Homeschool Science Supplies for Experience Biology

For any family looking for a robust biology course, hands-on lab assignments are a must—and this involves purchasing supplies.

While most students favorite part of biology, is the labs, it’s not essential that students complete all of the labs. We’ve included instructions and video tutorials for completing 26 labs. We’d recommend your student choose at least 15 of these to complete themselves.

There are a number of ways parents can try to keep the cost of these supplies down.

A Word on Dissections

There’s no replacing the value that comes from a student actually dissecting a specimen and exploring biological structures on their own. However, if the specimens are completely out of budget, students may carefully watch the lab videos provided and glean information from those.

Access to a Microscope

Quite a few of the labs require the use of a microscope.

If you don’t own a microscope, try to borrow one.

Some local libraries allow you to check out a microscope to use at home.
Check with other homeschool families or local co-ops to see if they have one you could borrow.

If a microscope isn’t available to borrow, and you can’t fit one into your budget, a distant second-best option is to use the images provided in the Experience Biology lab videos and images. For most labs that require a microscope, we will provide you images of what your student would be looking at under a microscope if they had one.

Check out our Home Science Microscope Buying Guide

Where to Buy Homeschool Science Supplies?

We have worked with Cornerstone Educational Supplies and Home Science Tools to make purchasing lab supplies as affordable as possible for you.

These companies offer some of the best prices on science lab supplies we can find paired with fantastic customer service. They’ve made purchasing easy. You have two options…

1. Purchase a Kit!

The kits below have nearly all of the speciality items you’ll need, except the microscope (see our microscope buying guide for options) and elodea or other aquatic plant (you can find at a local pet shop).

Experience Biology Kit from Cornerstone — this kit does not include the dogfish shark
Experience Biology Kit from Home Science Tools — this kit does not include the starfish

2. Purchase your supplies a la carte

If you’d prefer to purchase just a few items at a time or you aren’t planning to complete all of the labs for the course, you can use this wish list to find the products you’ll need for the course. Be sure to purchase multiples where indicated on the list below!

2 of the set of 2 test tubes
3 of the set of 2 petri dishes
3 of the set of swab applicators

We recommend purchasing your lab supplies 3-4 weeks before your chosen start date to ensure they have plenty of time to get to you and that your dissection specimens are not too old when it’s time to use them.

Canadian Families

Please see this page for a special note on sourcing lab supplies.

Lab Supplies Listed by Lesson

Below is a list of lab supplies needed for each lesson. Alternatively, you can see the complete list of special lab supplies that will need to be order from a supplier and household supplies here.

Week 1: Microscope Basics

Compound microscope
Glass slides
Glass coverslips
Typed lowercase e’s (cut out of newspaper, magazine, or printed off of a computer)
Small pieces of fabric: cotton, wool, polyester
Scissors
Water dropper or pipette

Week 2: Elements of a Good Lab Report

Week 3: Comparing Plant & Animal Cell Structures

Compound microscope
Microscope slides
Cover slips
Methylene blue
Toothpicks
Pipette or dropper
Sprig of elodea

Week 4 & 5: Comparing Chlorophyll & Starch in Leaves

Mature, healthy plant (english ivy, geranium or similar would work well)
Black construction paper
White paper
Scissors
Paper clips
Safety goggles
Alcohol
Stove with small pan
Iodine
4 Test tubes
Test tube rack (recommended)
Wax pencil (recommended)

Week 6: NO LAB

Week 7: Mitosis in an Onion Root Tip

Week 8: Punnett Square Assignment

Week 9: Dragon Genetics

6 popsicle sticks
Markers (red, blue, yellow, green)

Week 10: Exam 1 (NO LAB)

Week 11: Constructing a Classification System

Week 12: Microorganisms in Your Environment

Week 13: Observing Protists from 3 Phyla

Week 14: Observing Fungus from 3 Phyla

Week 15: NO LAB

Week 16: Comparing Monocot & Dicot Stem, Leaf, and Root Tissue

Week 17: Examining the Reproductive Structures of Flowers

2-3 different flowers (gladiola, lily, tulip, or daffodil would all work well)
Dissection tools

Week 18: Exam 2 (NO LAB)

Week 19: NO LAB

Week 20: Worm Dissection

Week 21: Sea Star Dissection

Week 22: Clam Dissection

Week 23: Crayfish Dissection

Week 24: Shark Dissection

Week 25: NO LAB

Week 26: Fetal Pig Dissection

Dissection pan
T-pins
String or twine

Week 27: Exam 3 (NO LAB)

Week 28: Chicken Wing Dissection

Week 29: Comparing Respiration and Heart Rate in Individuals

Stopwatch
Calculator
2 volunteers

Week 30: Reaction Time

Ruler
Stopwatch

Week 31: Observation of Epithelial Tissue

Week 32: Impact of Exercise on Lung Excretions

2 50 mL flasks or glasses
Straws
Bromothymol blue
Watch or stopwatch (times in seconds)