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
189 practicals
Physics · page 1 of 4
Design and build a shelter that keeps a toy dry in wind and rain
Choosing materials by their tested properties and joining them in a stable shape produces a shelter that does its job.
PracticalLow riskDoes a ball bounce back as high as it was dropped
A dropped ball never bounces back to the height it fell from, and a higher drop gives a higher bounce.
PracticalLow riskFloat or sink: testing objects in water
Whether an object floats depends on what it is made of and, for a hollow shape, on the air that shape holds, not on how big the object is: objects of the same material behave the same way, and one piece of foil floats as a boat and sinks as a crumpled ball.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMovement 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 riskWhat is it made of: sorting objects by material and testing stiff or bendy
Objects are made from materials such as wood, metal, plastic, paper, fabric and rock, and each material has properties you can test.
PracticalLow riskWhich material keeps the water out
Some materials let water through and some do not, and that property decides what a raincoat, umbrella or roof is made of.
PracticalLow riskWhich strip is strongest: hanging washers until it bends
Materials differ in how much load they carry before they bend, and a count of washers makes that difference measurable.
PracticalLow 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 riskFrom animal and plant to cloth: wool and cotton
Fibres for clothing come from living things: wool from sheep and cotton from a plant, and both can be turned into cloth by hand.
PracticalLow riskHigh or low: the length of a vibrating string changes its pitch
Shortening the part of a string that vibrates makes it vibrate faster and sound higher; halving the length raises the note by an octave.
Practical, model not builtLow 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 riskLoud and soft: more energy, bigger vibration
Putting more energy into an object makes a bigger vibration and a louder sound, and a sound-level meter turns that into a number the class can compare with its own other readings.
PracticalLow riskMuffling sound: which material blocks it best
Sound passes through some materials more easily than others, and a fair test with a meter ranks them.
PracticalLow 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 riskSee-through or not: sorting materials by how light passes
Materials let most, some or none of the light through, and that property decides where they are used.
PracticalLow riskSeeing sound: vibrations you can watch
Every sound comes from something vibrating, and the vibration can be made visible.
PracticalLow riskShadows with a torch: size changes with distance
A shadow forms where an object stops light; moving the object closer to the light makes the shadow bigger.
Practical, model not builtLow riskString telephone: sound travelling along a string
Sound travels through solids as well as air, and a tight string carries a voice further than the air around it.
PracticalLow riskTuned water bottles: how the amount of water changes the pitch
Blowing across a bottle sets the air above the water vibrating, so more water shortens that air and raises the note, while tapping the same bottle sets the vessel and the water vibrating together, so more water lowers the note.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBlack can, white can: which warms faster in the sun?
The Sun is a source of heat energy, and a dark surface absorbs more of it than a light one, so water in a black can warms faster than water in a white can.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMelting race: which surface melts an ice cube fastest?
Ice melts when heat energy flows into it, and the surface it sits on controls how fast that heat arrives, so a metal tray melts a cube far faster than a foam plate.
PracticalLow riskMixing hot and cold water: where the heat goes
When hot and cold water mix, heat energy moves from the hotter to the colder until both share one temperature, and that temperature can be predicted from the masses and starting temperatures.
Practical, model not builtLow riskWhere does heat come from? Measuring five heat sources
Heat energy comes from several sources, the Sun, friction, electricity, chemical reactions and our own bodies, and each can be measured as a temperature rise.
PracticalLow riskWhich spoon warms first? Heat conduction in metal, wood and plastic
Heat energy is conducted along a solid, and metals conduct far better than wood or plastic, which is why a metal spoon in hot water soon feels warm at the handle.
PracticalLow riskDoes a magnet pull through paper, plastic, wood and aluminium?
A magnet exerts a force without touching, the force passes through non-magnetic materials, and it weakens as the distance grows.
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 riskHow far away does a magnet start to pull? Reach on a ruler
A magnet's pull acts at a distance and gets rapidly stronger as the gap closes, so the distance at which a paper clip jumps is a fair way to compare magnets and to test poles.
PracticalLow riskHow much can a strip hold? Testing paper, plastic, fabric and foil
Materials differ in strength and stretch, which can be measured by loading a strip until it breaks, and those properties decide what a material is used for.
PracticalLow riskKeep it cold: which wrapping slows an ice cube's melting?
An insulating material slows the flow of heat, so ice wrapped in wool or bubble wrap melts more slowly than ice in foil or bare, which is why eskies and jumpers work.
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 riskWhich fabric soaks up the most water? Cotton, wool, polyester, nylon
Natural and made fibres have different properties, and absorbency, measured as water held per gram of dry fabric, is one reason a towel is cotton and a raincoat is nylon.
PracticalLow riskAngle in equals angle out: the law of reflection on paper
Light bounces off a flat mirror so that the angle it bounces off at equals the angle it arrived at, measured from a line at right angles to the mirror, which a torch beam and a protractor show directly.
Practical, model not builtLow riskLight travels in straight lines: the three-card test
Light travels in straight lines, so a torch is seen through three holes only when the holes line up, and a shadow has the shape of the object that stops the light.
PracticalLow riskPinhole camera: an upside-down image proves light goes straight
Light from each point of a scene passes straight through a tiny hole and lands on the opposite side of the screen, so the image is inverted, and a ray diagram drawn to scale shows its size: halve the distance to the object and the image doubles.
Practical, model not builtLow riskShadow size: moving the object toward the torch
A shadow grows when the object moves closer to a small light source and shrinks when it moves toward the screen, because the light travels in straight lines that spread out from the source.
Practical, model not builtLow riskStretch and roll: how a stronger push sends a car farther
A stronger applied force, here a rubber band stretched further, transfers more energy to a toy car, so it rolls farther before friction stops it; for a band that stretches evenly, doubling the stretch roughly quadruples the distance.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe bending pencil and the reappearing coin: refraction
Light changes direction when it passes from air into water, so a straight pencil looks bent at the surface and a coin hidden by a cup's rim comes into view when water is poured in.
Practical, model not builtLow riskConductor or insulator? Testing materials in a circuit
Electrical energy is transferred round a circuit only along a complete path of conducting material, so a material placed in a gap in a cell-and-globe circuit sorts itself as a conductor (the globe lights) or an insulator (it stays dark).
PracticalLow riskDesigning a light for a blackout
Electrical energy from cells is transformed into light in a circuit, and a designed light with a switch, a chosen light source and a reflector meets a need only when it is tested against measured criteria.
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.