Lab Supplies for Experience Chemistry
For any family looking for a robust chemistry course, hands-on lab assignments are a must—and this involves purchasing supplies.
While most students’ favorite part of chemistry is the labs, it’s not essential that students complete all of the labs. We recommend parents have students complete a minimum of the first lab plus 14 more labs (a total of 15 labs).
Where to Buy Supplies?
1. Purchase the Experience Chemistry Custom Lab Kit:
Cornerstone Educational Supplies has created a lab kit for those who would like to complete all of the labs. We recommend students complete 15 of the 26 labs in the lab book that accompany this course. However, if you would like to do all or most of the labs, this is the most economical way to purchase the specialty lab supplies.
2. Purchase supplies a la carte:
Most families won’t complete all of the labs. For those who will be picking and choosing which labs or want to purchase just a few supplies at a time, use the links in the list below to purchase items a la carte from Home Science Tools.
Lab Supplies on a Budget
We understand the budget constraints of many homeschoolers — purchasing curriculum and supplies often for multiple children can be pricey! We recommend your students plan to watch all of the lab videos and complete at least 15 labs for high school credit. So how can you make this work on a tight budget?
First, we’d recommend you choose the labs to complete that only require easily obtainable lab supplies and supplies you can probably find around your house (such as the lab for lesson 5).
We also provide supplemental lab demonstration videos to go along with some of the labs in this course — particularly labs that require a number of chemicals that may be cost prohibitive for some families to purchase (such as lesson 6 and 7’s labs). While we consider this a distant second best to your students completing the labs themselves, we want to give this option to families who want to have their students participate in these labs and write the lab reports, but are unable to obtain the necessary supplies.
Canadian Families
Please see this page for a special note on sourcing lab supplies.
Lab Supplies
Below are two lists of supplies you’ll need. On the left are lab supplies that need to be purchased from a lab supply company. On the right is a list of supplies you will like have around your house or that you can easily acquire from a local store. Alternatively, you can see a list of lab supplies listed by lesson on this page.
Special Supplies
- Goggles (multiple lessons)
- Gloves (multiple lessons)
- Apron (multiple lessons)
- Plastic mat (multiple lessons)
- Scale (or this option) (multiple lessons)
- 25 – weigh boats or weigh paper (multiple lessons)
- 25 – pipettes (multiple lessons)
- Scoop (multiple lessons)
- 2 – 50 mL graduated cylinder (multiple lessons)
- 100 or 150 mL graduated cylinder
- 2 – 100 or 150 mL beaker (multiple lessons)
- 100 or 150 mL Erlenmeyer flask
- 3 – 20 mL test tubes (multiple lessons)
- Test tube clamp
- Test tube rack
- 6 – 6″ cotton swabs
- Molecular model kit that includes a minimum of: 3 oxygen, 4 halogen, 1 carbon, 3 hydrogen, 1 phosphorous, 1 nitrogen, 4 links for single bonds, 4 links for double bonds
- Glass funnel (optional)
- 100 mL evaporating dish
- 100 mm watch glass
- Hot plate (or pan with boiling water)
- Ring stand and ring clamp
- Stopper with hole (to fit the mouth of the Erlenmeyer flask)
- Glass or plastic tube (to fit in the stopper hole)
- Spot plate
- 3 – pH paper
- 3 – red litmus paper
- 3 – blue litmus paper
- 2 Carbon rods
- 3 ft – bare copper wire
- 1 – 6V battery
- 1 cm square copper metal
Chemicals
- 0.5 g calcium chloride (multiple lessons)
- 20 mL phenol red
- 20 mL of 1% phenolphthalein
- 1 g/60 cm magnesium ribbon (multiple lessons)
- 0.5 g calcium
- 3.75 g copper chloride (multiple lessons)
- 4.25 g lithium chloride (multiple lessons)
- .25 g potassium chloride
- 5.5 g strontium chloride (multiple lessons)
- 3 g sulfur
- 5 g Zinc
- 30 mL of 30% hydrogen peroxide
- 2 g silver nitrate
- 60 mL 1 M hydrochloric acid(multiple lessons)
- 2 g iron (III) chloride
- 5.5 g sodium hydroxide
- 1.5 g sodium phosphate
- 1 g sodium carbonate
- 1.5 mL sulfuric acid
- 5 mL bromothymol blue
- .5 g manganese(IV) oxide
Household Supplies
- Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) (5 lessons)
- Quart-sized Ziploc bag (2 lessons)
- Comfortable clothes
- Meter stick or measuring tape
- An area to kick and throw a ball
- Ball
- Frisbee
- Chalk
- Water balloons
- Timer
- ¼ cup (dry measuring)
- ¼ cup (liquid measuring)
- 1 tablespoon measuring spoon
- Permanent marker
- Butter knife (or similar tool)
- Acetic acid (white vinegar)
- Sodium chloride (table salt) (multiple lessons)
- Sucrose (table sugar)
- Water (multiple lessons)
- Small plastic cup
- Funnel
- Pot
- 6 clear glasses or Mason jars
- 6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 6 tablespoons rosemary
- 6 tablespoons sand
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 20 mL cold distilled water
- Tongs or tweezers
- Candle
- Lighter or matches (multiple lessons)
- Small mason jar with lid
-
Long-nose lighter
-
Colored pencils
- M&Ms (5 colors, 20 of each color)
- Packet of active dry yeast
- Flat surface with edges (pie tin or baking dish works well)
- Liquid dish soap
- Food coloring (optional)
- Penny
-
Lighter or match
- Thermometer
- Plastic container
- Crayon or marker
-
Ziploc bag (any size)
-
White vinegar
-
3 g active dry yeast
-
3 g sugar
-
3 latex balloon
-
Water
-
Ice
-
Dominoes or playing cards
- 1 regular-width straw
- 2 large-width straws
- 100 M&Ms
- (Alternatively 100 puzzle pieces, 100 pennies, or 100 of any small object that has two distinct sides)
- Cup, Ziploc bag, or any container to fit the M&Ms
- Table or flat surface