and activities off that chain have float.
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.