Team:GreenfieldCentral IN/Human Practices

From 2012hs.igem.org

Human Practices

So far, we have presented to the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce, and educated them on the positive impacts of iGEM and synthetic biology on students, the economy, and the world. There were over 100 Greenfield businesses there that heard our presentation, and many of them did not know what synthetic biology was before we presented. Many were interested in synthetic biology afterwards, and asked us many questions about how they might help our team.

We have also presented to the Greenfield Kiwanis Club and gave a similar presentation about the effects of synthetic biology, and informed them on the positives of synthetic biology. Many of the Kiwanis members had not heard of synthetic biology, and they were very interested to learn about what we do. In this presentation, we also asked for funds to support our lab work and purchase safety materials. One of the members is part of the family that owns Draper Shades in Spiceland, and they graciously donated 2,000 dollars to our iGEM team, and we can not wait to buy our new lab coats and team shirts.

We then did an activity with the 5th graders at the Greenfield Intermediate School that taught them about engineering and how it is an option for them as a career. We showed them how we create plasmids and put them into a cell, and taught them how DNA replication works. The students learned about DNA, restriction enzymes, promoters, translational units, selective markers, and how we transform the DNA into a cell. Many of them were very excited about the project, and later said to their teachers that they wanted to be biologists when they grow up.

Lastly, we presented to the Greenfield-Central School Board about iGEM and what we do. We actually had them do the same activity as the 5th graders, but went more in-depth. There were very surprised at how much we knew, and were very supportive of the work that we are doing. One of the members commented that we were learning things that he hadn't learned until medical school. The school board now knows what iGEM is, and will be much more supportive of our activities in the future.