Slime Mold Maze (High School Experiment)

[Matthew]

Hi ,I am a high school student in Taiwan, sorry for my english is not very good. I want to do a slime mold maze experiment in the high school biology club. I would like to ask what needs to be considered in my experimental design, or what should be paid attention to during the experiment.

The following is my experimental design:

I use Physarum polycephalum

Put damp paper towels in the plastic crisper, use plastic sheets as the walls of the maze, and place cereal in each corner and at the beginning of the maze (where I placed the Sclerotium)

Thank you for your answers

[ian]

Hi

I'd start the maze off with an already growing culture - sclerotia take a day to wake up and won't be able to move far until they're fed. You need to check your slime won't cheat - that they won't crawl under or over stuff you're using for walls. I usually make mazes using agar - it doesn't need to be sterile, unflavoured food grade works fine - with the walls being gaps about 2cm wide cut into the agar. 

[Zander Chierici]

I'm also in high school! Over the summer I designed a protocol for the maze using 3D-printed mazes. Here's the protocol: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p7p_7CnCF3UpQq7fzuBWeyp2BQ4un2p... let me know if you have any toruble accessing it or understanding anything. Also I have the 3D model of the maze somewhere if you want to 3D print it.