Yes, as a matter of fact, this is one of my favorite topics! What are key pieces of equipment or apparatus is best for Chemistry labs? When you browse Chemistry Hardware Kits, you come away thinking you need to spend hundreds of dollars on labs. For example, I do not own any glass, graduated cylinders. I use polypropylene cylinders and beakers. One 250 mL borosilicate, beaker is enough for most labs.
A ring stand, ring, and clamp set is nice to have.
Below are three lab videos with some of the basic equipment I use. Note the soda can. I keep a box on hand. We use both glass and digital thermometers.
Here are photos of the basic equipment we use regularly. Additionally, we go through a ton of pipettes, craft sticks, and wooden coffee stir sticks. We mainly use polypropylene beakers—rarely glass. My teens wear safety glasses, rather than safety goggles; they are much more likely to keep their glasses on. Don’t spend a fortune on lab equipment. Save yogurt containers to use instead of beakers. Do more labs! Spend less money.
Below are pix with prices. I can recommend Go! Temp and EasyTemp temperature sensors. We seldom use glass thermometers. Most of the time we attach a sensor to TI 84 calculators. The Go!Temp connects to a laptop—ideally a very, old laptop. Why use digital temperature probes? They don’t break. Typically there are 12-15 teens in the Co-op Chemistry class. Glass thermometers have the same half-life as the Drinking Bird toy in my classroom. We use plastic racks for borosilicate (Pyrex or Kimax) test tubes. They might melt a little. So what? Be practical and buy what you need for lab.
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