Team:Duke/Engagement/EngageCommunity
Kids! Kids! Kids!
As part of our overall Human Practices strategy, we wanted to engage with our local community. One way that our team engaged with the community was at our local children's museum where our team taught young kids about synthetic biology.
Our team were Guest Star Scientists at the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC. There, team members worked with youth volunteers to teach kids about synthetic biology. Candy DNA, origami DNA, and DNA extractions were all the rage with the young demographics. Kids enjoyed learning about the shape of a double helix while they built their own double helices with Twizzlers and marshmallows. The kids then went on to make origami DNA and learned about how hard our body works to make DNA in our cells. Finally the children made DNA necklaces out of tubes filled with DNA they extracted from wheat germ. Both our team and the kids we met had a truly DNAtastic time! Below are details about each of the activities as well as pictures from our fun filled day.
Throughout our day at the Museum, our team members were assisted by members of the Without the help of these volunteers our event would not have been as successful so a big thank you to them! It was also a great opportunity to our team to help teach these volunteers how to teach about synthetic biology and to engage with them about future career options.
Candy DNA
One of the kids favorite activities was making candy DNA! We originally came up with the idea from a Guardian article. We used this basis but through some image searches of Google, we found a good alternative to jellys would be marshmallows (a little easier for the kids to manipulate). We then made up a set of instructions for volunteers that is attached below. The kids had a really good time playing with their food and learning about their DNA too! We took this opportunity to explain the base pairing through different colored marshmallows. Overall, we all had a great time playing with our candy DNA!
Candy DNA Example
Origami DNA
Origami DNA Mobile
Another of our activities was creating origami DNA. We originally found the idea from Your Genome. We then printed out the attached color templates and instructions. The younger kids liked looking at made examples while the older kids made their own. Similar to the candy activity we explained about the structure of the DNA, especially the helical format as the origami twists as natural DNA does. The following YouTube video is the instructional video associated with the attached documents.
Extracting Wheat DNA
The final activity of our Marbles trip was from the Building with Biology Kit. The See DNA activity was held for all of the kids. The kids found the activity really engaging and loved being able to see the DNA they extracted from wheat germ!
See DNA Experiment
