Scavenger Hunt: Build your own prototype

For this activity, our objectives where to teach Puerto Rican High School students from how to solve real life problems using biobricks. We contributed to the Synthetic Biology community by effectively teaching non-scientist to use biobricks. To make it fun we used a scavenger hunt as a teaching resource. Students were taught how to build a prototype using basic parts from the registry before building their own. They also learned the purpose of each part that gives functionality to a genetic circuit like promoters, ribosomal binding sites, structural genes and terminators. They were educated on what is Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) and how to use it to represent different types of components. Each group of students constructed and presented their original prototype demonstrating we achieved our objective.

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First, the students were exposed to the different parts of a genetic circuit.

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The students then did brainstorming and research to develop their prototype.

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Next step was to practice their presentation and receive peer review to improve their performance and their prototypes.

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Finally, the students presented their final prototype in the final activity of the camp.Their family and friends were able to see what the participants were able to develop.

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Biobricks used and given to students:

Biobricks	Name	Functionality
BBa_I14033	pCAT	Constitutive promoter
BBa_I14015	P(Las) TetO	Promoter that responds to LasR & 3OC12HSL
BBa_I721001	Lead Promoter	This promoter is activated in the presence of lead
BBa_I765000	Steel Promoter	This promoter is activated in the presence of lead
BBa_K1163110	YncE Promoter	Transcriptional repressor of genes involved in iron homeostasis
BBa_I760005	Copper promoter	This promoter is activated in the presence of copper
BBa_I712074	Iron promoter	This promoter is activated in the presence of iron
BBa_J61100	Anderson Ribosome Binding Site Family Member	Strong Ribosome Binding Site
BBa_K592009	AmilCP	Blue chromoprotein
BBa_K592010	AmilGFP	Yellow chromoprotein
BBa_K592011	cjBlue	Green chromoprotein
BBa_K592012	eforRED	Red chromoprotein
BBa_K1033906	sPurple	Purple chromoprotein
BBa_K1033932	spisPink	Pink chromoprotein
BBa_K1680006	Fluorescent protein dronpa	Fluorescent protein
BBa_J45008	BAT2	Banana smell
BBa_K1067006	Denitrification operon from Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Denitrification
BBa_J45002	SAM:benzoic acid and carboxyl methyltransferase	Floral smell
BBa_K118022	cex coding sequence encoding Cellulomonas fimi exoglucanase	Cellulose degradation
BBa_K2812001	Coding sequence for trunctaded Lysostaphin	Antimicrobial that desnaturalizes membranes
BBa_I725011	B-hydroxy butyryl coA dehydrogenase	Biosynthesis of butanol
BBa_J06501	Lacl repressor	Repressor sensitive to temperature
BBa_K112012	T4 lysozyme in BBb	Promotes cellular death
BBa_B0010	T1 from E. coli rrnB	Unidirectional terminator

Below are summaries of each group of students' presentations:

Team Pink: (BP8 - AWAY)

This group constructed a prototype that will degrade plastic milk containers after being used. They used the lac operon to complete this.

Team Purple: (Nitroklebsialisis)

This group designed a prototype to eliminate toxins like Nitrogen and Creatinine in the blood. This idea came from the problem that came from an observation being made after Hurricane Maria. Citizens died because they could not get their dialysis treatments.

Blue Team: (E. Plastic)

This team wanted to attack the problem of plastic contamination landfills. They also suggested using a promoter that responds to sodium or other molecules to degrade plastic in oceans.

Team Orange: (Bio-Colors)

This group designed an aqueous liquid medium “paint”. The bacteria will turn green in the presence of blue light and emit floral scent when sweat components are present. The vision is to apply this to fashion.

Team Green: (ABA & MAA)

This team designed two different prototypes. The first one attacked the problem of alcohol poisoning. They designed a system that could degrade alcohol faster by adding enzymes that have this function. The second project found a way to detect the levels of iron in the blood as a faster way to diagnose anemia.

Team Yellow: (Cu Bioremediation)

This team designed a prototype for the bioremediation of copper in bodies of water. They added a filtering system to eliminate the bacteria from the water after the bioremediation.

Team:UPRM/Contribution

Scavenger Hunt: Build your own prototype

Biobricks used and given to students:

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