Outreach

On Friday the 11th September the team held a Synthetic Biology Outreach Event in the Department of Plant Sciences, Cambridge. The event was aimed at sixth form students with the hope that it may encourage the students to pursue their interests in STEM and also highlight a possible area of study to which they may not have considered. Students from two schools attended the event: Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge and The Judd, Tonbridge. The day was split into 3 sessions: a presentation introducing synthetic biology, a workshop on programming with Arduinos and a workshop on microscopy.

The full timetable for the day can be found here.

Objectives of the Day

• To be introduced to what synthetic biology is and its applications.

• To see how microscopy can be a useful tool in the field of synthetic biology.

• To gain hands on experience building and programming open source hardware.

• To gain experience of the different ways in which microscopy can be used.

Presentation

An introduction on what synthetic biology is and its real world applications was given in a short presentation. The iGEM competition was emphasised as a way in which undergraduates and even high school students can get involved in synthetic biology projects, while advancing the field through international collaboration and increasing public awareness. The knowledge the team had gained during the project was shared by focusing on the use of fluorescence microscopy as a tool for quantitative measurement in synthetic biology.

The presentation can be viewed here.

Microscopy Workshop

For students thinking of doing scientific courses at university, experience in the practical aspect of science is extremely important. It forms a much more significant part of university courses than a typical school syllabus.

The students got hands on experience using 4 different types of microscope:

Brightfield microscopy (Nikon Labophot microscopes)
Since many of the students had used these microscopes before it allowed them to revise basic techniques while imaging some interesting new samples. The students could make their own slides with animal cells (cheek cells) and plant cells (Marchantia). There were also some pre-prepared samples that they could compare. Dr Tim Weil, Department of Zoology, Cambridge kindly provided various Drosophila samples to image. This was definitely a favourite part for the students. They were able to prepare live larvae samples and watch their peristaltic movement under the microscope. They were also able to dissect the flies, in order to look at their separate body parts, such as the compound eyes and wings. This was a fantastic opportunity to introduce them to a model organism, widely used in the biological field.

Fluorescence microscopy (Nikon Eclipse 50i with Arc Lamp)
With school budgets unlikely to stretch to the cost of a fluorescent microscope none of students had used one before. In order to demonstrate the microscope’s capabilities samples of Drosophila ovaries where imaged with green, blue and red fluorescence labels. The different sizes (and fluorescent intensities) of the nuclei of the nurse cells and the follicle cells (fig. 3) were based on transcriptional activity. Different labeling techniques, namely GFP fusion constructs, fluorescent dyes and cytoskeletal drugs were discussed. For us, it was brilliant to be able to talk to the students about things that we had only learned in our undergraduate course.

Petrographic microscopy
The Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge were able to provide a Petrographic microscope and some thin sections of rock for sampling at the workshop. This special microscope is used to look at crystals and minerals. It contains two polarising filters, placed at 90° to each other, so no light can pass through. However, when a rock sample is placed between these filters, the crystals within the rock can change the polarisation of the light, allowing some light to pass through the second polariser. A lot of crystals have different refractive indices in different planes and this brings about an interesting property called “birefringence”. The students were able to see beautiful examples of this and gain information of the rock's history – from volcanic eruptions to the deep ocean.

OpenScope
The students got the chance to preview the team’s microscope working in brightfield and try out the new Webshell, which gives a live stream from the microscope and allows motorized control. The students were very interested in the 3D printer. It was discussed how low cost, open-source versions such as RepRap that might be appropriate for a school laboratory.

Arduino Workshop

This workshop offered the students an introduction to programming using little microprocessors, called Arduinos. A short presentation on the basics of programming, how to do it and the logic behind it, was followed by a set of 4 increasingly difficult exercises. The students were expected to wire up and code parts of the Arduinos themselves. The students also had the chance to explore the uses of the Arduinos by playing with the extra parts that come in the sets. One pair made a working motor, onto which they attached a wooden wheel. They then rubbed the graphite from a pencil around the edges and used this as an art tool to do some creative drawings.

Having a basic knowledge of programming is becoming an essential tool in scientific lab research. Being able to program and control microprocessors such as Arduinos can significantly reduce human input into experiments and allow for mundane tasks to be carried out automatically and consistently. The students were not aware of the kind of automation possible with these kind of microprocessor and it was rewarding to see them come up with ways that they could see them being used.

We have made the teaching resources available online, too:

• Programming the Arduino [exercise]

Feedback

The students found the Arduino exercises particularly fun, asking where they could buy their own and saying they'd suggest to their teachers they get some for teaching purposes. The overall feedback from the microscopy workshop was similarly positive. They loved the live samples in particular, and were able to get some great photos using our microscope-mobile phone adapter. On our side, we were happy to answer any questions they had about our project, the workshops and university in general.

The Graduate Session

A last minute drop out from one of the schools attending the event meant that a second programming with Arduinos session was opened up to graduates from the Life Sciences Departments. The workshop was run the same as with the sixth form students.

Future Considerations

Although the workshop was only for one day we hoped that it would inspire the students and they could take something away from the day. To continue the outreach outside of the event:

• We have provided all students who attended the event a detailed set of lecture notes on basic programming, a programming cheat sheet and a booklet on getting started with Arduinos.

• We plan to take the presentation and Arduino workshop to Long Road Sixth Form to give to all the science students. The teacher was very keen for this, stating that what we were introducing is not covered in the curriculum, but would be extremely useful to the students.

• All the resources that we made are available on the wiki and easily replicable so that anyone is free to use them to hold their own event.