Requirements

From 2012hs.igem.org

Each team needs to complete multiple items for the competition. Synthetic biology is a controversial topic and the ethical component must be taken into consideration. Listed below are different divisions that your team can focus on during the building of your machine. These division should be shown on the wiki, poster, and during the teams presentation.

Machine:

The most important part of the competition is the machine. Your team will go through the engineering process to design your machine. Part of the engineering process is the purpose. Your team will need to describe the purpose of your machine and clearly inform the judges in your presentation and wiki.

WetLab:

The wetlab is the section that most of the students love but then find out what a tedious process it really is. Make sure that you keep it exciting for your students. If that means you watch movies while your thermocycler is going or your students are multi-tasking, it is important that as a team leader you keep it exciting for them. Standardization, characterization, and computations. Once your machine works, how do you know it works? What are the standards you will use to compare your results? Do you have to create those standards to show performance? How do you know the dna is the required dna? Can you model your plasmid’s performance before you actually build? These are question that every team will face and will hopefully get through during their project. Make sure that your team looks at how to prove your machine actually works.

Safety:

Each team will need to look at safety in the lab and with your machine. What would happen if your machine is released into the environment? Will your machine cause harm to the environment or life? What precautions will your team take to contain the machine? Will your machine have a stop switch or only work with certain chemicals? What safety standards are you taking in the lab to protect students and the machine?

Human Practices:

What does the community know about genetic engineering? In today’s environment there is confusion and misunderstanding when it comes to GMO’s. What will your team do to help educate the public about synthetic biology? Will your team talk to the community? Will your team work with children to show genetic engineering? What about the ethics of genetic engineering? Could your team do a debate about the ethics behind genetic engineering? The human practices portion of iGEM should be fun and exciting for the team members. Be creative!