Team:WashU/YLC

YLC Outreach

Washington University in Saint Louis has a history of volunteer activities at The Youth Learning Center (YLC) in the Central West End in Saint Louis. Many WashU students function as volunteer mentors, tutors, or assistants at the YLC. This year's WashU iGEM team will be traveling to the YLC to give a demonstration, lesson, experiment, and survey to a group of 6th through 8th graders.

We will begin with a survey to gain preliminary knowledge of the kids' general understanding of genetic engineering, its pros and cons, and their interest in the study of the sciences.

The Lesson

We will give a PowerPoint presentation (LINK HERE) complete with videos and useful information to keep the children engaged while providing them with an understanding of concepts about DNA and basic genetic engineering. A Prezi containing most of the powerpoint to be shown can be found below.

In the lesson, we hope to enhance the knowledge of the children by exposing them to topics that are not found in the normal 6th to 8th grade curriculum. We will first give a brief introduction into the cell and DNA to set up for a talk about what genetic engineering is. We want to discuss biology in a pleasant and active environment with fun, interesting facts and interactive questions along the way as we introduce topics. We will talk about how DNA holds a code for the formation of proteins that do the jobs of the cell, how the DNA in humans is very similar to many other organisms' DNA and the universal codon code, and ask questions along the way.

We will then cover case studies of genetic engineering research to shed realistic light on the apparent unlimited potential of genetic engineering. Our cases will include: biofuels, frangranes, insulin production, and GMO crops. After viewing the cases, we will have groups of students brainstorm in a poster board activity in which they will invent genetically engineered creations that can be as fantastical as the Mockingjay in The Hunger Games.

After the YLC students present their brainstorming ideas, we will give a brief demonstration of our project in Synechocystis and E. coli that we chose after we brainstormed ourselves and decided a project to work on. Further details about our Synechocystis project can be found under the Saffron project labels above. We will give the reasons why we believe developing a biosynthetic route for forming Saffron and allow the students to guess at the price a pound of Saffron can currently fetch. Next, we will show what we are doing to make that goal realized and show what results we have at the time of the demonstration.

After sitting through a little lesson, we will do an experiment with the students to give them a hands-on activity. Before arrival the students parents completed a waiver to allow for an experiment with potentially harmful materials. We will provide each student with 4 vials each containing a different fluorescent protein: green (GFP), yellow (YFP), red (RFP), and cyan (CFP). These colors are the constructs that we biobricked together in our experiment phase of this project. Each student will be provided gloves and two LB-amp plates to draw a design as well as applicators to transfer the cells. We will stand by with spill kits to clean up any messes to keep the area clean. After the project, we will update this page to include the drawings of some of the students. Upon plating their own plates, we will collect the plates to bring back to our incubator for two nights.

When we return two days later, we will show the students their plates under UV in a dark box with UV glasses to minimize exposure to any damaging UV. We will also photograph each of the plates to give the students since it would not be permissible to allow the students to return home with recombinant E. coli. We will allow any students who wish to present their plates to the group the time to show all present.

Before leaving we will answer any questions the students have about genetic engineering and the sciences and ask the students to complete a survey on their interest levels in pursuing a career in the biological sciences or engineering and to gage interest in our demonstration and ask for constructive criticism. The results will be used only in our group and not posted publicly to ensure the privacy of the students who participated.

We would like to thank the Youth Learning Center in the Central West End in St. Louis for their commitment to "the youth from underserved communities to inspire lifelong learning, social responsibility, and moral leadership" as they state on their website. We would like to also thank them for their generosity in allowing us to enter their community to give our genetic engineering demonstration.

The Experiment

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