Template:Outreach
UTK
iGEM
High School Introduction to Engineering Systems (HITES)
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High School Introduction to Engineering Systems (HITES) is a program designed to give high school students exposure to engineering. The College of Engineering selects students that show interest in math and science to explore engineering along with campus life.
Building with Biology with UTK iGEM Team at the Muse
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The Muse Knoxville is a place for children to explore science. Its various exhibits enable kids to have fun discovering different fields of science through active and engaging displays. Six members of our team (Katherine, Taylor, Brandon, Evan, Matt and Neel) set up six different stations to introduce children and parents to synthetic biology. The various stations included activities such as creating superheroes and super organisms to clean up oil spills, extracting DNA from wheat germ, discussing components needed in cells to solve major issues like cancer or blood shortages, among others. Each station was designed to include meaningful discussions of synthetic biology as well as the possible ethical issues associated with it. The Building with Biology exhibit introduced parents to the emerging research going on in synthetic biology fields while allowing the kids to get creative and discover new areas of science that they can get involved in. Overall, the parents loved learning about synthetic biology just as much as the kids did, and our team was able to have a captivating discussion with the public on important research going on in synthetic biology.
High School Visits
High school students have the world at their fingertips as they are deciding career paths to explore in college. So many high schools nowadays are set with a certain curriculum that does not allow for very much exploration into real world research and application of the topics the students are covering. Our team has gone to several surrounding high schools in order to bring synthetic biology out of the textbook and into an exciting discussion.
Bearden High School
At Bearden High School, four members of our team (Taylor, Brandon, Matt, and Trey) visited an AP class and presented about the process of experimental design in synthetic biology and our project and results. The students and teachers were very engaged asking enlightening questions about biology, ethics, and engineering at the University of Tennessee. The students were able to understand synthetic biology through the use of our project and real world applications discussed after the presentation.
Farragut High School
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At Farragut High School, five members of our team (Brandon, Taylor, Amany, Katherine, and Matt) presented to the school through their afternoon science academy lecture series. This series gives students a chance to hear about emerging science and research fields going on around them. Here, we discussed bioremediation and manufacturing through synthetic biology and again, presented our project and results. Having college students present to high school students made a big impact because they could imagine themselves in our position easier than older researchers. Farragut students asked several questions about engineering at the University of Tennessee, what research can be done with Chemical and Bio-Engineering, and about our project and how we would implement our results. Overall, they were encouraged to participate in research in their futures, and asked great questions about our project.
Food For Thought: GMOs Discussion
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Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not yet universally accepted. In order for our team to address the safety and ethics of our project as well as educate the public on important pressing issues, we decided to hold an open discussion on GMOs with the public and our university. We had several people who joined in on the discussion of GMOs and asked very intelligent and stimulating questions. The students agreed that our project is ethically sound, but were curious of the long term effects if we were to release our product into the environment. Other interesting discussions were on topics ranging from how GMOs affect the environment, how companies go about introducing GMOs, how GMOs will have an effect on the economy and politics, and how the panel members were involved in research on GMOs. Our panel included the following scientists: Dr. Wusheng Liu, Ph.D., Botany; Dr. Cong Trinh, Ph.D., Biochemical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor; Dr. Elena Shpak, Ph.D., Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology Associate Professor; Dr. Amy Wolfe, Ph.D., Anthropology, Environmental Sciences Division at ORNL; and David Garcia, Ph.D. Candidate. These candidates allowed a very diverse take on GMOs considering some dealt specifically with the policies, the research, or as a student researcher. The GMO panel was a great success as we informed the public about GMOs, our project, and discussed the ethics and safety of GMOs in everyday use.
