Team:William and Mary/Consult the Community
Meeting with the School of Education
Inter-laboratory studies have great implications in both academia research and industry. Comparison of results can not only help determine the characteristics of certain products, but can also validate the test method and determine the source of uncertainty. Synthetic biology aims to achieve predicable gene expression outcomes [1], but challenges for this goal still exist on every level from parts design, circuity complexity to measurement methods. iGEM InterLab study is exactly designed to unravel the source of unpredictability and to quantify the degree of variability [2], the logical of which William and Mary iGEM team shares deeply. We have been an active participator of the InterLab Study since 2015 (the second year William and Mary joined the iGEM family) and we are very honored to be able to continue to contribute this study.
Meeting with Kristin Cosby
Kristin Cosby is an AP Chemistry teacher from Jamestown High School, a nearby school. She is also the head of the science department at her school. One of our contacts at the STEM Education Alliance at the William & Mary School of Education connected us with her during the summer. Kristin kindly visited our lab and met with us during the summer to discuss with us how we could better act as a resource for public school teachers and students in the area. She said she had no idea there were so many science resources available at our college, as they are not publicized to people in the public school system, and was very enthusiastic to work with us in the future. She helped us arrange the small teacher focus group and remained involved in our outreach activities, bringing her son to one of the Bioengineering Speaker Series events!
Collaboration with Monty Mason
After meeting Senator Mason in our lab and talking to him about the outreach we do, he was interested in starting a more in-depth collaboration with the local school district. He told us he was impressed with our outreach work and wanted to help make more teachers and students aware of it.
Shortly after our initial meeting, we sent Senator Mason a proposal for our collaboration with teachers and principals. We told him we wanted to act as a resource for teachers based on their needs, whether that was with curriculum planning, teacher workshops, lab visits, or helping to apply for grants. We had a follow-up meeting with Senator Mason to talk more in-depth about how he felt we could help public school teachers in our area. He told us that he felt that teachers could benefit from the resources we mentioned and that he was interested in helping us connect to some of the important people in the local public school system.
After the meeting, he kindly put us in touch with Tami Byron, the K-12 STEM coordinator for the entire Newport News public school system, which has a total enrollment of about 29,000 students and 37 elementary, middle, and high schools.
Meeting with Tami Byron
Inter-laboratory studies have great implications in both academia research and industry. Comparison of results can not only help determine the characteristics of certain products, but can also validate the test method and determine the source of uncertainty. Synthetic biology aims to achieve predicable gene expression outcomes [1], but challenges for this goal still exist on every level from parts design, circuity complexity to measurement methods. iGEM InterLab study is exactly designed to unravel the source of unpredictability and to quantify the degree of variability [2], the logical of which William and Mary iGEM team shares deeply. We have been an active participator of the InterLab Study since 2015 (the second year William and Mary joined the iGEM family) and we are very honored to be able to continue to contribute this study.
High School Educator Focus Group
We connected with Kristin Cosby, the head of the science department at Jamestown High School, through our contacts in the School of Education. After our initial meeting with her, she helped us organize a meeting with teachers from various high schools in our local school district. She also invited the K-12 science coordinator from the Williamsburg-James City County public school system. We had a small, informal meeting in our lab to get feedback from teachers about what they need and what we can do for them in our outreach.
Prior to the meeting, we reached out to the head of the Biology Club, which currently has members from Lafayette high school but not from the other high schools in our area. We asked them if they would be willing to present to the teachers about their club and biology research project, and also expand their reach to include more high school students. They agreed and presented their club to the teachers as a possible resource for students who are enthusiastic about biology.
We also told teachers about resources that we would be able to offer them, such as educational material, teacher workshops, and lab visits for students or teacher training. The teachers then told us about what they would like out of a potential partnership.
They said that although many of the high school teachers were knowledgeable about engineering, biology, and synthetic biology, there are strict rules in place that prevent them from performing most biology hands-on activities and experiments. Additionally, they felt that due to this lack of ability for students to learn through doing the science, many students felt disinterested. The teachers also expressed their concern that students felt disconnected from the teachers due to their age differences and therefore felt that even when the teachers showed enthusiasm about science, it did not translate to the students. The science coordinator also expressed that most of the elementary school science teachers did not actually have scientific backgrounds, and felt uncomfortable teaching about science because of this. Although there was a need for improved biology programs in the high schools, a lot of the problems with science education stems from elementary and middle schools.
We were very surprised to hear this. Prior to the meeting, we had thought that the problems with biology and synthetic biology education stemmed from teachers simply not being familiar with newer advances in the field and that teaching educators about synthetic biology could address the lack of instruction on this subject in classrooms. Additionally, teachers wanted resources for general science education, not just synthetic biology education. This meeting helped us better understand the needs of the community and make informed decisions about our future education outreach.
This year, the objective of InterLab is to test the precision of gene expression over different RBS devices with a GFP reporter. Teams from around the world are using the standard biological parts, same laboratory bacterium and standardized measurement procedure provided in a detailed protocol. Our team was excited about this year’s project and the improvements that InterLab has made such as the dried down DNA and extra reagents. We started our study on August, 8th.