We visited a local high school, Niles West, to introduce students interested in STEM to synthetic biology, our project, and the idea of them having an iGEM team at their school. This workshop included us speaking about synthetic biology and our summer project, showing them different types of fluorescent proteins, and answering their questions on the research process and college.
Many of the students we spoke to at Niles West were very interested in STEM before the outreach event, but many of them had not heard much about synthetic biology previously. Although the topic of genetic engineering can be complex, by introducing real life examples and diving into the endless possibilities of the field, we were able to have a vivid discussion and help students develop a general, but factual, idea of what genetic engineering means. By doing this, we were able to spark an interest and create excitement about the limitless possibilities of synthetic biology.
Since our project was about developing an educational kit, we brought E. coli cells to the high school to demonstrate the effect of reporter proteins. We utilized the E. coli plates that we brought with us to verify that our plasmid design would also be an engaging tool for students to learn about synthetic biology. Based on our experience with showing the high school students the E. coli plates, we think that an educational kit utilizing our designed UV damage sensor would be effective.
Here are some pictures from the event.
We created a slide presentation which we used to introduce synthetic biology and our project to the high school students.
