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
49 practicals
Physics · Forces and motion · page 1 of 2
Movement stations: sliding, rolling, spinning and bouncing
Objects move in different ways, and the way they move depends on their shape and on how they are pushed or pulled.
PracticalLow riskPaper gliders: changing the fold changes the flight
Air holds a glider up: a shape that catches the air stays up longer and travels further than a crumpled sheet.
PracticalLow riskRamp race: which shape rolls fastest and furthest
An object's shape changes how it rolls down a ramp: a solid ball beats a solid roller, which beats a hollow ring, whatever their size.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSlip and slide: which material slides furthest
The material on the underside of an object changes how easily it starts to slide and how far it goes, because some materials grip a surface more than others.
Practical, model not builtLow riskChanging direction: a side push on a rolling ball
A moving object keeps its direction until a push from the side changes it, and the new direction depends on the strength of that push.
PracticalLow riskDesign and make a wheeled toy that rolls straight and far
The materials and parts chosen for wheels and axles decide how well a product moves.
PracticalLow riskHigher ramp, further roll: changing the slope a car starts from
Raising the top of the ramp gives the car further to fall, so it comes off the ramp faster and rolls further across the floor, and the distance grows steadily with the height.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHow hard do you pull: dragging light and heavy loads
A heavier load needs a stronger pull to move it across a surface, and how strong the pull is can be compared by how far it stretches the same elastic band.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPaper whirlybirds: the push of the air
Air pushes on a falling object; longer wings catch more air and make the fall slower.
PracticalLow riskPush it further: how the strength of a push changes distance
A stronger push sends an object faster and further, and releasing a car from a mark on a ramp gives it the same start every time, so the test is fair.
PracticalLow riskPushes and pulls change shape: playdough tests
A push or a pull can change an object's shape as well as its motion, and a bigger force makes a bigger change.
PracticalLow riskDragging a shoe with a spring balance: measuring friction in newtons
Friction is a force that can be measured, it grows when the object presses harder on the surface, and it depends on which two surfaces touch.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDrop race: a heavy ball and a light ball land together
Gravity pulls every object toward the Earth with the same acceleration, so two balls of different mass dropped together land together unless air resistance is large.
Practical, model not builtLow riskParachute drop: a bigger canopy falls slower
Air resistance is a force that pushes against a falling object, and a larger canopy meets more air, so the same load reaches a lower steady speed and takes longer to fall.
Practical, model not builtLow riskToy car on a ramp: which surface stops it soonest?
Friction is a force that acts against motion, and a car released from the same height travels a shorter distance on a rougher surface because friction takes its energy away sooner.
Practical, model not builtLow riskAir resistance and terminal speed: dropping stacked paper cake cases
A falling object stops speeding up when air resistance grows to equal its weight, so a heavier stack of the same shape reaches a higher steady speed.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBalanced and unbalanced forces: two newton meters pulling a trolley
When two opposing pulls on an object are equal it stays at rest or keeps its motion, and when they differ the object accelerates in the direction of the larger pull.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFriction: force needed to slide a loaded wooden slider on different surfaces
The friction force between two surfaces depends on the materials and on how hard the surfaces press together, not on the area in contact.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHooke's law: extension of a steel spring against load
A spring stretches by an amount proportional to the force pulling it, until it is stretched past its elastic limit.
Practical, model not builtLow riskLevers: balancing a metre rule to find the law of moments
A lever balances when force times distance on one side of the pivot equals force times distance on the other, so a small force far from the pivot can balance a large force close to it.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPulleys: measuring effort and rope distance for fixed and movable pulleys
A movable pulley halves the force needed to lift a load but doubles the length of rope pulled, so the work done stays the same.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRamps: force needed to pull a trolley up a slope at different angles
A ramp lets a smaller force move a load upward because only part of the load's weight acts along the slope, and the part grows as the slope steepens.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSimple pendulum: what changes the time for one swing
The period of a pendulum depends on its length and on gravity, not on the mass of the bob or the size of a small swing.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWeight and mass: hanging known masses from a newton meter
Weight is the gravitational force on a mass, so the newton-meter reading rises in direct proportion to the mass hung from it and the gradient is the gravitational field strength.
Practical, model not builtLow riskAverage speed of a battery toy car over measured distances
Speed is the distance travelled divided by the time taken, and a car moving at constant speed covers equal distances in equal times.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDistance-time graphs: walking in front of a motion sensor (or along floor marks)
The gradient of a distance-time graph is speed, so walking steadily gives a straight line, standing still gives a flat line and walking back gives a falling line.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGravity acts on every mass alike: dropping a heavy and a light ball together
Objects of different mass fall with the same acceleration when air resistance is negligible, because the gravitational force on each is proportional to its mass, so by a = F / m every mass gains speed at the same rate.
Practical, model not builtLow riskNewton's first law: coin and card, glass on paper, and a passenger on a stopping trolley
An object keeps its state of rest or steady motion unless a net force acts on it, so removing the surface beneath an object quickly lets it stay in place and stopping a trolley suddenly lets its passenger keep moving.
PracticalLow riskNewton's second law: accelerating a trolley with hanging masses
The acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force on it and inversely proportional to its mass, so F = m a can be tested by changing one and measuring the other.
Practical, model not builtLow riskNewton's third law: balloon rocket, paired newton meters and trolleys pushing apart
Forces come in pairs: when one object pushes or pulls on another, the second pushes or pulls back on the first with an equal force in the opposite direction.
PracticalMedium riskTicker-tape analysis: velocity-time graph of a trolley rolling down a ramp
A trolley rolling down a ramp gains speed at a steady rate, which appears as ticker-tape dots spreading out evenly and as a straight rising line on a velocity-time graph whose gradient is the acceleration.
Practical, model not builtLow riskAverage and instantaneous velocity from a ticker-timer tape (syllabus practical)
A dot pattern made at a known rate turns a moving trolley into a position-time record from which average and instantaneous velocity are read as gradients.
Practical, model not builtLow riskAverage power in mechanical processes: stair climb and pulley lift (syllabus practical)
Power is the rate of doing work, so raising a known weight through a measured height in a measured time gives the average power directly.
PracticalLow riskCoefficient of kinetic friction with a spring balance
The kinetic friction force between two surfaces grows in proportion to the normal force, and the constant of proportionality is a property of the pair of surfaces.
PracticalLow riskDisplacement, distance and the sign of velocity: a tumbling toy car and a motion sensor (syllabus practical)
Velocity carries a direction, so a position-time graph slopes up while an object moves away from the origin and down while it returns, and a round trip has zero displacement but a non-zero distance.
PracticalLow riskImpulse from a force-time graph: cart into a spring bumper and bouncing ball
The area under a force-time graph equals the change in momentum, so a longer collision time means a smaller peak force for the same impulse.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMeasuring the acceleration due to gravity in free fall (syllabus practical)
An object released from rest falls with a constant acceleration that a timed drop over a measured height reveals as g.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMomentum in one- and two-dimensional collisions (syllabus practical)
In a closed system the total momentum before a collision equals the total after, whether or not kinetic energy is conserved.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMotion of a cart on an inclined plane (syllabus practical)
On a slope the weight component along the incline, less friction, sets a constant acceleration that can be predicted from the angle and checked by measurement.
Practical, model not builtLow riskNewton's second law: constant net force on a cart with hanging masses
A fixed hanging mass applies a constant net force to a cart-and-mass system, and the measured acceleration is proportional to that force and inversely proportional to the total mass.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRelative motion: two toy cars on video, a boat crossing a river and an aeroplane in a crosswind
Velocities add as vectors, so the motion of an object relative to the ground is the vector sum of its velocity relative to the medium and the medium's velocity.
Practical, model not builtLow riskResonance in mechanical systems: driven pendulums and resonant rings (syllabus practical)
A system driven near its natural frequency absorbs energy each cycle and builds a large amplitude, while driving well above or below that frequency produces little response.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRolling resistance of a toy car from its stopping distance
Work done against rolling resistance removes the car's kinetic energy over its stopping distance, so speed and distance give the resistive force.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCentripetal acceleration on a turntable measured with a phone accelerometer
At a fixed rotation rate the centripetal acceleration grows in proportion to the radius and points towards the axis.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCentripetal force against mass, speed and radius with a whirling rubber stopper (syllabus practical)
An object moving in a circle needs a net force towards the centre equal to m v squared over r, which a hanging weight supplies through a string.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskForces in circular motion: conical pendulum and a car on a banked bend
On a banked surface or a slanted string, the horizontal component of the normal force or tension supplies the centripetal force, which fixes the speed for a given angle.
Practical, model not builtLow riskProjectile motion: primary data from a ball leaving a bench and a spring launcher (syllabus practical)
A projectile's horizontal velocity stays constant while its vertical velocity changes at g, so range and time of flight follow from the launch conditions.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTorque and rotational equilibrium with a metre rule on a pivot
A force turns an object about a pivot with a torque equal to force times perpendicular distance, and a body stays balanced when the torques cancel.
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.