Team:Mingdao/Education

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• About Us
• Team Members
• Attributions

• Motivation
• Design
• Experiment
• Proof
• Demo
• Result
• Notebook

• Basic Parts
• Composite Parts
• Parts Collection

• Introduction
• Principal
• Experiment
• Future
• Interlude

• Lab Work
• Project Work
• Shipment
• Q&A

• Survey
• Promotion

• Bronze
• Silver
• Gold

The Academia Sinica is the biggest scientific institute in Taiwan. Every year, it held Open House for curious people that are interested in science. During the open house, every department showed their recent results and the newest technology. By having speeches and some easy activities, those difficult science results become easier to realize. Among the huge crowd of the visitors, we iGEM Team Mingdao 2016 was a little part of it. We went there to see how the top scientists in Taiwan finish their projects, and get some inspiration for ours. This trip wasn’t only a big impact for us getting involved in an activity held by a national organization, but also an opportunity to widen our view.

Electrophoresis is a very important technique in molecular biology to analyze bigger molecules such as protein, DNA, and RNA. Today, we presented this technique to the students at Mingdao. Due to limited time, we told the participants to just follow our protocols and gave them a quick and loose description of the technique. After loading all the samples onto the agarose gel, we had one of our teammates explain the fundamental principle and the application of it, thus making the participants better understand what they had just done and what results to expect later. After the presentation, the results of experiment were ready to be unveiled. We analyzed the results to the participants, and they were amazed by the fluorescence displayed under the purple light. At last, the participants all understood how gel electrophoresis qorked and were happy about the experience in the lab with us.

In order to raise public understanding of biotechnology, we gave lessons about molecular biology. Because DNA extraction is one of the most fundamental but important building block of molecular biology, we decided to start off with this experiment. In the beginning of the lesson, one of our members introduced the principle and the procedure of DNA extraction to give everyone a clear idea of the experiment before actually starting it. With a bigger picture in mind already, the students could have more time enjoying the interesting experiment and not bothered by the complexity of it. Later on, we divided the participants into groups of three, with two iGEM team members leading them in each step and explaining the principles. After the experiment, everyone successfully extracted the DNA! We believe that even if students hadn’t been fully understood the principle, they would now have a better understanding towards molecular biology. We hope that this experience would lead these students onto the journey of molecular biology.

As the technology festival approached, our team arranged a lecture to introduce iGEM to our fellow students, hoping to deliver the concept of iGEM. We divided it into four sections: an overview, annual awarded projects, human practices, and rewards. We briefly explained the reasons we participated in iGEM and its importance. To make the audience understand more details about iGEM, we showed them a few awarded projects in the past years. Afterwards, we elaborated on the necessity of human practice and made the audience understand that science technology should be developed with cooperation instead of working alone. The lecture went very well and the audience showed their enthusiasm and eagerness. Hopefully, our team members can express our enthusiasm and faith towards iGEM continually.