"
Team:Carnegie Mellon/SynBio
From 2014.igem.org
| Line 102: | Line 102: | ||
<center><font size= "5" color= "FFBF00"><b>DNA Hybridization Kit</b></font></center> | <center><font size= "5" color= "FFBF00"><b>DNA Hybridization Kit</b></font></center> | ||
| - | < | + | <hr> |
<p align="justify">Taylor Canady, a chemistry doctoral student, created a DNA modeling kit in conjunction with Genoa Warner, which was quite successful with students and teachers around Pittsburgh. The iGEM team was approached to physically assemble the kits and provide instructions to accompany them when they are implemented in classrooms. The outreach duo wrote and created 12 different small flip-card sets that have four categories and three levels of difficulties for the teachers to use with the children as they see fit!</p> | <p align="justify">Taylor Canady, a chemistry doctoral student, created a DNA modeling kit in conjunction with Genoa Warner, which was quite successful with students and teachers around Pittsburgh. The iGEM team was approached to physically assemble the kits and provide instructions to accompany them when they are implemented in classrooms. The outreach duo wrote and created 12 different small flip-card sets that have four categories and three levels of difficulties for the teachers to use with the children as they see fit!</p> | ||
| Line 113: | Line 113: | ||
<center><font size= "5" color= "FFBF00"><b>Strawberry DNA Extraction</b></font></center> | <center><font size= "5" color= "FFBF00"><b>Strawberry DNA Extraction</b></font></center> | ||
| - | < | + | <hr> |
<p align="justify">While a strawberry DNA extraction is a typical classroom experiment for a beginner biology or lower-level science class, the iGEM team improved it to 1) streamline the timing of the experiment, and 2) reduce the mess-level that usually accompanies the filtration step of the experiment. We managed to get a messy 45-minute experiment to a mess-free 10-minute lab (in large classroom settings) using a syringe and cotton-ball. One surprising result was the abundant “purer” DNA yields due to the improved filtering method!</p> | <p align="justify">While a strawberry DNA extraction is a typical classroom experiment for a beginner biology or lower-level science class, the iGEM team improved it to 1) streamline the timing of the experiment, and 2) reduce the mess-level that usually accompanies the filtration step of the experiment. We managed to get a messy 45-minute experiment to a mess-free 10-minute lab (in large classroom settings) using a syringe and cotton-ball. One surprising result was the abundant “purer” DNA yields due to the improved filtering method!</p> | ||
Revision as of 02:01, 13 October 2014
With the aid of DNAZone, the educational outreach center of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology (CNAST), the iGEM team aided in the development of four kits/labs for students and teachers to use in a classroom setting. These kits were taken out into the community and classrooms to be beta tested for final production occurring in January. They were also shipped out to different points around the United States and to an orphanage in Bolivia for further testing.
Taylor Canady, a chemistry doctoral student, created a DNA modeling kit in conjunction with Genoa Warner, which was quite successful with students and teachers around Pittsburgh. The iGEM team was approached to physically assemble the kits and provide instructions to accompany them when they are implemented in classrooms. The outreach duo wrote and created 12 different small flip-card sets that have four categories and three levels of difficulties for the teachers to use with the children as they see fit!
Future Impact: Taylor’s DNA Hybridization Kit has already won the 2014 Carnegie Science Award and been at the hands of 132 kids and teens. For Taylor, the moon-shot goal is create a larger-scale operation with a broader distribution of the kits to go across America, possibly accompanying science textbooks as a supplemental kit for teachers, but his mind is open to whatever falls his way. With the instructions from the CMU iGEM team, DNAZone will distribute these kits to any classroom in Pittsburgh, PA that wishes to borrow them for educational purposes.
- Workshops, events, professional development, classroom visits: 125 students
- Franklin Camp: 7 students from across Pennsylvania; (12-18 years old)
While a strawberry DNA extraction is a typical classroom experiment for a beginner biology or lower-level science class, the iGEM team improved it to 1) streamline the timing of the experiment, and 2) reduce the mess-level that usually accompanies the filtration step of the experiment. We managed to get a messy 45-minute experiment to a mess-free 10-minute lab (in large classroom settings) using a syringe and cotton-ball. One surprising result was the abundant “purer” DNA yields due to the improved filtering method!
Future Impact: The iGEM-improved version of the strawberry DNA extraction has already reached multiple classrooms and science festivals for beta testing and will continue to do so thanks to DNAZone offering it as a kit for teachers to borrow. Under the guidance of the CMU iGEM team, 284 kids and teens performed this experiment, and 370 more are scheduled to by January 2015 (by us before official association with DNAZone). A Spanish version (translated by a CMU iGEMer) using local fruits in Bolivia is being implemented by a contact working at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International orphanage and with this: SynBio Educational Series has gone international!
- Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day: 25 students from Pittsburgh; (12-15 years old)
- Environmental Charter School Classroom Visit: 60 students from Pittsburgh; (12-13 years old)
- Franklin Camp: 7 students from across Pennsylvania; (12-18 years old)
- Mellon Scavenger Hunt: 52 students from across the United States; (17-18 years old)
- YCC Chemistry Carnival Booth: 50 kids and adults visited CMU iGEM Booth from across Pennsylvania; (5-22 years old)
- Scheduled: October 17th 2014, Fall Festival Booth for the Montgomery iGEM Team in Montgomery, NJ with ~50 kids at booth (~200 in event attendance)
- Scheduled: October 25th 2014, Bolivia ~40 kids from Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International orphanage; no demographic information due to the kids being wards of the country
- Scheduled: December 17th 2014, ~370 students from Miami, FL; (12-13 years old at Lamar Louise Curry Middle School)
