During July and August, the Institute for Plant Biotechnology (IPB) hosted 60 high school learners from Kayamandi High School and Soneike High School respectively for workshops on plant tissue culture. These demonstrations form part of the Agricultural Sustainability Education Lab's AgSus Buddies programme, which seeks to develop a quality recruitment pipeline into post-school agricultural education and training.  Additionally, the workshop also provided exposure to post-school agricultural programmes that Stellenbosch University offers, with both teachers and learners receiving programme and admission guidelines from the faculty.

The two learner groups were hosted by Mhlengi Khambule, AgSus Buddies Programme Manager, as the Agricultural Sustainability Education Lab, and Dr Paul Hills and his Plant Growth Promoting Substances research group, where Khambule is also studying for his doctoral degree. Postgraduate students from the research group and the broader IPB helped with the facilitation of various aspects of the demonstrations. The demonstrations were split into two parts: an introductory session that included a talk on water, irrigation and crop improvement, as well as a tissue culture demonstration where many of the learners were able to obtain hands-on experience in sterile culture techniques.

“It was so amazing to see how fast the learners were able to learn how to use the apparatus and they were also able to follow instructions effectively. The skills they learned during this workshop has invoked their curiosity in pursuing a career as scientists," shared Akhtari Abbas, Agricultural Sciences educator at Soneike High School.

“We hope to have more practical demonstrations in future so that we can equip learners with the necessary skills needed for university. I firmly believe that more practical skills will help learners to adjust to tertiary education in future." added Jody Adams, assistant teacher at Soneike High School.

Since sterile technique forms such an important part of plant tissue culture, learners also got to take back to school with them a microbial observation project that demonstrates how microorganisms inhabit everything around us, including the air, so that they can understand exactly why such stringent precautions are taken to keep everything sterile when performing plant tissue cultures.  Additionally, they received sets of plant tissue cultures that will grow into root, shoot and callus cultures, depending on the plant hormones that the cultures contained, helping them to understand how plant growth can be manipulated in a tissue culture environment. To supplement these, the learners also received worksheets to report their observations on, as well as other fun activities to help reinforce what they had learned.

“A huge thank you to the IPB and collaborating laboratories for enabling such demonstrations and helping spark interest in upcoming agricultural scientists'' said Khambuleas the Agricultural Sustainability Education Lab looks to host its final school at the IPB this coming month. “The support from the Faculty of AgriSciences' Social Impact Grant to pilot these interventions at school level has been great and thank you once again to the IPB and the Agronomy department, which has also hosted 60 students since the first demonstration in 2022, for opening their research spaces up and sharing superb experiences with the AgSus Buddies learners." About the Agricultural Sustainability Education Lab

The Agricultural Sustainability Education Lab (AgSus EduLab) is an AET ecosystem enabler positioned for awareness, competencies development (i.e. communication, collaboration, and critical thinking) and agency towards sustainable systems transitions in the agricultural sector. It is a multi-disciplinary and cross-national environment for collaborative inquiry, and launchpad for a sustainable and resilient agricultural sector. The AgSus EduLab's strategic intervention considers HEIs; particularly research-intensive universities (RIUs), as primary leverage points for the accelerated transformation, transition – and by extension, the sustainability and resilience – of the agricultural sector.