[Catalist] Plant Tissue Culture in Schools

[Leon Harris]

Hi to all.
I have recently concluded a Plant Tissue Culture Club at Willetton SHS.

In doing so, I have developed methods and protocols that allow us to run 
this club over the course 10 weeks for approximately $180 dollars.

Plant Sciences, and Biotechnology don't seem to have received the 
attention they deserve in the STEM movement - yet these areas are where 
Australia is naturally competitive and will likely earn substantial 
portions of its future income.

To help others follow along in this path, I have written and published 
two Instructables.

The first one deals with making a growth cabinet, with settable 
day/night cycle for culturing plants. It can be found here: 
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Plant-Tissue-Culture-Incubator/

The second one shows in reasonable detail (including contacts for 
suppliers, etc) how to actually turn the tip of a plant into a hundred 
or so plants. It might be a nice adjunct to a bit of sexual/asexual 
reproduction, especially if you farm out to your lab staff (I hear 
groans and the clanking of chains!) the media production, which the kids 
will be slow at.  You can find these instructions at : 
https://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Plant-Tissue-Culture-Australian-Trigger-Plant/

If you are interested, I can probably also give you some Stylidium 
trigger plants as starting material, Odie will not mind losing a few 
leaves. (Odie = O.D. = Organ Donor - all my plants have names!)

Cheers,
Leon