V arious high schools around the state of Georgia receive relatively low funding and may not be able to provide their students with resources most other schools may get. This also limits their ability to have STEM related activities and/or courses. This year, our iGEM team was invited to speak at a local, underprivileged school, Cross Keys High School. We gave them a presentation about our iGEM project this year and included details about what it is like to be part of an undergraduate research lab. A bilingual team member, Laura, translated the presentation in Spanish as it went along because a majority of the students in attendance spoke Spanish as their first language.
Our goal for that day was to not only raise awareness about coral bleaching, but to also connect with and encourage students to take STEM-related courses. Many times, students who come from a background without higher education or a greater social-economic status may not feel prepared enough to be successful in these courses. The team members took turns speaking about their personal hardships and advised the students to take a leap of faith and pursue their dreams regardless of the obstacles. STEM-related courses are a great way for students to learn how to work well with others, be responsible, and obtain research experience.
After speaking to the students on a personal level, they seemed to be more interested and began to ask questions about the project. These varied from “How do you get the coral?” to “How will you be able to change the algae’s DNA?” This definitely encouraged our team to think about the future plan of the project and how to proceed if we successfully cultured and transformed the algae. Following the presentation, many students decided to sign up for an upcoming biotechnology course at the school. We plan on visiting the students again and to develop a schedule to host Synthetic Biology workshops for their biotechnology course. iGEM GSU and Ana White, the biotechnology class teacher at Cross Keys, have worked together to set the curriculum and course schedule for the Spring semester as well as donating micropipettes, reagents, and other commonly used lab supplies that Cross Keys didn't have funding for.
