UNL 2018 Improving Early Detection of The Emerald Ash Borer

Education and Public Engagement

Reaching out to the community of Lincoln and educating them about the Emerald Ash Borer was extremely important to our team, as the future destruction of Lincoln’s nearly 15,000 ash trees will affect every member of the community. We wanted not only to teach the community about the effects of the EAB, but also how to recognize ash trees that are in danger of infestation. In addition, we wanted show the community how much fun learning about synthetic biology and its applications could be! With a poster and pamphlets focused on the harm caused by the emerald ash borer along with various other educational activities, we were ready to spread our message.

Museum Visits

On June 14, 2018, the our team showcased an exhibit at Archie’s Late Night Party at Morrill Hall, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln State Museum. This event was geared towards kids ages 5-10 with the theme of “science after dark”. To teach kids about synthetic biology, we performed a wheat germ DNA extraction experiment. At the end of the experiment, they were able to take home a sample of wheat germ DNA in an eppendorf tube. Many of the kids and their parents expressed an excitement for science and biology upon seeing and holding a DNA sample in their hands. We also brought several agar plates painted with GFP E. coli in various shapes. We were able to tell them that E. coli used in our research lab is non harmful, and we were able to show them that bacteria can be fun and useful.

Petri dish art with GFP

On this same night, the team also unveiled a tree identification game, where we showed three different kinds of leaves, including ash leaves. Parents and kids enjoyed guessing which trees the leaves came from and we often surprised with the real answers. At the end of the night, a group of elementary and middle school teachers with a focus in STEM stopped by our exhibit, and we were able to record a video that they can show in their classrooms explaining the principles of synthetic biology.

We continued to visit Morrill Hall once a week throughout the entire month of July and expanded our exhibit based on interest and feedback from our previous one. We had obtained Nebraska Forest Service tree identification cards from Dr. Eric North, so we were able to expand our tree identification game to ten types of leaves and showcase the cards in case the kids needed help. Interestingly, many times the parents were more excited to play the game than their kids. We were also surprised that many people had trouble identifying trees common to Nebraska. Whenever anyone learned which leaf sample was from the ash tree, we were able to teach them about the EAB and how they could prevent its spread and protect their trees. Then we were able to tell them about the research we were doing to use synthetic biology to also help the EAB problem.

Night at the museum

For our fifth and final exhibit at Morrill Hall on July 27, 2018, Eric Berg from the Nebraska Forest Service assisted us at our exhibit with a very exciting activity for the kids. Nearly 500 kids visited us to write their names on tree cookies. Eric made these tree cookies but thinly slicing fallen down tree branches and punching holes in them to allow them to be strung on necklaces. The kids drew whatever they liked on them and tied a string through them so they could wear their masterpiece around the museum for the rest of the evening. The kids absolutely loved this activity, so much so that a few of them tried to come back and make more! While the kids were busy creating, Eric and our team were able to engage with their parents about our project and the EAB. Eric also brought pamphlets with him containing information about the EAB along with branches that had been struck by lighting to show what successful and unsuccessful healing of the tree looked like. Overall, he helped us communicate how interesting science can be and how vital trees are to our everyday lives.

Tree cookie

TEDxYouth@Lincoln

Our next big event was presenting at the TedXYouth event, hosted at Lincoln High School on August 4, 2018. We collaborated with one of our sponsors, LI-COR, to hold an interactive presentation about synthetic biology and restriction mapping between Ted talk sessions. LI-COR was kind enough to bring their state of the art methane detection instrument, the LI-7700, to demonstrate to the audience. The instrument was used to tie into a former UNL iGEMer's speech she was giving at the event about our previous work. Overall, this was a great experience for us and allowed us to share some of the more technical aspects of synthetic biology with the community in and engaging and innovative setting.

Women Advance IT

Two members of our team, Shreeya Vaitla and Rachel Van Cott, also had the opportunity to present our project at the Women Advance IT leadership conference on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Innovation Campus on October 2, 2018. We were the first and only undergraduate researchers to present at the conference. We presented on the iGEM program and the research opportunities it has provided us with along with our project background, design, and results. We included information on how the conference attendees can recognize EAB infestation symptoms and how they can slow its spread by not transporting firewood. The presentation was very well-received, and the conference attendees expressed their support for our project and the novelty of applying synthetic biology to an invasive species problem. We held a lengthy Q&A after our presentation in which we were able to inform them about our plans for future research as well as the leadership opportunities we have had since starting our iGEM project.

Conclusion

We are very appreciative for all the opportunities that we were given to engage with the community and spread awareness of the Emerald Ash Borer. We are grateful that we were able to help the Nebraska Forest Service educate the public about the EAB and ash trees in danger at such a relevant time, as the EAB was confirmed in Lincoln during the course of our project.

Team:UNebraska-Lincoln/Public Engagement