Preparing slides of plant material

[~megz~]

Greetings, knowledgable ones

I'm wondering if anyone with a bit more expertise in biology has some ideas for me.

I've been asked by a teacher here to share a lesson helping kids in Yr 8 to prepare their own slides of plant material. Mostly the kids use pre-prepared slides, but we don't have an extensive collection, and I think it would be great to see them DIY to get an appreciation for which part of the plant they are looking at.

Now I would love to be able to do something other than (or in addition to) the onion cells prac, which I'm sure they have done before. Particularly, we want to look at some slides in transverse section, and some in longitudinal section, see some xylem and phloem etc. The problem is, I'm not sure how to go about making sections that are thin enough to put a coverslip on. SO, can anyone help with ideas of a) what type of plants we could use that would 'work well' (other than onions), and b) some tips on the actual preparation of the slides. I did check with Dr. Google, but he wasn't much help.

My only experience of making 'thin sections' is in Geology, but something tels me that diamond saws and heavy duty grinding and polishing equipment probably wont be much use!

Thanks in advance!

Meg

[Sassi]

We sometimes do celery! Actually cut the bottom of the stalk of then leave it in a beaker with some red food colouring for about an hour (get better results if leaves are still on). then I slice some very thin slices using a scalpel blade. You may need to have a few goes before you get a thin enough slice. I dont suppose you have a microtome? Cant think of anything else that is easy to do, but I am sure someone else does!

Good luck and have fun!

Sassi

[JudyM]

Bok Choy is another alternative you could use, softer than celery making it easier to slice.

It comes in a bunch so put one lot in a dilute Eosin solution & the other in dilute Methylene Blue. (I just add maybe a pinch to each beaker of water). Don't forget to slice off the base to facilitate uptake.

I use single sided razor blades, cutting the sections horizontally.

Good luck

[ellice]

Here's a good one for showing stomata.
Paint the bottom of various leaves with clear nail polish. Dry, then peel off with forceps. Place on slide and place a cover slip over it to flatten it. Agapanthus works well.
Cheers, Ellice.

[Sassi]

Nice one, I really like that! Soo cool

[Ocker]

The correct tool for this is a microtome Knife you set sample in block of wax then take fine shaves off and drop on surface of hot water in large beaker as the wax melts and lets go you scoop up sample and mount