Educational Events

PRO Days

PRO is a one-day preview, registration, and orientation program designed for first year students about to enter Missouri S&T. One of the activities for students and parents is an organization fair to familiarize the students with extracurricular opportunities on campus. For the PRO organization fair, our iGEM team created a poster explaining the different aspects of iGEM as a whole and our team. We also created and handed out recruitment brochures explaining in detail why it is so awesome to be a part of iGEM. We attended every spring PRO day and talked to students and parents about why we think synthetic biology is so important and how synthetic biology research can be applied across many disciplines. This not only served as a great recruitment tool for our team, but also helped spread the word about this exciting research.

In-Class Informationals

Our iGEM team collaborated with faculty members in the Biology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Psychology Departments to give guest presentations in classes, seminars, and meetings. These presentations covered the basics of what synthetic biology and iGEM are all about. We talked about how standard parts work, using legos as an analogy, and the breadth of applications of iGEM projects. We also gave a run-down on some of our team's past research and why being a part of an iGEM team is a great experience, from late nights in the lab to having fun and learning at the Jamboree.

Exploring Synthetic Biology Activities

In April 2011, our iGEM team went to the local high school and presented to their Science Olympiad team about synthetic biology and iGEM. We did an Exploring Synthetic Biology activity with the students and advisors of the Science Olympiad team. The activity explained how different systems could be put together using different parts, and how using different parts yields systems with different functions. The activity also demonstrated the concept of using standardized parts for easy biobrick assembly. Both students and advisors seemed very interested. We were happy to find that both groups learned a lot from our presentation and activity.

Our team also performed the Exploring Synthetic Biology activity with a high school leadership group that was visiting campus. After the event, several of the students expressed interest in participating in iGEM or synthetic biology research in the future.