Part of Lesson Plan: Plant Tissue Culture

Activity Overview / Details

Students will need to prepare to start the lab.  This day is for making media and sterilizing all needed equipment and materials.

Have students complete Part 1 of the lab (pages 203-204) from Ellyn Daugherty's Biotechnology Laboratory Manual. 

Students sterilize scapels, scissors, and water.  They dilute bleach and ethanol.  I put students into larger groups of eight (that's a full lab table in my class).  As a group of eight, they are responsible to sterilize enough equipment and make enough solutions for each person to complete the lab.

Students also make the multiplication medium (combining Murashige-Skoog Pretransplant Medium with sucrose and water and pH 5.7).  To order Murashige-Skoog go to Carolina Biological Supply (www.carolina.com).  Again, each group of eight is responsible for making enough medium that each student may have three trials of the lab.

Teacher Note: Pay special attention to the sterilization instructions.  Do not allow the autoclave to go over 20 psi for 20 minutes.