Team:Alverno CA/Human Practices

Human Practices

St. Philip the Apostle

Four team members (Amanda, Katie, Asia, and Brianna) visited a local middle school and taught 60 seventh graders the basics of DNA and synthetic biology. They were able to extract DNA from strawberries using common household products. After this activity, the iGEM team members explained the results and answered the students’ questions. From this discussion period, the group was able to observe the students’ understanding of the project and their varying opinions. The four members asked the students what their thoughts were on the ethics and morals involved in synthetic biology. For a short period, contemporary advances of synthetic biology were discussed, comprising the future growth and possibilities of the rapidly proliferating field of study. Attached are links to our PowerPoint and lab instructions.

Synthetic Biology Workshop

Prospective students visited our school and we hosted a pipetting and synthetic biology workshop. We did this in order to inform the prospective students about our science department and our iGEM project and lab practices. Each middle school student was equipped with a P20 micropipette, lab coats, gloves, and mock-gels. After a demonstration by one of our teammates, and a brief explanation of how micropipettes are used in the lab, the students then practiced pipetting various volumes of red dye into the practice gels. This practice session was followed with a more in depth presentation of our iGEM project and the importance of synthetic biology.

Future Plans

We plan to create a possible outreach system with the ULV/LC/CV as a way to get our school and other schools more involved in synthetic biology research. We plan on visiting other campuses in order to show them the extent of iGEM and demonstrate its significance in the world of research.