Our team was involved in two local outreach activities, involving the ETSU Governor's School and the High School STEM Camp hosted by ETSU's Department of Biological Sciences
Governor's School
Our iGEM team gave a presentation to high school students participating in the Governor’s School in the Integration of Biological and Statistical Sciences at East Tennessee State University. We discussed the effects of hidden hunger stemming from micronutrient deficiencies and explained how golden rice is made and its impact on society. We also introduced iGEM and encouraged the students to brainstorm creative projects of their own.
The high school students learned about how science can be applied to make the world a better place. They had the opportunity to think of creative projects and discuss those ideas with people that have the technical knowledge to explain what it would take to make their ideas a reality. Our iGEM team reflected on how we would execute those ideas. It was an incredible event that promoted thought and collaboration between the students and our team.
High School STEM Camp
East Tennessee State University’s iGEM team gave a talk at the High School STEM Camp hosted by East Tennessee State University’s Department of Biological Sciences. The STEM camp was for incoming 9th through 12th graders, to which we had the opportunity to present to and interact with. The talk featured the Design-Learn-Build-Test model, and elaborated on the core details and premise of the iGEM Competition. It also captivated what goes into an iGEM team and the disciplines iGEM can bring together. It featured an opportunity to introduce our project for this year, tackling a real-world problem and featuring humanitarian applications. We elaborated on how the students could go about starting their own iGEM teams at their schools and shared inductive anecdotes of our experience as a first-year iGEM team.
Our team then demonstrated and allowed the students to use lock syringes to perform a practice agroinfiltration by injecting water into Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) plants. Offering guidance where necessary, each student successfully injected their plant and experienced a hands-on opportunity to interact with a common agrobacterium infiltration method, corresponding to the medium we are working with in our own project. ETSU’s iGEM team had the opportunity to teach the students, as well as for the students to teach us how to be better instructors and science communicators.
