Due to Customs restrictions, we only accept orders from educational institutions within the Continental United States, Alaska or Hawaii. 3 Types of Essential Tools for High School Science Experiments
Modern Biology provides all the extras you need for dozens of experiments that give your students hands-on, memorable experiences doing science. With Modern Biology, you can make abstract concepts come to life as your students manipulate real DNA, determine the size of molecules with electrophoresis, or even perform genetic engineering to create a bacterium that glows in the dark and do genetic testing for hemophilia.
We provide your lesson plans, test materials, control materials, your reagents, and specialized equipment for laboratory exercises that make biology come alive for your classes. But what basic equipment do you need for your lab?
Taking Measurements
Students need experience collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to become young scientists. Collecting quantitative data starts with the very basics.
Your students need rulers to measure length.
Every student needs to know how to measure volume with a pipette.
Biological reactions occur within a limited range of temperatures, so students need thermometers and incubators to control temperature.
Experiments don’t work when reagents are used in the wrong amounts. Every biology student needs to know how to weigh objects and chemicals with a precise balance.
And don’t forget about beakers. When students mix chemicals in an aqueous solution or when they need to measure water to make a gel or buffer a compound, they typically use beakers. Beakers come with a spout that makes pouring easy and more accurate. Every lab needs beakers of different sizes for mixing varying amounts of chemicals into appropriate solvents.
Heating Equipment
Every lab needs Bunsen burners. Since the 1850s, Bunsen burners have been standard laboratory equipment that has generated a single flame for heating liquids and solids. Using Bunsen burners reinforces basic concepts of laboratory safety and provides an easy way to heat test materials.
Bunsen burners, of course, are not the only way to heat laboratory materials. Modern Biology has a selection of analog hotplates with mechanical stirrers from Benchmark Scientific. Our hotplates give you and your student precise control over liquids heated up to 380°C, although their recommended operating range is +4 to +65°C. Occupying just 20 x 23 x 11.5 cm on your lab desks but weighing 4 kg, our space-saving hotplates are not easily tipped over.
Examination Equipment
Every biology student, at some point, needs access to binoculars and a magnifying glass for fieldwork. Every biology student also needs a microscope for lab work.
Biology labs typically buy compound microscopes first. Light-powered compound microscopes magnify the detail in individual cells or allow your students to study single-celled and very simple multicellular organisms and tissues from multicellular organisms in fine detail.
Most high schools buy microscopes with 400X magnification. Most colleges seek greater detail, with 1000X magnification.
There are also lower-power microscopes that enable closer inspection of small objects in their entirety. These stereo microscopes and dissecting microscopes allow your students to examine a rock crystal or a grain of pollen in 3-D detail.
What about microscopes connecting to digital projectors onto a screen so your whole class can view the same image at the same time?
These microscopes are great for explaining concepts as you teach them in your lecture. They aren’t ideal for helping your students develop good microscopic techniques. Microscopes with digital projection screens are OK if your budget is extremely limited and you cannot provide each student or each pair of students with their own instrument, but otherwise, they should have a lower priority on your lab equipment acquisitions list.
Other Useful Tools for Your Biology Lab
Lab supplies for measurement, temperature control, and visualization are fundamental for stocking a modern biology lab, but there are many other tools that every biology teacher can use:
3-D, hands-on models help your students visualize organs and tissues. Whether it is an earthworm dissection model showing your students what they are looking for, a standing model of a typical flower, or a gigantic representation of a paramecium, students remember anatomy and physiology with 3-D teaching aids. Models of all kinds prepare your students for their hands-on experiences in the lab from Modern Biology.
Classroom microscope slide sets give your students finding what they are looking for when they use their microscopes.
Preserved samples can give your students an opportunity to observe actual human cancer cells, dissect an animal without procuring it in the wild, or learn how to recognize organ systems from frozen sections observed under the microscope. You should also buy slides and formalin so your students can make their own reference samples.
Students love aquariums and terrariums housing live plants and animals. You can teach biology and create a class mascot at the same time.
Invest in forensic biology materials. Your students can learn Western blot skills and real-world DNA fingerprinting,
Don’t overlook butterfly nets, collecting jars, display cases, and display mounts. Entomology skills allow your students to explore the real world and share their findings with like-minded students.
Modern Biology is all about empowering biology teachers to train students in scientific methods. All of our experiment kits give your students an opportunity to formulate and test a hypothesis. Your students learn essential lab techniques and hone their skills in articulating, testing, and presenting experimental results.
Modern Biology has decades of experience helping over 80,000 high school and college biology teachers reach over 500,000 students with safe, complete, affordable experiments. We help you enrich your curriculum with a real scientific investigation that gives your students the confidence to pursue further study and careers in biology.
We are always available during the week to answer any of your questions about our products at Modern Biology. Call us at (765) 446-4220, fax us at (765) 446-4225, or send us an email today! Modern Biology offices are located at 2211 South Street, Lafayette, IN 47904.