Team:HKUST-Hong Kong/workshop.html

Human Practice

Introduction of Synthetic Biology
Activity 1 : The Life of E. coli
Lab Tour
Activity 2 : Be a Plasmid Engineer
Reflection
Acknowledgement

Game Rules
Cards

1. Overview

Synthetic Biology is an emerging field combining conventional Biology with engineering principles. Employing techniques rooted in genetic engineering, scientists attempt to introduce new biological functions to existing organisms, ranging from creating biosensors to detect viruses and bacteria, to those which can actively degrade pollutants in the environment. Since this is a relatively new field of science with great potential to influence our lives in the future, we feel that iGEM teams should not only enjoy the iGEM process, but also at the same time try to promote synthetic biology to the general public so that more people will gain a better understanding of this cutting-edge field.

In order to achieve this goal, our iGEM human practice group this year held a Synthetic Biology Workshop for secondary school students on 17th September 2011.

Apart from the workshop, our human practice group also modified a Synthetic Biology Survey provided by our partners in Austria for Hong Kong public. The aim of this survey is to collect data on general public’s perception of synthetic biology, what influences their impression of it, and their thoughts on the future development of synthetic biology. [Top]

2. iGEM 2011 HKUST Synthetic Biology Workshop

The iGEM 2011 HKUST Synthetic Biology Workshop aims to introduce some basic idea of synthetic biology as well as molecular biology in general to secondary school students, primarily at Grades 9 and 10.

Based on this goal, we designed our workshop as 4 parts. The first part is a brief introduction to what Synthetic Biology is, covering basic knowledge such as genes and cloning techniques. Then we organized two activities aiming to enhance students’ understanding of synthetic biology, as well as to encourage interaction with iGEM team members. There is also a tour to the laboratory where our iGEM team members work. At the end, a sharing session is held to provide a chance for secondary students to share their opinions about this workshop and to reflect upon their new knowledge in Synthetic Biology. [Top]

Introduction to Synthetic Biology
One of our team advisors, Julie Lin, gave a brief introduction to what synthetic biology is at the beginning of the workshop. This introduction covers some fundamental biological knowledge necessary for better understanding of synthetic biology, as well as a conceptualized explanation of how synthetic biology works. For example, the concept of a 'gene' was introduced, as well as the method used to obtain large copies of the same gene for manipulation (PCR). During the introduction, we also encouraged students to engage in the activity by asking questions between concepts to help them understand synthetic biology more easily. [Top]

Activity 1 : The Life of E. coli

Our human practice group has designed a card game for secondary students in order to introduce the general principles of Synthetic Biology and the techniques employed in this field. In this card game, students play as an E. coli, a bacterial species often used in Synthetic Biology due to its fast growth rate, resilience to environmental stress and ease of cultivation. Throughout the game, students will attempt to evolve by constructing pathways (combining a promoter with a gene). By activating promoters and pathways, they will score points, which are tallied at the end, with the highest scorer declared the winner.

After playing this game, students can aquire basic knowledge of pathways and how they function. For example, they will learn that promoters need to be activated to initiate gene transcription, different genes code for different proteins for different functions, and some techniques are commonly used in constructing pathways, such as PCR. [Top]

Human Practice - Workshop

How to Play Our Card Game?

Rules and Cards of The Life of E. coli

Lab Tour

In order to give secondary school students a chance to have a better understanding on how synthetic biology is practiced in real life, we organized a lab tour for them, visiting HKUST's MBMS (Molecular Biomedical Sciences) Lab where our iGEM Team works for the iGEM project. With the help of one of our instructors, Dr. Jessica Ce Mun Tang, these students learnt about the things that can be done in a synthetic biology lab for research purposes. For example, they learn how to use pipetman and how to run agarose gel electrophoresis to check the DNA sizes of digestion products. All of the students showed a great interest in doing synthetic biology research after visiting the lab. [Top]

Activity 2 : Be a Plasmid Engineer

Isaac Newton discovered the laws of motion because of an apple falling from its tree, Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the structure of benzene after having dreamt of a snake eating its tail…History has repeatedly showed us that many a ground-shaking discovery originated from leaps of creativity and imagination.

Synthetic Biology is no different. Like a sand box, it houses a staggering amount of possibilities, limited only by people’s imagination, and by what people perceive as possible. In this activity, secondary students get a chance to show everyone what they think Synthetic Biology can do, after getting some basic idea of synthetic biology through all the activities! We had helpers go into each group to inspire them to think out of the box, and assist them in designing their own Synthetic Biology project! We asked the secondary school students to construct a plasmid that carries characteristics from one or more species, and specify which host species they wish to introduce the plasmid into. The following are some interesting examples designed by these students.

1. Extract starfish DNA and put them into human embryo to create a human body which is able to change colors, as well as gain the ability to regenerate limbs.

2. Extract genes responsible for photosynthesis from plants and put them into fish in such a way that they are expressed in the scales. This way, fish can absorb sunlight and synthesize O2 by themselves.

3. Extract genes that generate voltage in cells of electric eel and place them in a yellow mouse to create a real life Pikachu!

After collecting all their designs, we discovered that a significant portion of them were interested in improving the human body by introducing a combination of genes from other animals to grant specific traits and abilities.

After they have completed their designs, we encouraged them to think about whether their designs were ethical, as well as whether they would be a danger to human society and even the whole earth. We underlined this particular concern about the application of Synthetic Biology by showing them a video called "Bruce" that highlights the ethical issues related to potential abuse of synthetic biology.

Through this activity, students gained deeper understanding into how a plasmid works and were made aware of Synthetic Biology's nature as a tool that can lead to great advances in science and technology in general, but is not without concerns for safety and ethics. [Top]

Human Practice - Workshop

Reflection

At the end of the workshop, we distributed a feedback form for all the participating secondary students to fill in. Gathering from all the feedback forms, the students in general felt that the whole workshop was interesting and helpful. They came to the workshop without much prior knowledge about Synthetic Biology, but after this workshop, they all agreed that they were able to learn some basic ideas about what synthetic biology is. Below are some feedback given by them:

"The workshop is very interesting and informative. You explained it in a way that I can understand and take in the knowledge easily."

"Thank you to everyone involved in this workshop which all of us greatly enjoyed. All the activities were interesting and well organized and all of the iGEM Team members encourage all students to participate in the workshop actively. "

"I thought the card game was very thought-out and was very useful as well as interesting."

"I really liked this workshop! It used creative ways to introduce a very new topic and it was extremely successful!"

"This was a very inspiring workshop-not only was it fun, but it was also very informative. Thank you!"

[Top]

Here are some of the reflection from our iGEM Team members.

Claire, WU Yunmin:
“Synthesis”, instead of "Cheers", the student shouted with a big smile when we took the big group photo at the end. As a helper, I was pretty sure that they had spent a happy morning with us, and more importantly, captured the fundamental concepts of what synthetic biology does and how it basically works.

The workshop was my first time to introduce synthetic biology as well as our project to someone outside the campus and someone I have ever met. It was not until this workshop as I was proudly talking about our project that I realized that how much I had devoted to the project and how deep I was in love with it. Besides, it taught me that teamwork matters a lot. In the process, we argued, we fought, but nothing prevented us from working for the same goal. The dispute didn’t split us but made the bonding between us even stronger. I really appreciate having a wonderful team like this and I will be working towards such kind of team in future projects.

Steven, Deng Yisong:
We made a lot of effort in the preparation process and those students' smiling faces made me believe that all the time and energy involved was not wasted. I am pretty glad to know that most of them got to know something about synthetic biology and that they will be telling others what they have learnt in our workshop.

Michael, LU Yang:
As a member of the Human Practice group of iGEM 2011 HKUST Team, I am amazed and satisfied by what we have done in the past few months. The task was not easy, and we sacrificed much time designing the whole process, discussing every detail of the activities, preparing the materials, having rehearsals while working on wet lab day after day as well. However, we achieved our goal perfectly. The secondary school students were excited and interested in our workshop and enjoyed their time, which is the best reward for the whole human practice group. The new area of synthetic biology is also better known by those young students and the workshop aroused their interest in this area. I feel so proud of our achievements.

Shirley, XU Jiajing:
During the workshop, I was strongly impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the secondary school students we invited to our workshop. To be honest, they contributed a lot to the overall success of our workshop. Of course, the hard work from all of the helpers and organizers also played an important role. As an organizer and helper, I have to say that the preparing work for such a novel synthetic biology workshop is tiring. You have to go through every single detail and organize the whole plan by yourselves. However, once you see people actually enjoying what you have planned, you would feel all the effort is worth it.

[Top]

Card Game - The Life of E. coli

Game Rules

• “Card” dices have three colors: green for promoter, blue for gene, and yellow for function.
• “Activation” dices have faces representing the respective activated promoter. They include T7, pLac, pBad and one blank face (no activation).

Playing the Game
Each turn is divided into 6 steps:
1) Roll the dice: The player rolls three dices: “move” dice, “card” dice, and “activation” dice.
2) Activate the promoter: Determined by the “activation” dice, activate all corresponding promoters on the table for each player. Calculate the new score.
3) Draw step: Draw a card according to the “card” dice.
4) Move step: The number of steps you move forward is determined by the “move” dice. Panel bonuses and penalties apply at the end of this step.
5) Play step: You may play up to 3 cards from your hand during this step.
6) Trading: You may trade 2 promoters in for 1 gene, or 2 genes for 1 promoter before you end your turn.

Constructing Pathways
To score points, you must first construct a completed pathway by pairing a promoter with a gene, and then place them on the table. You may construct any number of pathways, but once they are on the table, they cannot be returned to your hand.

Scoring
You earn points by following the criteria below:
1) You start with 100 points. Whenever a promoter is activated, the score on the gene is added to your total score.
2) Promoters are activated either by the “activation” dice, or corresponding function cards.
3) No promoters are activated during the first round and your promoters will no longer be active after the turn you pass the finish line.
4) Speed Bonus: The first player to finish the game will gain a bonus of 500 points while the second player will gain 200 points.
5) Card Bonus: After the game is finished, all the unused cards in your hand and function cards placed on the table will earn you 50 points each. All the completed pathways will count as 200 points each.[Back] [Top]

Card Game - The Life of E. coli

Home

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Strain Construction | Culture Tests | Modeling

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Acknowledgements

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BioBricks

Master List & Characterization Data

Human Practice

Workshop | Survey