Team:Penn/Outreach

Outreach

Our team focused on using our iGEM experience and knowledge of synthetic biology to raise awareness about the promise, challenges, and ethical concerns in the field today. From DNA extraction at a science carnival to teaching Penn students about the field, we made conscious efforts to expand public knowledge about synthetic biology. We feel that our efforts were well received.

SEA Science Carnival

In order to get in touch with our local West Philadelphia community, our team volunteered to present our project at the Science Education Academy carnival. Team members presented our project and we showed young interested students rudimentary alcohol DNA extraction from a banana and check cells. After listening to an explanation on DNA and our project, students wre allowed to keep the DNA for themselves.

Biotechnology Preceptorial

We took advantage of a one session, two hour, non-credit bearing class Penn offers to teach interested Penn students the basics of lab techniques in synthetic biology and biotechnology. Apart from teaching techniques like gel electrophoresis and the basics of molecular cloning, we introduced students to the concept of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition.

Bioengineering 100 Guest Lecture

While we shared our projects with West Philadelphia students and high school students from all over the United States, our team thought it would be interesting to introduce synthetic biology to Penn bioengineers. We delivered a one and half hour lecture on the motivations behind synthetic biology in a freshman Intro to Bioengineering class. The majority of the class was interested in our discussion and we even had members of the class propose iGEM project ideas. We felt that our efforts were well received and that the freshman bioengineers received a good exposure to Synthetic Biology

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