Team:Purdue/Public Engagement
Gifted Education Research & Resource Institute (GERI)
The Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute (GERI) is a research center within the College of Education at Purdue University. Every year, they host a number of summer programs for K-12 students. This year, graduate student Ruben Lopez of the Purdue Engineering Education department invited us and Solomon Lab to run a session as a part of a biological engineering course for the GERI Summer Residential Program. During our session, we ran a small demonstration and gave a presentation about iGEM and our project for high school students.
After the graduate students of Solomon Lab gave a tour of the Bindley Bioscience Center facilities, we first hosted a demonstration—a spin on strawberry DNA, but much, much cooler—extracting their own DNA! After Internet searches for instructions on this activity, we developed a procedure that combined multiple aspects to make it simple, low-cost, and kid-friendly. For example, this procedure can be done with salt water, but we decided to make sure the procedure was one that could be done with Gatorade instead. The reason for this was so that it still has similar effects to saltwater due to the electrolyte content yet is much more palatable. If the solution being used for the kids to swish around in their mouths doesn’t taste good, chances are the students may not necessarily keep the solution in their mouths for as long as they may need to in order to collect ample epithelial cells
The Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute (GERI) is a research center within the College of Education at Purdue University. Every year, they host a number of summer programs for K-12 students. This year, graduate student Ruben Lopez of the Purdue Engineering Education department invited us and Solomon Lab to run a session as a part of a biological engineering course for the GERI Summer Residential Program. During our session, we ran a small demonstration and gave a presentation about iGEM and our project for high school students.
After the graduate students of Solomon Lab gave a tour of the Bindley Bioscience Center facilities, we first hosted a demonstration—a spin on strawberry DNA, but much, much cooler—extracting their own DNA! After Internet searches for instructions on this activity, we developed a procedure that combined multiple aspects to make it simple, low-cost, and kid-friendly. For example, this procedure can be done with salt water, but we decided to make sure the procedure was one that could be done with Gatorade instead. The reason for this was so that it still has similar effects to saltwater due to the electrolyte content yet is much more palatable. If the solution being used for the kids to swish around in their mouths doesn’t taste good, chances are the students may not necessarily keep the solution in their mouths for as long as they may need to in order to collect ample epithelial cells
The activity we ended up developing and following was as follows:
Materials:
Materials:
- 5 mL aliquot of lemon-lime Gatorade x 1 per student
- 2-3 drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent x 1 per student
- 5 mL aliquot of 91% isopropyl alcohol x 1 per student (plus additional for DNA preservation in case anyone wanted to keep theirs)
- Small disposable paper cup x 1 per student
- Large toothpick x 1 per student
- 1.5 mL microcentrifuge tube x 1 per student
- Labeling pens
Procedure:
- Chill the source of isopropyl alcohol overnight in a refrigerator (we used the cold room in our lab space)
- Take the aliquot of Gatorade, put it in your mouth, swish it around vigorously for at least 15 seconds, and spit it out and back into the cup.
- Add 2-3 drops of dish detergent to the cup with Gatorade. Swirl it around manually or use the toothpick to stir it, being careful to not form bubbles.
- Let the mixture sit for approximately 2 minutes.
- Tilt the cup at a 45º angle and gently pour in 5 mL of cold isopropyl alcohol.
- Let that mixture sit for approximately 10 minutes.
- During these 10 minutes, the DNA should begin to visibly precipitate at the surface between the Gatorade and the isopropyl alcohol
- Optional: if you want to keep the DNA, use the toothpick to collect it, place it in the microcentrifuge tube, top it off with isopropyl alcohol, cap the tube, and label it.
With the demonstration, we took the opportunity to teach the kids not only the theory behind how this DIY DNA extraction activity works but also about how volatile and not-very-consistent biology research can be. For example, not every kid saw their DNA precipitate. In light of this, we taught them that even if it seems discouraging to not get results the first time, it happens in research, especially biology research, and that we just keep trying to see if there are things we can do for things to turn out better next time.
After doing the activity, we gave them a short presentation about what iGEM is, who we are, what we had been working on, and how concepts from our project and how concepts from what they were learning in their program courses related to the discourse of our project process. We made sure to tell them about the High School Division of iGEM and encouraged them to consider looking into potentially starting their own teams if they wished to do so. We made sure to centermost of the discussion about how the iGEM cycle was almost the same as the design process that they were learning in their courses.
After doing the activity, we gave them a short presentation about what iGEM is, who we are, what we had been working on, and how concepts from our project and how concepts from what they were learning in their program courses related to the discourse of our project process. We made sure to tell them about the High School Division of iGEM and encouraged them to consider looking into potentially starting their own teams if they wished to do so. We made sure to centermost of the discussion about how the iGEM cycle was almost the same as the design process that they were learning in their courses.
