Team:CIDEB-UANL Mexico/HumanPractices/JuniorHS

Today we rehearsed the Power point Presentation we made to expose the topic of synthetic biology. We tried to imagine that our companions were the students we are going to transmit our knowledgements .

Today was the first Human Practices action day in 2 junior highs. Cecy, Yves and I, Estefania Oliva assisted to the previous appointments we had with Junior High #37 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, located in the city of Escobedo, Nuevo León and Junior High #7 located in the city of San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León. In the Junior high #7 the group we talked to was about 70 people, formed by the union of 2 classes of 9th grade. The information was only given theoretically and I think it affected the fact and rate of interest, even though they demonstrated curiosity and some of them were really awsomed, the majority of them was very excited for going out to their break. They showed a sort of knowledge about the risks of being in a laboratory and how you can avoid them.

In Junior High #37 the group was about 65 people and different from the previous one, here we elaborated the banana DNA extraction, and the students were extremely amazed and they were much more relaxed and happy. They were coming back from their recess so, I think that was a very influential factor. The stdents showed a very good comprehension of the topic, they understood what a gene and DNA is and learned how to explain them. A professor was so excited that he took us a lot of pictures and a complete video of our visit. They asked us to come back and talk to the rest of the groups, but first we have to go and comply with other junior highs that asked us to go.

We atended to Junior High #30 Profesor Rogelio de León Garza, located in San Nicolas city and the stdents at the beginning of the practice were a little bouncy and very excited about the practice we made, that was the same of banana DNA extraction but most of the 4 groups showed a lot of attention and even though they were a lot of students it was a very good time. We talked about some movies where the synthetic biology was present and how they could apply it, and that mutations and stuff like that were myths.

Marcela, Gisela, Yves and I went to a school located in the city of Guadalupe, Nuevo León, named Instituto San Diego, and in this visit we talked to a smaller group of about 28 students. They all were very participative and showed a little bit of more knowledge than the other schools we have visited. During the practice of the banana DNA extraction they saw how we applied the instructions of security and safety in lab wearing the Lab coat, gloves, the hair fastened and taking care of not being wearing any jewelry. We also worked in team, Marcela and I showed a great team support and we emphasize it for they to know that a team work in Lab and in life is a very important tool. We explained them how a cell worked and the basic concepts of synthetic biology, plus a variety of great examples that they could easily identify.
After the practice some of the students came to me and started to ask me about iGEM and how they could participate, I explained them a little bit of the contest and they mentioned their interest for being in the CIDEB team.
At the end they said us good bye with loud applause.