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
202 practicals
Mathematics · page 1 of 5
A draining bottle: testing a mathematical model and refining it
A mathematical model predicts how the water level in a draining container falls; testing it against a real bottle shows where the ideal model fails and how one measured constant repairs it.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe 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 riskCalibrating analogue and digital thermometers at two fixed points
Every thermometer carries systematic error; checking it at two fixed points, melting ice and boiling water corrected for the day’s air pressure, exposes that error and separates accuracy from resolution.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskFair shares: dealing a collection into equal groups
Sharing one at a time gives every group the same number, and sometimes some are left over.
PracticalLow riskFeel 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 riskHalfway: folding a ribbon to find the middle
Half of a length is one of two equal parts, found by folding the length end to end, and the fold marks the halfway point.
PracticalLow riskHeavier or lighter: comparing masses by hefting
Mass is how much stuff is in an object, felt by hefting one object in each hand, and it is not the same as size.
PracticalLow riskLonger or shorter: comparing lengths end to end
Two lengths can only be compared when one end of each is lined up on the same baseline, so that the other ends show which is longer.
PracticalLow riskOur day in order: sequencing events and o'clock times
The events of a school day happen in a fixed order, the days of the week repeat in a cycle of seven, and when the minute hand points to 12 the hour hand points to the hour.
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 riskSeeing how many without counting: dot cards and ten-frames
Small collections up to 5 can be recognised in an instant from their arrangement, and a ten-frame shows a number and how many more make 10 at the same time.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSorting our shoes: a graph made of real objects
When objects are sorted into rows that start on the same line and each object takes one equal space, the longest row shows the most common group without counting.
PracticalLow riskTen-frames: counting and comparing collections to 20
A collection keeps the same number however it is spread out, and two ten-frames show a teen number as one full ten and some more, so two collections can be compared by looking at the filled squares.
Practical, model not builtLow riskUnder the cup: the parts that make a number up to 10
A collection can be split into two parts in several ways, and knowing one part and the whole tells you the other part.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhat comes next: repeating patterns with beads and pegs
A repeating pattern is built from one unit that repeats, so knowing the unit tells you what comes next and what is missing.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhere is the bear: position words with real objects
The position of an object is described in relation to another object or person (on, under, beside, between, in front of, behind), so the same object can be described differently from a different place.
PracticalLow riskWhich 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 riskWhich holds more: filling and pouring
A container's capacity is how much it holds, found by filling it and pouring into another, and a tall container does not always hold more than a short one.
PracticalLow riskBalancing with cubes: mass in uniform informal units
The mass of an object can be measured by how many identical units balance it, and a heavier unit gives a smaller count.
PracticalLow riskBead frame: making ten to add and subtract within 20
Numbers to 20 are ten and some more, so 8 + 5 is solved by moving 2 to complete the ten and seeing 3 left over, and subtraction undoes the same moves.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBundling sticks: tens and ones to 120 and beyond
Ten ones make one ten, so a large collection is counted by making bundles of ten, and the same number can be named in tens and ones in more than one way.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCalendar count: dates and the days between events
A calendar sets out the days in rows of seven, so the days between two dates are counted as whole weeks down the columns and extra days along a row, and the months have different lengths.
Practical, model not builtLow riskClass shop: paying and giving change with Australian coins
A coin stands for a value rather than a count of one, so the same amount can be made with different coins, and change is found by counting on from the price to the amount paid.
Practical, model not builtLow 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 riskCube towers: skip counting by twos, fives and tens
Equal towers turn counting by ones into counting by twos, fives or tens, and a staircase of towers that grow by the same step is an additive pattern whose missing terms can be predicted.
Practical, model not builtLow riskEqual groups and arrays with counters
Equal groups arranged in rows make an array, and turning the array shows that 3 rows of 4 and 4 rows of 3 hold the same number.
Practical, model not builtLow 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 riskGive and follow directions on a floor grid
A route is a sequence of steps and turns, and the same words move a person or a floor robot to the same square when followed exactly.
PracticalLow riskHalf past and quarter past on a geared clock
The minute hand and the hour hand move together: while the minute hand travels half way round, the hour hand moves half way from one number to the next.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHalves, quarters and eighths by folding
Folding a whole in half again and again makes 2, 4 then 8 equal parts, each part half the size of the one before.
PracticalLow riskHow long is a minute: comparing and measuring durations
Duration is how long something takes, and it can be compared by starting two events together or measured by counting repeats of a fixed timer.
PracticalLow riskHow many cups fill the jug: capacity with uniform units
Capacity is measured by counting how many times a smaller container fills a larger one, and the estimate can be improved after the first few cupfuls.
PracticalLow riskMeasuring with paperclips: uniform units end to end
A length is measured by laying identical units end to end with no gaps or overlaps, and a smaller unit gives a bigger count for the same length.
PracticalLow riskPacking a box: volume with cubes in layers
The volume of a box is the number of identical cubes that pack it without gaps, and the cubes sit in layers that each hold the same number.
PracticalLow 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 riskTally, table, picture graph: a class survey
Answers to a question can be collected with tally marks, organised in a table and shown in a picture graph where one picture stands for one answer.
PracticalLow riskThe twentieth bead: finding the unit of repeat
A repeating pattern is fixed by its unit of repeat, so the length of the unit tells you the element at any position without building the whole pattern.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWill it happen: chance words and ten coin tosses
Some events are certain, some are impossible and some might happen, and a coin toss is an event that might go either way every time.
PracticalLow riskArrays and area: multiplication facts to 10 by 10
A multiplication fact is the number of squares in a rectangle of rows and columns, so a hard fact can be split into two easy rectangles and added.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBalancing number sentences: finding the missing value
The equals sign means both sides balance, so a missing value is whatever makes the two pans level, and the same balance shows addition and subtraction as a pair.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCounting by quarters along a rope
Fractions are numbers with places on a number line, so counting by quarters passes 1 and continues to mixed numerals such as one and a quarter.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDollars and cents: making $1 many ways and weighing coins
One dollar is 100 cents, so an amount is written in dollars and cents and made from many coin combinations, and because 5c, 10c and 20c coins have a mass in proportion to their value, a dollar of any of them has the same mass.
Practical, model not builtLow riskEstimate, then measure: metres, centimetres and millimetres
Metric units are fixed sizes that everyone shares, and an estimate improves when it is checked against a measurement and the error is recorded.
PracticalLow riskFair or unfair: spinners with unequal sectors
On a spinner the chance of a colour depends on how much of the circle it covers, so a colour with a bigger sector comes up more often over many spins.
Practical, model not builtLow 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 riskFraction strips: unit fractions and completing the whole
A unit fraction is one of several equal parts of a whole, and enough copies of it laid end to end make the whole again.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFrom survey to column graph: a statistical investigation
A question is answered by collecting data with a method that everyone follows, recording it in a frequency table and drawing a graph whose scale suits the numbers.
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.