How can I keep the cost of biology lab supplies down?

There are a number of ways you can save money on lab supplies.

First, instead of purchasing the complete lab supply kit, you can decide which labs you’d like your student to complete at the beginning of the year, and purchase only the supplies needed for those labs. You can choose some of the less-expensive dissections, for example, and then mostly do the labs that don’t require any special supplies.

We recommend each student complete the lesson 1 and 2 lab as these are foundational labs which will teach your student about the scientific method and lab report writing. Along with those labs, at least 13 more labs should be completed.

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.

Microscopes

Quite a few of the labs require the use of a microscope. You can purchase this hand-held microscope for under $30. It’s not as powerful as a compound microscope, but it will allow you to see structures at up to 250x.

If you don’t own or wish to purchase 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.