Home Schooling Laboratory Equipment

Home Schooling Laboratory Equipment

Article by Linus Xavier

Home schooling has proved successful in most cases where the parents are well prepared and have educated themselves in the requirements for the curriculum, standards and teaching methods for their child.

There is often a question mark over how prepared for university the home schooled child is in chemistry. This needs to be very carefully thought out before hand. It is just not good enough to try and teach ‘party tricks’ chemistry in the kitchen.

These ‘practical applications’ do indeed play a part in the child’s education, just as a child attending an outside school would be expected to experiment at home. However, a student who wants to progress in chemistry needs to learn in a laboratory environment.

It is not an impossible task to set up a small home lab. Probably the most difficult thing is that you need to find a room where younger siblings won’t be able to touch things that could upset experiments or they could harm themselves. Even a large, cleverly designed lock-up cupboard with sufficient ventilation would be suitable.

You will need an easily cleanable, durable work surface, a stool or a chair, and a Bunsen burner installed to a safe gas connection. If you use Cole-Parmer products, you will find that they have Bunsen burners for different types of gas. Keep a fire extinguisher close by!

You will need a tap and basin with running water nearby. A wise precautionary investment will be an eyewash station for emergencies. Cole-Parmer have many models, and they can also provide protective equipment such as safety glasses and lab coats as well as various types of gloves you and your child may need for different experiments.

Above your work surface you can have shelves and racks to hold the apparatus, glassware, and bottles of chemicals. Leave enough space below the lowest shelf that you give yourself room to work. You need plenty of light to see what you are doing, so if the lighting in the room in not adequate, you may have to install a lamp or overhead light.

You will also need an accurate electronic balance. Your average kitchen scale will probably not be accurate enough. Most of the quantities your child will use will be tiny.

If you are using your home lab for biology as well as chemistry, you will probably need a suitable microscope. How big and expensive it is depends on what you are required to examine. [Remember, there are hundreds of virtual online sites where your child can see highly enlarged microscopic images of just about anything.]

The next step is to go over the curriculum carefully and find out just what experiments and equipment will be needed. Cole-Parmer have all the glassware you could possibly need. Unlike a school, you will need only small number of apparatus. Unless you have any ongoing experiments that last over days, you can just re-wash your beakers and flasks immediately and have them ready for the next lesson.

Cole Parmer also have micro-chemistry sets, containing small glassware containers, particularly useful for collecting samples, in convenient padded foam insert carry cases. These could be very useful for your child to work at home.

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For Laboratory Equipment Contact http://www.jms-cp.com.au/

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