Team:TP-CC San Diego/HP/Gold Integrated
Integrated Practices
Synthetic Biology Club 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.
Intro to Biotech Presentation
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.
Mischel Lab Interview
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.
ActivOutreach
We held events with the local charity Activoutreach that included biology seminars in El Cajon, Logan Heights, and Carmel Valley. We passed out seeds to at-risk youth, and gave over twenty free biotechnology seminars in Ocean Air Park that informed attendees about the current state of biotechnology. We also teamed up with Activoutreach's compsci camp and taught middle schoolers exponential decay and growth based upon real life cell growth. To further the lesson, we instructed with hands-on lab supplies, and showed the children how to culture bacteria on agar, how to pipette, and how to use microscopes to look at their own bacterial colonies.
