Science Fair Description

On Wednesday, September 12, we hosted a Biology Fair at the Carmel Valley Library in the Community Room from 3:00-5:00 pm. Our goal for the fair was to give young students in the community exposure to the life sciences and to potentially spark their interest in learning more about biology. We set up 8 different stations around the room that all had simple activities for the students to try, and different members of the team attended to each station to help the students participate in the activities and to answer questions. Some of the activities that students could try included participating in an online Kahoot! quiz on the work of ecologists, using marshmallows and toothpicks to make a model of the DNA double helix structure, matching DNA with RNA and RNA to amino acids, building models of proteins, guessing the number of chromosomes in different organisms, practicing using a microscope to look at common items and using pipettes to transfer colored water, and making models of plant and animal cells with candy. Students seemed to enjoy learning about all of the different subjects and getting to do hands-on activities, and they gained exposure to both basic concepts of biology as well as simple lab procedures.

Caption: this is a banana!

Interview

On Friday, September 14, some of our team members visited Professor Eric Schmelz’s lab at the University of California, San Diego to discuss our project and ask for feedback on it. We inquired about background information on fungi and bacteria’s effects on plants, potential ethical issues that could arise from the development of our project, how to address those issues, and suggestions and improvements for our project. From this interview, we learned that different fungi have different effects on the growth of plants, and that these effects can be both positive or negative, and Professor Schmelz reminded us of previous cases in history where fungi and bacteria had significant negative effects on plants. We learned how people have overcome the threats of fungi and bacteria on plants in the past, such as by creating more diversity among plants so that those that are resistant to the fungi and bacteria are able to populate. We learned that there are political and religious issues that need to be addressed, and the unknown effects of altering certain jumping genes on the human body. As for suggestions for our project, Professor Schmelz encouraged us to try enzyme evolution to further expand the scope our results, and we integrated his suggestion into our wetlab work as part of the project.

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How to make an IGEM team website

As part of the TP_CC San Diego Human Practices effort to reach out to others, we created a website dedicated to helping high school students start an iGEM team at their school. Knowing how difficult it is to keep a high-school iGEM team running, the Human Practices group felt that it would be beneficial to give others a basic guide on successfully establishing an iGEM team at their school. On the website, titled “How to Start an iGEM Team at Your High School”, we included information on topics such as starting a team, basic team structure, fundraising, and choosing a project idea. This website makes the process of starting a team much more straightforward and organized and is accessible to high school students around the globe. We feel that iGEM is a great way to increase depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in the field of synthetic biology and want to give everyone a chance to be a part of the organization.

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Synthetic Biology presentations

The Human Practices Team Co-Leaders, Rachel Lian and Karishma Shah, took over as Co-Presidents of the Synthetic Biology Club at the beginning of the last school year in an effort to teach students about biotechnology and recruit members for the iGEM Team. They held weekly club meetings at Torrey Pines High School, wherein they gave presentations and led lab procedures. Topics covered in the club included DNA structure, transcription and translation, gel electrophoresis, PCR, bacteria, transformation, plate streaking, restriction enzyme digests, and CRISPR/Cas9. The members gave us overwhelmingly positive feedback and expressed excitement that they could apply what they were learning in class. The club sparked interests in biotechnology and prepared the members for more extensive involvement in synthetic biology. Many also joined our iGEM team.

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Intro to Biotech presentations

To fulfill our goal of spreading awareness of synthetic biology and educating the community, we organized a presentation for the Introduction to Biotechnology class at Torrey Pines High School. This lab-based class focuses on techniques used in bioengineering and biotechnology, so the students were eager to learn more about synthetic biology. During our presentation, we introduced the concept of synthetic biology and it's applications, promoted iGEM, and discussed our project on ecDNA. Overall, the feedback from the students and teacher was overwhelmingly positive. The students gained knowledge about the emerging field of synthetic biology, and many expressed their interest in joining the iGEM team in the new season.