In conjunction with the International Consortium of Arabidopsis, the University of Western Australia will be bringing to Sydney their “Bio-Bounce” and would like to extend an invitation to any parents or school groups who would like to book into sessions with their gifted children or students to attend.

Bio-Bounce is a working model of a plant cell that students can get inside and become part of the secret inner world of a cell. The learning model is based on play and discovery, with each activity building on knowledge, such as copying DNA into RNA in the nucleus, then exporting the RNA to a ribosome, creating proteins and targeting the protein to where it is needed in the cell.

The “Bio-Bounce” event is scheduled to coincide with the International Consortium of Arabidopsis (ICAR) –  the largest annual international scientific conference devoted to Arabidopsis thaliana – a model plant worked with by an estimated 16,000 labs around the world. Experiments performed in Arabidopsis often underpin plant research in general and Arabidopsis-driven research leads the way with plant genetics, technologies and concepts.

Some 650 of the world’s best plant scientists will be attending the ICAR conference at the Sydney Convention Centre and could be made available (on request) to come across to Palm Grove to guide activities and extend students with real research examples and stories. Scientists will be available to answer students questions about research, genetics, plant and crop development and careers in general.

Children in years 6-12 would get the most value out of this event as they have scope to extend the activities based on comprehension as they go along (all the way to complex and high level concepts taught at undergraduate level (if suitable)). In regards to a base level of understanding, some knowledge of the cell would be useful, but not essential.

If students, teachers or families are intersted, they may contact:

Alice Trend |  Science Communications Officer | ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology 4th Floor Bayliss Building M316, The University of Western Australia at: [email protected] to organise a session. The Giant Cell will be open to the public from 12-5pm on Monday 24th June and 9-3pm on Tuesday the 25th.

If teachers or groups get in contact with Alice (very soon!) before she publicises the event, she’ll block off times specifically for them.

Alternately you can email the association at: [email protected] and we’ll forward your email on to Alice.