Team:BroadRun-Baltimore/PublicOutreach

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• 
• Project
  • Overview
  • Problem
  • Solution
  • Project Design
  • Methods
  • Testing
  • Conclusions
• Parts
• Notebook
• Safety
• Model
• Practices
  • Industry Comm.
  • Public Outreach
  • Building W/ Biology
  • Sustainability
• Team
  • Collaboration
  • Attributions
  • Sponsors
  • Meet the Team
• Judging

Public Outreach Events

Explanation of Public Outreach

2015 Loudoun STEM Day

Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Loudoun Campus

Loudoun STEM Day is an all day event for families organized by the Northern Virginia Community College to showcase opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math. It is the largest STEM event in Loudoun County.

Building on the success of last year’s iGEM, we were able to secure a spot as an exhibitor at this event. Our iGEM team held hands-on, fun learning activities at our booth. We exposed students to molecular biology with activities such as Twizzler DNA, DNA Trait Bracelets, and Plasmid DNA. These activities were modeled off the 2015 William and Mary iGEM team’s Synthetic Biology Teacher Curriculum. As we worked with the students during the hands-on activities, we used team-created colorful printed graphics to help parents and students better understand DNA and traits and to gain a sense of how that leads to engineering biological parts.

To teach people about the vast range in size of things in the world, from a cell to the DNA inside the cell to the molecules that make the DNA, we set up monitors with the “Size of the Universe” (http://htwins.net/scale/), an interactive online program. At a third station, we used our iGEM poster and wiki to talk about our research and engage parents in a discussion about synthetic biology.

The event far exceeded our expectations; from 10 am until after 4 pm, we worked with large groups of kids and adults at our booth. With no break for lunch, because of a perpetual line of kids at our tables, we kept talking and working through the day. Because of the unexpected high volume of attendees, we ran out of materials more than once, having to make three rushed trips to nearby stores to replenish supplies.

The feedback we received from this event was immense. Numerous parents, many of whom were leaders of robotics teams, elementary school teachers, a couple of school counselors, and many professionals with biology, science and other tech backgrounds, told us that their kids enjoyed learning from the activities, how much they appreciated us working one on one with their kids, as we shared passionately and patiently our love for science, and how they valued the efforts we took to explain the science clearly and knowledgably. We received high commendation from Laura Siko, the event’s main organizer for handling a continuously large crowd throughout the day and for our positive contribution. Given our success, Ms. Siko eagerly invited us to exhibit at the next Loudoun STEM Day, which we recently did, in October 2016.

“It was so great having the Broad Run team at STEM Day. Their activities were engaging and popular! I will be sure to include you on the invitation when we host another STEM Day next year!”

Seeing how we reached out to younger students, an elementary teacher who visited our booth, Mrs. Karla Paulson, invited us to run the same activities at her school upcoming STEM Night, STEM-mania.

Through Loudoun STEM Day, the largest science expo in our region, we engaged and worked with over 400 students introducing them to the basics of genetics and biology and engaged in conversations about synthetic biology with over a hundred adults.