Team:Cornell/Outreach

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Revision as of 03:20, 27 September 2011

iGEM Outreach 2.0

http://openwetware.org/wiki/IGEM_Outreach

Partnership with Cornell Engineering

ENGRG 1050: "Ethics in Synthetic Biology"

• http://openwetware.org/wiki/IGEM_Outreach:Ethics_of_Synthetic_Biology
• PowerPoint slides:

ENGRG 1050 is a freshmen level engineering class that introduces Cornell freshmen to a variety of topics that interests them. Our seminar on the Ethics of Synthetic Biology teaches beginning engineering students about the ethical issues surrounding current techniques and applications of synthetic biology. Students are encouraged to debate over current controversial technologies such as utilizing cows to produce milk with human enzymes and pharmaceutical companies patenting cancer screening techniques. Students learn about different aspects of ethical analysis including utility, rights and virtue ethics. Intellectual property rights, potential risks in recombinant DNA technology, progress vs. profit and other important aspects of the biotechnology industry were discussed. The seminar’s main purpose is get students thinking about the future work they participate in and potential ethical dilemma they might encounter. The seminar emphasizes the responsibility that engineers have regarding the research they conduct and the products they produce.

Reaching Out to Ithaca

CURIE: Bio Boot Camp

CURIE was a one-week summer program for high school girls interested in science and engineering. These girls were invited to Cornell to gain experience in a laboratory working on a research-inspired project. These projects were designed to exercise their ability to problem solve and troubleshoot as they work towards their goal. Cornell iGEM lead the “Bio Boot Camp” session on the first day of the program teaching the students basic lab techniques (pipetting small volumes, plating bacteria, running a PCR gel) as well as showing them some of the equipment in the laboratory. During the week that followed, Cornell iGEMers worked as teaching assistants with small teams of students on group projects.

For instance, one group of students used a microfluidic chip to model blood flow in small capillaries. They measured baseline flow speeds by taking videos through the laboratory’s microscopes, and calculated the resistance in each channel from the flow speeds and channel diameters. Then, they plugged one channel to simulate a blood clot, and measured the changes in flow speed and channel resistance. Using resistance as an analogy for an electric circuit, students then calculated the flow speeds that they expected to find based on this simple physics, and compared their findings to the expected results. This project was framed in the context of modeling a small stroke, but is especially interesting in that it could be used to model many biological systems involving blood flow in small capillaries.

Ithaca Sciencenter

• http://openwetware.org/wiki/IGEM_Outreach:Build-A-Bug
• http://openwetware.org/wiki/IGEM_Outreach:DNA_Necklaces

A presentation on introductory synthetic biology and its applications was presented to children ages 5-12 at the local Ithaca Science Center. The presentation included elementary explanation of the central dogma of biology, recombinant DNA technology, cloning techniques, biobricks and iGEM and a brief list of possible synthetic biology applications.

In addition to informative presentations, hands on activities were provided to explain genetic diversity and DNA isolation. In the Build-A-Bug activity children flipped coins to determine the genotype and later phenotypes of different body parts. Through this activity, children learn about basic ideas of dominance and recessive genes. In the DNA Necklace activity, children learned how to isolate DNA from wheat germ. Extracted DNA were placed into eppendorf tubes for children to keep.