Team:WLC-Milwaukee/Public Engagement

PLACEHOLDER

WLC iGEM 2019 | Outreach
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Outreach


STEM Camp Presentation

Over the summer, our college held a STEM camp for four select incoming students who received a scholarship for their interest in a STEM program. During one day of the camp, one of our team members gave a presentation to the students about iGEM and how they could get involved. This presentation allowed interaction and in depth conversations about iGEM between our team members and the students. As a result of the presentation, one of the select students joined our team and enjoys the work of iGEM!


Science Exploration Day

Similar to an event we hosted last year, our team put together an event for grade school students called Science Exploration Day at the beginning of October. Through 30-minute demonstrations and interactive experiments led by our team members the students explored the STEM fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and anatomy and physiology. The demos included building a model of DNA to learn what DNA is, dissecting sheep kidneys to gain an appreciation of the human body, learning about the chemistry behind diapers along with the relationship between pressure, temperature and volume, and learning about the standing wave patterns of sound waves using chladni plates. Science Exploration Day was a fantastic opportunity to inspire young students to discover more about science and expose them to different STEM fields.


Organization Outreach Day

In August, the WLC-iGEM team leaders participated in Wisconsin Lutheran College’s club and organization outreach day, welcoming new students and encouraging them to get involved on campus. At our booth, we were able to tell the incoming students about iGEM, our project for this year, and synthetic biology. This fun event allowed us to interact with dozens of students as well as some faculty members that stopped by!


Shoreland Visits WLC

Expanding on the efforts of previous iGEM Milwaukee teams, we invited students from a local high school to our campus in mid October. While on campus, the students isolated DNA from fruit in a lab led by Dr. Werner and a few team members and heard lectures from two of our biology professors. After the lectures, professors and team members answered any questions they had on iGEM, our project, or iGEM in particular. We also presented our project to them, including information about iGEM and synthetic biology. Finally, we took them on a tour of our science building. Efforts have already begun to involve students from other local high schools as well. We hope to inform even more high school students about iGEM and synthetic biology in this engaging format in the years to come.


iGEM Night (Campus-Wide Presentation)

In the middle of October our team hosted an event on our college campus called iGEM Info Night to reach out to STEM and non-STEM students. We presented what iGEM is and stands for, what synthetic biology is, as well as what our project is about. Through this presentation we were able to inform students of varying science backgrounds the importance of synthetic biology and the world changing possibilities it offers! At the end of the presentation we were able to mingle with the students and answer questions that they had about iGEM and have more in-depth conversations about the topics we presented on.