A complete biology lab equipment list includes microscopes, test tubes, dissection kits, safety gear, and heating tools. This guide offers expert tips and material insights to help you build a durable, cost-effective setup for schools, research labs, or STEM classrooms.
Whether you're setting up a high school biology lab or renovating a university research space, understanding what to prioritize based on classroom needs can save time, money, and frustration. Inside, you'll find expert-vetted equipment suggestions, budget planning tips, and layout advice tailored for real lab environments.
We also offer material recommendations, including epoxy and phenolic resin options, to help you choose surfaces that hold up under heat, moisture, and chemical exposure. If you have a room layout, even a rough sketch, you can request a quote and get personalized guidance from our team.
Want the full breakdown of essential tools, smart storage tips, and proven setup strategies? Keep reading. We’ll walk you through what works and why it matters for long-term lab performance.
Core Biology Lab Equipment (Must-Have Tools)
Every biology lab, no matter the size or level, depends on a set of core tools that support day-to-day instruction and experimentation. These ain’t optional, they're the foundation. Below are the tools we’ve found that make or break a functioning lab.
Microscope
Microscopes are the cornerstone of any biology lab. Whether you're examining cell structures or teaching mitosis, compound and stereo microscopes allow students to see biology in action. Compound models are better for high-magnification needs, while stereo versions offer lower magnification and a 3D view for dissection or larger samples.
We recommend pairing microscopes with chemical-resistant epoxy resin countertops. They're built to handle spills, moisture, and repeated cleaning, without warping or staining. The wrong surface will age quickly under the microscope, especially with student handling.
Test Tubes & Racks
Test tubes are your workhorses. Whether you're mixing small volumes, heating solutions, or running qualitative tests, having multiple sizes (10 mL to 50 mL) in both glass and plastic is a must. Glass handles heat better, but plastic is more forgiving for students.
We always recommend ordering extras, seriously. Based on years of working with schools, we’ve learned that accidents and breakage happen often, especially during hands-on labs. Following the N+2 approach we’ve picked up from seasoned educators means always having at least two, you think you'll need.
Pair these with a proper lab drying rack, which prevents clutter, keeps tubes upright while drying, and extends the life of your equipment.
Dissection Tools & Pans
Dissections still play a role in understanding anatomy and systems biology, and for that, you’ll need a proper kit: scalpels, dissecting scissors, forceps, probes, and pins, along with dissection pans for specimens like frogs or insects.
We’ve seen a lot of teachers express frustration online over dissection kits falling apart after one semester. The solution? Metal tools with riveted handles, not plastic or glued parts. When properly stored (hello, pegboards), these tools can last years. Look for kits that allow component replacement rather than forcing you to toss the whole set.
Heating Equipment
Heating tools serve a double purpose: sterilization and reaction control. For most school labs, hot plates are safer and more versatile than Bunsen burners. But if you're working with flame-based labs, proper ventilation and open-flame surfaces are non-negotiable.
We strongly recommend using epoxy resin countertops in any zone with heating elements. They’re flame-resistant, chemical-safe, and qualify for LEED credits due to their material sourcing. The wrong surface here won’t discolor; it can bubble, crack, or become a safety hazard.
Measurement Tools
Precision matters, even at the high school level. Every lab should have electronic balances, graduated cylinders, pipettes, and droppers for accurate measurement. These tools lay the groundwork for concepts like molarity, osmosis, and titration.
Users repeatedly flag budget scales as a frustration point. They fail calibration fast and cause more confusion than learning. Stick to balances that offer calibration options and store them on a stable balance table to reduce vibration errors.
Safety Equipment That’s Too Often Overlooked
In our experience, safety gear is often treated as an afterthought until something goes wrong. But the right protection is about confidence: when students feel safe, they participate more. This section covers the key items that deserve a permanent place in every biology lab.
Goggles, Gloves, Lab Coats
Every lab activity involving heat, chemicals, or glass requires protection. Goggles shield the eyes from splashes or debris. Nitrile gloves offer more chemical resistance than latex and are safer for students with allergies. Lab coats protect clothing and skin while reinforcing the culture of professionalism in the lab.
Here’s a checklist we recommend for standard class sizes:
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1 lab coat per student + 2 extras (e.g., 30 students = 32 coats)
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1 pair of goggles per student + 2–3 spares
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At least 3–4 boxes of nitrile gloves per month (small, medium, large)
If you’re storing this gear in limited space, consider a pegboard system with labeled hooks to organize goggles and coats. Drying racks can also be adapted for gear storage when they're not in use for glassware.
Eye Wash Station & First Aid
Too many labs skip or misplace their emergency wash stations. The truth? An eye wash unit and a stocked first aid kit are non-negotiable. Whether you're dealing with spilled acids or glass splinters, rapid access can mean the difference between a minor incident and an injury report.
Install eyewash stations next to lab sinks, not across the room. This is about the seconds that count. We've worked with labs that built beautiful layouts but failed to factor in emergency zones during the design phase. If you're building or renovating, be sure to flag this in your quote request so we can help you plan around it.
Secondary & Specialized Lab Tools
Once the core gear is covered, it's time to think about the tools that round out a lab’s capabilities. These are the pieces that elevate your curriculum, from culturing bacteria to running titrations. They’re easy to overlook, but once you have them, you’ll wonder how you got by without them.
Beakers, Erlenmeyer Flasks, Funnels
These classics do the heavy lifting during mixing, heating, and transferring liquids. Beakers are great for general use, while Erlenmeyer flasks are ideal when you need to swirl contents without spilling. Funnels are used constantly and often forgotten, until it’s too late.
We always recommend ordering these items in bulk. Between drops, cracks, and student fumbles, these items don’t last forever. And if you’re drying these on racks, make sure you’re using pegboards that match your glassware size and style. That’s one of the easiest ways to extend their lifespan.
Thermometers & pH Paper
Temperature and pH are foundational in biology labs, whether you're growing yeast or checking enzyme reactions. Alcohol thermometers are safer and more classroom-friendly than mercury, and digital models offer quicker reads with fewer student errors. As for pH paper, stock a wide range. Some experiments need precision, others need to see an acid-base shift.
Avoid kits that come with all-in-one solutions here; they’re often inaccurate and short-lived. If you’re building a custom order, we can include a temperature zone layout to make sure sensitive instruments are stored properly.
Filter Paper, Stirring Rods, Wash Bottles
These are the utility players in your lab, often overlooked but used daily. Filter paper separates solids from liquids in reactions. Glass stirring rods help mix without contamination. Wash bottles (usually filled with distilled water) are used to rinse glassware and safely direct fluids.
Teachers on Reddit often say these are the first items they forget, and then regret it. To help avoid that, we recommend grabbing our lab equipment checklist that includes all the small consumables most lists leave out. You can edit it to fit your class size and lab type.
Petri Dishes, Inoculating Loops
If your students are culturing bacteria or fungi, petri dishes and inoculating loops are a must. Choose reusable glass dishes if you want to cut down on recurring costs, or go disposable for maximum sterility. Inoculating loops should be flame-safe or pre-sterilized for lab safety.
One Reddit thread asked: What are the best kits for reusable culture tools? The answer is: modular ones. Avoid bundled sets with low-grade plastic. Opt for pieces you can reorder separately. We can help source loop-friendly drying racks and trays if you’re dealing with storage limitations.
Custom Equipment That Makes Life Easier
Every lab is different. The layout, storage, surfaces, and workload all shape what works. That’s where custom-fit solutions come in, especially for gear that stores, supports, or stabilizes your most substantial tools. These are not extras, they’re the unsung heroes of efficient lab design.
Pegboards & Drying Racks
Glassware is fragile. It needs to dry properly to stay usable, and it can’t be tossed onto a paper towel like a coffee mug. That’s where pegboards and drying racks come in.
We offer multiple materials, epoxy resin, phenolic resin, acrylic, and stainless steel, depending on your space, chemical exposure, and cleaning needs. Whether you’re outfitting a high school sink wall or a university research bench, we’ll help you choose the right layout.
Here’s something most suppliers won’t offer: every pegboard ships with free polypropylene pegs, and we replace them for free for an entire year. That’s not a promo, it’s our standard.
One of the most common issues we hear from schools (and see on Reddit) is a total lack of drying space. With the right pegboard size, you can free up counters, keep glassware safe, and organize without plastic bins stacking up like a crime scene.
Countertops (Epoxy, Phenolic, Stainless)
Countertops do beyond hold gear. They define your workspace, and when they fail, they take everything down with them. Whether you're working with acids, stains, or heat, the wrong material leads to warping, bubbling, or even safety violations.
We work with three main types:
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Epoxy Resin: High chemical and heat resistance. Great for sinks and wet zones.
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Phenolic Resin: Lighter, water-resistant, and sleek. A good fit for classrooms that want function and design.
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Stainless Steel: Ideal near open flames, sterilization stations, and food-safe testing zones.
Our epoxy work surfaces and phenolic tops can contribute to LEED certification. We work with U.S.-based suppliers (Texas, Florida, Michigan), which means regional sourcing credits and low-emission materials. That matters for public school and university projects chasing sustainability points.
Balance Tables
Most classroom checklists skip this, but it’s a critical detail for labs using high-precision balances or microscopes. Vibrations, even from students walking by, can throw off readings or damage instruments.
Our balance tables are built from solid resin tops with reinforced steel frames. They absorb vibration and stabilize sensitive gear, which is significant for AP or college-level labs.
This is one of those items you won’t realize you need until the data keeps failing or the scale reads .002g differently every time. We recommend one per station where sensitive measurement or optical equipment is used.
How to Choose Lab Equipment on a Budget
If you’re balancing lab setup with limited funding, we’re here to help you out. We work with schools, teachers, and contractors who face this every spring. The key is knowing which items to prioritize, what to buy modularly, and where to build in wiggle room without regret.
Prioritize What You Can’t Replace
Some items need to last, and failing here causes constant frustration. That means buying microscopes, test tubes, and safety gear with durability in mind. Microscopes that wobble, goggles that crack, and test tubes that melt under heat cost more in replacements than they save upfront.
Avoid those all-in-one biology kits that seem convenient but rely on disposable parts, weak plastic tools, and no refill options. Instead, build your list around equipment that can be used year over year, and order from a supplier who offers reorders without requiring another giant kit.
We’ve seen schools stretch budgets for years simply by starting with fewer, higher-quality items and expanding from there. If you need help deciding where to spend and where to save, that’s exactly the kind of thing our quote request tool was built for.
Build for Scale
Whether you’re outfitting a full lab or building one small station at a time, the smartest approach is to start with core pieces and grow the inventory year by year. If your class has only ten students, you don’t need twenty microscopes, yet.
Instead, lock in your space: pegboards mounted properly, countertops sized to your sink zones, drying racks with room to grow. These are infrastructure pieces, not consumables.
We’ve worked with schools that build out over two to three years by ordering modular kits or using our system to custom-fit specific lab zones first. That way, every dollar goes into something they’ll still be using five years from now.
Include Spares in Your Order
Teachers on Reddit say it best: Always order beyond what you think you need. That’s the N+2 rule, where N is the number of students or stations, and +2 covers accidents, backups, or a new student who transfers in mid-year.
Here’s our suggested spare list:
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Test Tubes: +2 per size, per group
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Beakers: +2 per type
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Goggles & Gloves: +3 minimum per class
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Petri Dishes: +5-10 depending on expected experiments
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Drying Pegs: Use our free peg replacement program to stay stocked all year
Think of it as insurance for your lab. The upfront cost is minor compared to the panic of running short mid-experiment.
Bonus Tools to Level Up Your Lab
Once things are in place, the next step is transforming your lab from good enough to genuinely engaging. These bonus tools add interactivity, reinforce concepts visually, and help bring abstract biology lessons to life, especially for visual learners and advanced coursework.
Charts, Models, Specimen Jars
Sometimes a visual aid does other than a paragraph ever could. Anatomical charts, cell structure posters, and 3D models of organ systems are incredibly effective teaching tools, especially for middle and high school students still building conceptual understanding.
We’ve seen schools get even more hands-on by adding preserved specimen jars, everything from earthworms to fetal pigs, for stations where students rotate and observe without needing a full dissection setup. It’s a lower-cost, lower-prep way to teach structure and function.
If you’re trying to outfit a lab with limited tech access, these tools offer a highly effective analog alternative to expensive screens or software.
Digital Tools
For high school AP classes, college-level labs, or schools that already have tech funding in place, digital probes, colorimeters, and data loggers add a whole new layer of precision. These tools make it easy to measure things like pH, light absorption, or temperature in time, and they reinforce the scientific process.
While they’re not critical for entry-level labs, digital tools become especially helpful during lab report-heavy semesters where data collection and analysis are part of the curriculum. If you’re storing or powering these devices on resin surfaces, make sure they’re paired with non-vibrating balance tables to reduce error.
And if budget is a concern, ask us about setting up these tech zones in stages; we can help spec layouts that let you scale over time.
Where Schools Often Go Wrong (And How to Avoid It)
Even well-intentioned lab setups can go sideways. We've seen it happen, rushed timelines, copy-pasted supply lists, or gear chosen by people who never have to use it. The good news? Most of these mistakes are fixable if you catch them early.
All Pegboards Are the Same
They’re not, even though it’s one of the most common assumptions we hear. Pegboards vary by material, mounting method, chemical resistance, and durability. For example:
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Epoxy stands up to harsh chemicals and heat
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Phenolic handles moisture beautifully
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Acrylic is affordable, but not built for heavy glassware
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Stainless steel is ideal for sterile environments or flame exposure
Choosing the wrong one can shorten lifespan and lead to early replacements. We’ve built an entire collection of pegboard options to help you match the board to your lab’s actual use, not a generic spec sheet.
Skipping the Quote Process
We get it, filling out a form feels like one more task. But skipping the quote process means missing the chance to get actual, usable answers about what your lab needs, how long it will take to arrive, and what materials fit your budget.
That’s why our Request a Quote tool is designed to work with project drawings, even pencil sketches. Whether you’re dealing with a brand-new lab or upgrading a single sink station, it helps you lock in pricing, lead times, and any custom sizing before placing an order.
Ordering the Wrong Size (or No Size at All)
Another issue?
Schools often forget to confirm measurements. Cabinets arrive, and pegboards don’t fit. A sink is ordered, but the cutout was never double-checked. When a lab is built or renovated around generic equipment, even a small misfit can delay your entire semester.
That’s why we custom-size everything from countertops to pegboards. Don’t settle for standard if your room is not, send us your drawing and we’ll build to your specs.
Ignoring Shipping Logistics
This one hurts: we’ve seen perfectly chosen equipment get damaged in shipping because it was packed like office supplies. Large pegboards, epoxy surfaces, and stainless components are not Amazon packages; they need to be secured and palletized properly.
That’s why we ship LTL (less-than-truckload) on larger and more fragile items. It’s not safer, it’s smarter. Damage means delays, and delays mean missed labs. We build around your delivery timeline and make sure your gear shows up ready to install.
Printable Lab Equipment Checklist
We’ve pulled everything from this guide into a clean, ready-to-use format you can print, edit, and customize for your lab. Whether you're teaching high school biology or setting up a new research space, this checklist is built to help you plan smarter, not harder.
No more piecing things together from scratch or wondering if you missed something. Our editable and printable formats make it easy to create a classroom checklist that fits your student count, budget, or lab layout.
Here’s what’s inside:
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Must-Have Equipment List (microscopes, goggles, test tubes, heating gear, etc.)
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Nice-to-Have Additions (digital tools, petri dishes, drying racks)
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Pegboard Material Comparison: Know the difference before you order
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Budget Planning Columns for tracking quantities, estimated costs, and reorder timelines
Need Help Setting Up Your Lab?
Whether you’re updating an existing classroom or starting from a blank room with a rough sketch, we’re here to help. We’ve worked with schools, architects, and contractors across the country to spec out labs, on budgets, with gear that lasts.
If you’re ready to move forward, use our Request a Quote tool and send us your layout, even if it’s a pencil drawing on notebook paper. We’ll walk you through the best materials for your needs, match you with the right pegboards, countertops, or sinks, and turn it around fast.
You’ll also get:
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Expert guidance on epoxy, phenolic, and stainless options
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Free material samples to test before committing
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Honest answers, no sales pressure, no generic solutions
You don’t need a CAD file to get started. You need a plan, a rough sketch, or a few questions. We’ve got the rest.