Basic Biology Equipment

In light of all the sales, what do you really need for Biology labs?  Before you buy an expensive microscope, see if your library has one you can use. Plan to bring a set of slides and work ant the library.  Ours does!  If not, consider using a digital microscope.  My teens focus the slide, capture a screenshot, and then sketch the image.  Sometimes, they label and save images.  We also use kiddie microscopes.  I have ten.  The resolution is quite good—certainly sufficient for high school Bio.

Buy a set of microscope slides. While I think the Amscope are fine, many families buy the Apologia set.  This page has the description of the 16 slides in the Apologia kit and here is the Amscope contents.  My goal is to have the kiddos learn how to observe and sketch slides.  I bought two larger sets of slides similar to the one below.  Check the set on Amazon; the contents are excellent!  

Test tubes and a rack are nicer than test tubes in a yogurt container.  Buy borosilicate, glass test tubes (Pyrex or Kimax).  Be sure to buy either safety glasses or goggles.  Kiddos are much more likely to keep safety glasses on their faces.

Do you plan to dissect?  If you only do one specimen, make it the frog—unless you fish.  If so, dissect a perch. You can use a paper plate, a sharp knife, and a pair of scissors.  The tray and dissection kit are nice, but not essential.  HST has good dissection manuals, too; however the instruction in the textbook or instructions online here are fine.  It does help to have perch and frog images available.

Most of the labs use simple materials: split peas (DNA Extraction), activity copies (The Lynx eats the Hare), white beans (Mark-Recapture), coffee filters, straws, baggies, cornstarch, etc.  Below are some examples.

I do have molecule sets I find to be extremely useful; however I teach Bio and Chem frequently.  The LabAid kits were investments.  I have both vintage and modern #505 Molecules of Life kits.  The worksheets make the kits worthwhile; the molecules are easy to manipulate and disassemble.  You can build molecules with this POGIL worksheet and any molecular model set.  Molymod a makes great sets.