Team:RHIT/Human Practices

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Overview

To link our project to the very real-world problems surrounding heavy metals, we have conducted a number of human practice works, which mainly consist of public engagement, collaborations with other iGEM teams, and professional opinions. For public engagement, we worked with some local foundations to introduce synthetic biology and iGEM. With regard to collaborations, we participated in the US AFR Carroll High School iGEM team meetup in Ohio where we discussed our project with other teams and listened to their views on iGEM. As professional opinions are extremely valuable, we also interviewed professors and other expert researchers in vocations including EPA officers.

Human Practice Timeline

Contacting with EPA and USDA Officers

Interactions with EPA officers

June 13

At the beginning of the research, we contacted EPA office about the new standards upon the concentration of heavy metals in soil and water. Mario Mangino, the toxicologist at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency replied us the methods used for determining the heavy metals levels in soil and water, which are Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AE) and Atomic Absorption (AA) Spectroscopy. He also provided background information on methodologies of metal remediation that are most frequently applied.

June 27

After reviewing information and documents provided by Mario Mangino, we emailed him back with questions we were curious about, and got replies from him. From this interaction, we got information about Bioremediation Guidance from Indiana DEM, the EPA Superfund site cleanup goals for cobalt and arsenic in soil and groundwater, and bio-related methods used for detection of water quality.

Saint Marry-of-the-Woods Science Camp

Saint Marry-of-the-Woods

June 21

On June 21st, three of our team members - Ben, Eden, and Keegan - arrived at the Saint Mary of the Woods College Science Camp in Terre Haute. The purpose of the trip was to spread the adventurous spirit of Synthetic Biology to some of the younger members of society to help form a prosperous future for the discipline.

US AFRL Carroll High School Meetup

June 22

In order to collaborate and exchange ideas with other iGEM teams, five team members - Ben, Lu, Marry, Nicholas, and Joy - went to Dayton, where an iGEM team meetup was held by US AFRL Carroll High School. Three other teams are Ohio State University, United States Air Force Academy, and Alma College.

DuPont Facility

Introduction of DuPont Facility

We contacted Jennifer Dodds, the RCRA Corrective Action Project manager and Ecological risk assessor at EPA, to got detailed information about the hazardous waste cleanup in the former DuPont East Chicago facility. DuPont started manufacturing lead arsenate insecticide as early as 1910 and was later joined by companies such as International Lead Refining, Anaconda Lead Products and Delamar Copper Refinery Co.(later known as USS Lead) in the 1920s. A wide range of lead products were produced: lead arsenate insecticide, corroding lead, antimonial lead, common lead, and white lead. However, it wasn’t until over half a century later that people discovered how toxic the land below the production facilities has been. Indiana State Department Lead particles downwind of the USS Lead facility in 1985, and then the DuPont Facility in 1997. Nowadays, the cleanup and decontamination are still going on in East Chicago. Last year, EPA reached an agreement with DuPont that 26.6 million dollars would be used to completely remove the heavy metals found under the former facility. Heavy metal poisoning had cost us a lot of time and money, but most importantly, the health of people that lives in the area. What happened in East Chicago will happen again. It has never been so urgent for people to find an effective way to eliminate heavy metals from the environment.

Terre Haute Children's Museum

June 26

Three of the team members - Ben, Marry, and Eden - went to Terre Haute Children’s Museum to talk to the manager there. They discussed the ideas we had at that moment and talked about the space that would be provided for exhibitions. After that, the team adjusted the plan based on the information provided by the manager.

July 15-26

The team presented several small exhibits at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum about hydroponics and the search for life outside our solar system.

September 21

Terre Haute Children's Museum and Chamber of Commerce with the Coca-Cola Bottle Festival.

Operation Catapult

July 15-26

Catapult is a summer program in Rose-Hulman rising high school seniors to get hands on practical STEM projects. One of the groups we helped that is working on designing a bioreactor to grow algae.

Podcast Redox Detox

Hey, everyone! Welcome to Redox Detox; a podcast by the Rose-Hulman 2019 iGEM team. Our goal with this podcast is to document our project’s progress, explain some concepts from synthetic biology, and have thoughtful discussions on the science and ethics of the field.

Michigan State University Meetup

July 13

We took a Skype meeting with other teams during the Michigan State University meetup. During the meetup, we watched 's presentation and learned more about iGEM and how Giant Jamboree looks like. We were able to watching other teams' presentations and give our presentation to them.

Purdue iGEM Collabration

Purdue University Collaboration

July 31

We were able to work with the Purdue team to verify each other’s part characterization and give advice to each other about wiki.

Wastewater Treatment Plant

City of Terre Haute Wastewater Treatment Plant

August 1

On August 1st, four of the teammates visited the City of Terre Haute Wastewater Utility Plant to see how the wastewater utility plant purifies water, especially how they remove metals from water.