Manage your department’s budget like a hero.
You usually have to make hard choices when you allocate budget to laboratory equipment.
Do you replace the mini centrifuges in the chemistry department that smell a little like they’re burning after a few seconds spinning? Or the magnetic stirrers that spin out and frustrate staff and students constantly?
Do you upgrade the manual pipettes that keep giving grad students RSIs? Or outfit student workstations with magnetic lab mats so they stop losing stir bars?
Your choices are a little easier when you work with us.
You might not even have to make any.
4 tips to use your lab equipment budget better.
With these 4 tips, prioritizing becomes easy. If the equipment you’re looking at doesn’t satisfy 3 of them, look somewhere else (and if you’re spending budget with us, you know you satisfy all 4).
1. Look for multi-function equipment.
Students and teachers prefer equipment that can support many experiments and activities, like the MagFuge Multi-Function Centrifuge Bundle. Multi-function bundles are the best value for schools at any level, from K-12 and into higher education.
2. Skip the bells and whistles.
Some manufacturers build unnecessary, fancy features into science lab equipment when what you really need is reliable, long-lasting, durable, functional, and good-looking. If you can’t easily imagine how a feature would benefit your teachers or students, it’s not worth your budget.
3. Buy Quality Goods
You can outfit a school science lab on a budget with cheaply made equipment and supplies. You get what you pay for. Students will know it’s cheap and it will not hold up through multiple years. And you’ll have to replace it sooner than you want. Our products are tested by 3rd parties, achieve near-100% reliability, and our equipment comes with a 5-year warranty.
4. Pick something fun.
Somewhere along the line, lab equipment manufacturers decided it was important to be boring. But we’ll pick blue over beige any day. And everyone in your lab using bright, colorful equipment and supplies will be happier. They’ll have better outcomes. And you’ll know you used your budget well.
Essential laboratory equipment for schools. How other institutions make students and faculty happy.
2 ways better laboratory equipment for schools helps you attract keen science students.
Students want a small learning curve. They want to get to the good stuff. They don’t want to spend time, waste time as far as they’re concerned, getting comfortable with complicated instruments. That will come in later.
Today, they want easy, intuitive, tactile controls.
They want different instruments to feel familiar, so they can pick them up quickly.
That’s what we build.
Outfit your lab with instruments that speak to them and applications to your science programs will swell.
Students want to feel trusted. Invested in. And they want to feel like the science they’re learning is real.
If the lab instruments they’re learning on are flimsy; if the instruments they’re learning on look better suited for the history department, you better believe pictures with sassy captions are going to appear on social media. And that influence will travel.
But it works the other way too.
If students in your science labs are working with beautiful equipment they’re proud to share, and they feel trusted and invested in, that influence will travel too.
By making your students happy and giving them better experiences and outcomes, you also make your courses more desirable.
Partner with a manufacturer that builds lab equipment with you in mind.
We design and build lab equipment for schools that want good outcomes for students and teachers. And the first two assumptions when we make when build lab products on our production line in Illinois are:
• Your budget isn’t infinite.
• Your students and faculty won’t enjoy working with cheap overseas equipment.
So we look for creative ways to deal with those realities.
That means making things ourselves, right here in the USA.
Understanding what makes a piece of lab equipment as expensive as it is (usually it has a lot to do with the name printed on the side).
And finding creative ways to cut the cost of manufacturing without losing any quality.
We’re pretty good at it. Want to see?
3 tricks to help you retain science faculty
Make their jobs easier and your faculty turnover will plummet.
Make it easier for them to prepare the lab for the day.
Help them spend less time troubleshooting finnicky old equipment for students.
Make it easier for them to keep their spaces tidy and organized.
Freeing your faculty to spend time and energy on what they like best will keep them with your institution longer. That’s a ton of value for your department.
Start by building mini centrifuge kits their students can have ownership over.