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
137 practicals
Chemistry · page 1 of 3
Bend, twist, stretch and fold: changing materials without changing what they are
Physical actions change a material's shape, and some changes spring back while others stay, but the material stays the same stuff.
PracticalLow riskMixing and separating: sand, rice and paper clips
Materials can be mixed without changing what they are, and a mixture can be taken apart again using differences such as size and magnetism.
PracticalLow riskBreaking into smaller pieces: crushed chalk is still chalk
Snapping and crushing chalk makes smaller and smaller pieces without making a new material: the powder marks paper the same way, the pieces still add up to the same length, and the sealed bag weighs the same at every step.
PracticalLow riskChocolate, butter, wax and ice: different solids melt at different temperatures
Each solid changes to a liquid at its own temperature, so a warm-water bath with a thermometer lets a learner read off the melting temperature of several everyday materials.
PracticalLow riskCooling curve: how fast a cup of warm water loses heat
A warm object loses heat to cooler surroundings, quickly at first and more slowly as the temperatures get closer, and a lid or insulation slows the loss.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFreezing water: it takes up more room as ice
Removing heat turns liquid water into solid ice, and unlike most substances water expands when it freezes, which can be measured as a rise of about 9 percent in volume.
PracticalLow riskMelting ice: the thermometer stops at zero
Adding heat to ice makes it melt, but while ice and water are together the temperature stays at 0 degrees Celsius because the energy is being used to change state, not to warm the water.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSolid or liquid? Testing properties, then meeting cornflour slime
Solids keep their shape and liquids take the shape of their container and can be poured, and testing those properties on a cornflour and water mixture shows why scientists test rather than assume.
PracticalLow riskBalloon on a bottle: air expands when it is warmed
Warming a gas makes its particles move faster and spread out, so air in a bottle expands and inflates a balloon, and cooling reverses it, without any air being added.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFood dye in hot and cold water: particles move faster when warm
Particles in a liquid are always moving and move faster when warmer, so a drop of dye spreads through warm water sooner than through cold, though the fast swirling seen in a glass is mostly currents and true particle spreading is slow.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSquash the syringe: gases compress, liquids do not
Gas particles are far apart with empty space between them, so a sealed syringe of air can be pushed to half its volume, while water particles are already touching and the plunger will not move.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDissolving and getting it back: separating sand and salt
Dissolving is a reversible change: salt dissolved in water passes through a filter that stops sand and is recovered unchanged when the water evaporates, with its mass back on the balance.
PracticalLow riskFizz in a sealed bottle: a new substance, and no mass lost
Bicarbonate of soda and vinegar react to make new substances, including carbon dioxide gas, an irreversible change; in a sealed bottle the total mass stays the same, and it falls only when the gas is let out.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskHeat and food: which changes can be undone?
Heating melts chocolate and butter, changes that reverse on cooling, but sets egg white and browns bread, changes that make new substances and cannot be undone.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalMedium riskLemon cells: chemical energy into electrical energy
Two different metals in an acidic fruit make a cell that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy; one cell gives less than 1 V and a tiny current, so cells are joined in series to light an LED.
PracticalLow riskRusting steel wool: what it needs and how much air it uses
Rusting is an irreversible change in which iron combines with oxygen and water to form a new substance, so steel wool rusts only when both are present, rusts faster with salt, and uses up the oxygen in the air around it.
PracticalLow riskAmmonia and hydrogen chloride diffusing along a tube: the white ring
Gases diffuse at speeds set by their particle mass, so two gases released at opposite ends of a tube meet nearer the heavier gas.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtHigh riskBrownian motion: smoke particles jostled by air molecules under a microscope
Invisible air molecules are moving fast and at random, because visible smoke specks they strike jiggle without any other cause.
PracticalLow riskCooling curve of stearic acid: temperature holds steady while a liquid freezes
During a change of state the temperature stays constant even though the substance keeps losing heat, because the energy goes into rearranging particles rather than slowing them.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskDensity of tap water and seawater from a mass-volume graph
Density is the mass of each millilitre of a substance, so the gradient of a mass-against-volume graph measures it, and dissolved salt packs more mass into the same volume.
PracticalLow riskDesign a separation: iron filings, sand, sawdust and salt
Each separation technique exploits one property difference, so a multi-part mixture needs a sequence of techniques chosen from the properties of its parts.
PracticalLow riskDiffusion in a liquid: ions meeting inside a single water drop
Dissolved particles spread through still water on their own; where the particles from two crystals meet they react to form a yellow solid, which marks the meeting point.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalMedium riskGas particles move: carbon dioxide diffusing between two test tubes
Gas particles are in constant random motion, so a gas spreads into the space available even without stirring or wind.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHow much dissolves: a solubility curve for ammonium chloride
The mass of a solid that a fixed mass of water can hold in solution rises with temperature, and a saturated solution gives back crystals as it cools.
PracticalLow riskPaper chromatography of the dyes on coloured sweets
A colour that looks single can be a mixture of dyes, and they separate because each is carried up the paper by water to a different extent.
PracticalLow riskSeparating sand and salt by dissolving, filtering and evaporating
A mixture can be separated using a property in which its parts differ: salt dissolves in water and sand does not.
PracticalLow riskSimple distillation: recovering pure water from salt water
Boiling turns only the water into vapour, so condensing that vapour gives water without the dissolved salt.
PracticalMedium riskWater filter challenge: what filtering removes and what it cannot
A layered filter traps suspended particles by size, so muddy water comes out clearer, but dissolved substances pass straight through because their particles are far smaller than any gap in the filter.
PracticalLow riskWinnowing and yandying: separating seed from husk and sand
First Nations Australians separate seed from husk by winnowing (air carries off the lighter husk) and from sand by yandying (shaking a tilted dish sends small dense grains to the bottom), each technique exploiting a difference in density and particle size.
PracticalLow riskBlue to white and back: water of crystallisation in copper(II) sulfate
Heating drives water out of blue copper(II) sulfate crystals, leaving a white solid of lower mass, and adding water turns the powder blue and warm again, so the water was part of the crystals rather than dampness on their surface.
PracticalMedium riskEnergy from a burning fuel: heating water with a spirit burner
Burning a fuel transfers energy to its surroundings; the temperature rise of a fixed mass of water shows how much of it reaches the water, and the flame also heats the air and the apparatus, so only part of the energy is captured.
PracticalMedium riskHow much of the air is used up when iron wool rusts
Rusting uses only the oxygen in trapped air, so the water rises to replace about one fifth of the air column and no more.
PracticalLow riskIron and sulfur: a mixture you can un-mix and a compound you cannot
Two elements mixed keep their own properties and can be separated, but once they react the compound formed has new properties and the elements can no longer be pulled apart physically.
PracticalMedium riskMaking and testing three gases: hydrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide
A gas produced in a reaction is a new substance, and each gas has a test that identifies it.
PracticalMedium riskMetal or non-metal: testing lustre, conductivity and malleability
Elements can be sorted as metals or non-metals by testing physical properties, and a few elements such as graphite and silicon break the pattern, which is why the classification rests on several properties rather than one.
PracticalLow riskPhysical or chemical change: evidence from seven small changes
A chemical change makes a new substance, shown by a new colour, a gas, a solid or an energy change that cannot be undone by a physical method, while after a physical change the same substance remains in a new form.
PracticalLow riskSplitting water: two volumes of hydrogen to one of oxygen
Water is a compound of two elements in a fixed ratio; an electric current decomposes it and the 2 : 1 gas volumes match the formula H2O.
PracticalLow riskWarmer or colder: measuring the energy change of four reactions
A chemical reaction transfers energy to or from its surroundings, so the temperature of the mixture rises (exothermic) or falls (endothermic).
PracticalMedium riskWhat a burning candle makes: testing for water and carbon dioxide
Burning is a chemical reaction with oxygen that produces new substances, and the products of a hydrocarbon flame can be caught and identified.
PracticalMedium riskWhat makes iron rust: nails in air, water, both and neither
Rusting is a slow chemical change that needs both oxygen and water, and a controlled comparison shows which conditions matter.
PracticalLow riskBurning magnesium in a crucible: the mass goes up
Mass is conserved in a reaction, so when magnesium combines with oxygen from the air the solid product weighs more than the metal by the mass of oxygen it took in.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskConservation of mass in an open flask and a sealed bottle
The total mass of reactants equals the total mass of products; an apparent loss in an open container is the mass of gas that left.
Practical, model not builtLow riskGetting a metal from its oxide: heating copper(II) oxide with charcoal
Carbon is more reactive than copper, so heating copper(II) oxide with charcoal removes the oxygen and copper metal remains, the reaction behind extracting metals from their ores.
PracticalMedium riskHeating metal carbonates: which ones break down, and by how much
A decomposition reaction turns one compound into simpler substances; heating some metal carbonates breaks them down into a metal oxide and carbon dioxide, and how easily they break down follows the reactivity of the metal.
PracticalMedium riskMagnesium in acid: predicting the volume of hydrogen before you collect it
A reaction between a metal and an acid makes a salt and hydrogen, and the mass of metal fixes the volume of gas, so a prediction can be tested.
PracticalMedium riskMaking a salt: copper(II) sulfate crystals from copper oxide and sulfuric acid
An insoluble base neutralises an acid to make a soluble salt and water; using an excess of the base and filtering it off gives a pure salt solution from which crystals of the salt can be grown.
PracticalMedium riskNeutralisation: how the pH changes as acid is added to an alkali
Adding an acid to an alkali neutralises it: the pH falls only slowly at first, then very sharply at the point where the alkali has just been used up, and an indicator shows that point as a sudden colour change.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskRadioactive dating with dice: half-life as a rule, not a clock
Each unstable atom has a fixed chance of decaying in a given time, so the number left halves every half-life; counting the parent left in a mineral against the daughter formed gives the rock's age.
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.