10 Must-Have Laboratory Equipment for High School Chemistry Labs Leave a comment
Setting up a high school science lab can be fun and challenging. Having the right high school lab equipment makes learning more fun and ensures that projects are safe and done correctly. As students learn more about the exciting field of chemistry, it becomes very important for them to have access to essential lab tools. Here’s a list of the 10 best chemistry lab equipment names for high school chemistry labs to foster effective learning and experimentation:
- Beakers
- Test tubes and Test Tube Racks
- Bunsen burner
- Microscope
- Balances
- Funnels
- Graduated cylinders
- Crucibles
- Pipettes
- Watch glass
Let’s understand each of these 10 must-have chemistry lab supplies for your experiments and their uses.
1. Beakers
In the lab, beakers are one of the most essential pieces of equipment. These round glass pots come in different sizes and are used to hold, mix, and heat liquids. Beakers usually have a spout that makes pouring easy. This makes them great for projects that need to be done in more than one step. Besides that, they can be used to store chemical liquids temporarily.
Students can use beakers to measure and mix liquids precisely during titrations or other studies that need to mix chemicals.
2. Test tubes and Test Tube Racks
Test tubes are flexible glass containers that hold data or do small-scale processes. A test tube rack is a safe and organized way to keep many test tubes together during an experiment. As a result, this mix is excellent for studies that need to be done or observed more than once.
Students can do small studies in test tubes, like mixing small reactants to see how chemicals respond. Moreover, the racks help keep the work area clean and organized.
3. Bunsen burner
Did you know? The Bunsen burner was co-designed in 1854 by German scientist Robert Bunsen.
A Bunsen burner, a high school lab equipment, is a safe way to produce heat. It makes a flame using gas, which lets you precisely control the temperature. Students can use Bunsen burners to heat things, clean tools, or do projects requiring direct heat. Moreover, they can use it to quickly and accurately heat things when they need to do studies involving boiling liquids or heating chemical processes.
4. Microscope
A microscope is a powerful instrument that allows students to magnify small samples for detailed observation. This equipment is crucial for understanding chemical structures, biological specimens, and reactions at the microscopic level. Also, it fosters curiosity and a deeper understanding of the material being studied.
Thus, students can use microscopes to examine slides containing chemical compounds or biological samples, enhancing their comprehension of microscopic interactions. For example, they can make a slide of onion skin to see the structure of the cells and get a close look at how complicated plant cells are. They can also look at a drop of pond water and find tiny living things like protozoa or algae, which makes the microscopic world come to life.
How does it work? Using beams of electrons, electron microscopes provide a magnified picture with a power roughly equal to x2,000,000.
5. Balances
Balances are needed to get exact readings on the masses of things. In a chemistry lab, accurate readings are vital for successful experiments involving solids and chemistry lab liquids. Therefore, electronic or analytical balances are often used in high school chemistry labs. These scales let students accurately weigh solids or liquids.
How does it work? Modern laboratories quantify the force acting on the balance plate by use of magnetic force restoration.
6. Funnels
Simple but necessary tools for getting liquids into containers without spilling are funnels. They are different sizes and made of different materials, like glass and plastic. Furthermore, in a high school chemistry lab, funnels are used to sort, move, and separate different liquids.
Therefore, when students need to filter a solution to remove solids or pour a liquid into a container with a narrow neck, funnels make the process easy and clean.
7. Graduated cylinders
Graduated cylinders are the best tools to use when precision is essential. These tall, narrow containers are necessary for quantitative tests because they accurately measure the liquid inside them. In fact, these equipment have marks etched into the glass or plastic that help students read the level of the liquid correctly.
Furthermore, it helps students measure the amounts of liquids they need for studies so the results are always correct and consistent. However, in terms of accuracy, graduated cylinders are more accurate and precise than beakers and flasks.
8. Crucibles
A lab crucible is a kind of laboratory glassware best for burning, melting, or mixing solid chemical substances over a burner. These are small containers made of metal or clay that can handle high temperatures. Additionally, as one of the essential tools among chemistry lab equipment names, they help heat solids to very high temperatures, usually for chemical processes. A high school chemistry lab needs crucibles for burning or making new substances.
Moreover, students can heat a sample in a crucible and watch it change, like melting or burning. This helps them learn more about the features of chemicals.
9. Pipettes
The first pipettes were invented in the 1940s by French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. Pipettes are precise tools that help move small amounts of liquids from one place to another. They are essential for studies that need to measure liquids accurately. Graduated pipettes, also called micropipettes, help students accurately measure and pour liquids, which is suitable for lab practice. Also, Pipettes help students add the right amount of reagents to titrations and dilutions to get exact study results.
10. Watch glass
This equipment is helpful in covering beakers or evaporating dishes; a watch glass is a shallow, circular glass dish. It is useful in containing small amounts of substances, chemistry lab liquids, evaporating solutions, or protecting samples from contaminants.
Additionally, watch glasses let students see a solution’s crystallization process, revealing information on solubility and saturation degrees. Also, it shields the dial and hands from dust, moisture, and damage.
Conclusion
The best educational equipment for high school chemistry classes must be practical. All the tools are helpful in their way, helping with studies and instructing students about chemicals. Thus, by giving these ten must-have things to students, teachers can make the classroom a fun and safe place for students to explore and learn.
At ArihantLab, we understand how vital good lab equipment is in school settings. Make sure you have these things in your lab, whether setting up a new one or updating the ones you already have, so your students can have a great time learning.
