Team:Alverno CA/Human Practices

Human Practices

Education and Outreach

We decided that our team wanted to reach out to the younger students in our community and educate them on synthetic biology at the most basic level. By putting on several workshops, both at local elementary schools and our own school, we were able to promote scientific thinking at an early age and introduce students to the world of synthetic biology.

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.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

We visited St. Ignatius of Loyola, an elementary school located in Los Angeles, and worked with their fourth grade class. We provided a free STEM program consisting of various experiments and corresponding lesson plans. Through experimentation the children were able to learn the fundamentals of science. They were excited to share with us their hypotheses, observations, and silly commentary. From this experience, we learned the importance of outreach, and the importance of exposing children to science at a young age.

Integration Into Science Classes

We have presented and reached out to other science classes at our school, and more students are becoming excited about synthetic biology. Students are interested in the technology and the bioethics involved.

Social Media

We created a variety of social media accounts (twitter, youtube, facebook, instagram) as a means to reach out to other teams, and to keep interested people informed about our progress.

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.