[DIYbio] Re: Looking for low cost equipment

Hi,

I am new to these forums (just signed up today) and I am a high school chemistry teacher with a pretty extensive molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry background. I just accepted a new teaching position and I want to develop a molecular biology course for seniors in high school. In order to do that, I need a fairly extensive list of equipment. I am hoping members of these forums will have some ideas abut how to obtain or make reliable equipment. One idea I intend to explore is whether NIH surplus out in Gaithersburg, MD (I live near DC) might be accessible to a private school for equipment donations.

Here is a list of things I need:

-80 freezer or freezer space.  I am thinking about posting on Craig's list to see if I can find space on a rental basis. Pretty unlikely my school will come up with money for a new freezer and I have checked some used equipment sites and it's hard to find something under 3k before shipping. There are also space issues at the school so I am not sure even if we could afford one, that we would have a place with reliable power back-up to place it. I have about 1k bacterial and yeast stains I'd love to keep alive although I doubt I'd need more than 10 for a course. More reasonably, I'd like to come up with one tower of space and I'd bite the bullet and throw everything away except 8 or 10 boxes.

2 incubators, one for 25˚C and one for 37˚C

At least one temperature controlled shaker, but really 2 would be ideal.

One thermocycler

One temperature controlled water bath

Several vortex mixers

One or two rocking platform shakers/mixers.

One eppendorf style centrifuge

One small general purpose centrifuge for spinning down bacterial and yeast cultures (about 4k in speed) using 250 mL size bottles with adaptors for 50 and 15 mL conicals would be ideal.

At least 4 sets of Ranin-style pipetmen

A couple of stir plates

Most of the other common things such as balances and a few other small devices we have.

Any ideas would be welcome. I'll keep my eyes on the responses and see if any of you guys can come up with some great ideas!

Hi,

I am new to these forums (just signed up today) and I am a high school chemistry teacher with a pretty extensive molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry background. I just accepted a new teaching position and I want to develop a molecular biology course for seniors in high school. In order to do that, I need a fairly extensive list of equipment. I am hoping members of these forums will have some ideas abut how to obtain or make reliable equipment. One idea I intend to explore is whether NIH surplus out in Gaithersburg, MD (I live near DC) might be accessible to a private school for equipment donations.

Here is a list of things I need:

-80 freezer or freezer space.  I am thinking about posting on Craig's list to see if I can find space on a rental basis. Pretty unlikely my school will come up with money for a new freezer and I have checked some used equipment sites and it's hard to find something under 3k before shipping. There are also space issues at the school so I am not sure even if we could afford one, that we would have a place with reliable power back-up to place it. I have about 1k bacterial and yeast stains I'd love to keep alive although I doubt I'd need more than 10 for a course. More reasonably, I'd like to come up with one tower of space and I'd bite the bullet and throw everything away except 8 or 10 boxes.

2 incubators, one for 25˚C and one for 37˚C

At least one temperature controlled shaker, but really 2 would be ideal.

One thermocycler

One temperature controlled water bath

Several vortex mixers

One or two rocking platform shakers/mixers.

One eppendorf style centrifuge

One small general purpose centrifuge for spinning down bacterial and yeast cultures (about 4k in speed) using 250 mL size bottles with adaptors for 50 and 15 mL conicals would be ideal.

At least 4 sets of Ranin-style pipetmen

A couple of stir plates

Most of the other common things such as balances and a few other small devices we have.

Any ideas would be welcome. I'll keep my eyes on the responses and see if any of you guys can come up with some great ideas!