Looking for Instructions to teach children - (May/27/2007 )

Hi Everyone,
First let me explain by saying I am new here, this is my first post. I am a homeschooling mother interested in teaching my children how to grow plants from tissue cultures. We have a few hosta's in our yard that I thought would make a great science project for them. They are elementary aged kids with a very big interest in science. As a homeschooling mom- I want to make sure to provide them with the best education. I don't know much about growing tissue cultures but I thought perhaps this would be a good place to start.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps lead me to a site that details in lament terms how to approach this?
I don't want to get my kids started and not have success, I think having hands on learning lessons provides them so much more than a textbook alone. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Michelle

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I think it's very cool that you want to do some hands-on science work! the problem that I foresee, is that you need some rather specialized equipment to be successful with tissue culture. sterility is going to be your biggest problem...if you don't have a tissue culture hood and other sterile equipment, and also sterile culture medium, it's going to be quite difficult to ensure success

it would perhaps be better to have them start plants from cuttings. not quite as exciting, but much higher chance of success. maybe have them take several types of plants, and put cuttings in several types of liquid, and see which do the best? each plant cutting is a clone of the original, so you can see the possibilities to include discussion/definition of clones and cloning process in your display with the plants.

just a suggestion....if you are really set on tissue culture I would recommend two things:
1. get allied with a local university lab that may let you use tissue culture space? I would contact the plant science dept. and ask if it is possible to use their teaching lab facilities?
2. be prepared to spend quite a bit on the supplies you will need, even for a small project

good luck

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I agree with Aimikins, sterility will be the biggest problem with doing tissue culture, I would suggest trying growing roots from a cutting of an Impatiens or Tradescantia, Hosta should work too, in some sterile gelatine in a sterile bowl, (boil both for 15 min, or better yet use a pressure cooker for 10-15 min). Using rooting hormone on one specimen and not on another could be a good basic expt, though the plants should root without it, it should take a little longer. I suggest gelatine as it will allow easy penetration of the roots, and should allow your children to see them growing. You will be able to discuss root structure (root hairs, shape etc) if you grow cuttings from several plant types.

Otherwise you could grow beans or peas in a jar, on some damp tissue paper. If you have a small microscope you could try taking thin sections using a razor blade and holding the bits between some cork or poylstyrene, of the stem, roots and leaves for the children to look at. Any basic biology text book from your local library will have what the various structures are, the web is a pretty good source too.

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Hi Michelle,
I am also new here. I just posted my first techincal Q today. Afterwards I began browsing some of the fun topics that we have on here and I came accross your post. Again, the others are corrects about tissue culture...way too technical and fussy to be messing with at home. However, I have a friend that is taking an undergrad level microbiology course. She's done lots of labs that are easily done at home. One in particular that she mentioned and loved was her DNA isolation lab, I believe they prepped from a plant tissue and they used all household products for the experiment, for example as a detergent they used Joy dish soap!! She thought it was the coolest thing when she actually saw her DNA percipitate. I also remember the first time I did a DNA prep and it is a truly fun and rewarding experiment for young scientists. If you're interested, I could get you this and some other fun and easy protocols to do at home. I'm sure you can google some fun stuff too.
Good luck!
Hannah

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Hi Michelle,
How's the home science lab going?
If you're still interested in trying some kitchen-bench tissue culture, you can get info from orchid societies. The best bet would be to google them ,or check the yellow pages (or your equivalent).
My dad went to the trouble of making a small hood to work in. He just made up a frame ~3 ft deep, 4 foot wide and 3 ft high. He then covered it all with strong plastic and cut out a couple of holes in the front for his hands (it was a few years since he did any of this, but I recall he made one side hinged, so he could put things in easily). Whenever he wanted to do some culturing, he'd prepare his culture broth in a pressure cooker. and get everything else ready. He would spray the inside of the hood with some bleach in a trigger bottle sos everything was sterile. Before he put his hands into the hood, he'd clean them with a good antibacterial hand wash.
If you like, I could try to get some more details from him.
Yes, it's all a bit dodgy; yes it's fiddly. But, if you get it working OK, your kids will have a great idea of what happens in the wonderful world of tissue culture!

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