Monday

Today started off with a talk discussing Science and Religion. We are a small, private, Christian institution, and as such feel that we have a unique opportunity to talk about synthetic biology and bioengineering with those who may at first think that it is not Science and Religion, but Science versus Religion. Mr. Nickels, who has a background in Christian education and public education was able to share a unique perspective of how we, as scientists, can still be both strong in faith and in science. This was the perfect way to set the tone for the rest of our summer camp as we deal with basic biology but also some controversial topics.
We then delved into science, first with the Central Dogma of Biology. This was no ordinary lecture... there was candy! Students were able to learn about the structure of DNA and how it becomes RNA with licorice and marshmallows. Next, we used our Oreo “tRNA’s” to transform RNA into amino acids, coding for proteins. It was a great and tasty time had by all!
After lunch was lab time. We gloved up to learn how to pipette and put those new skills to use by making a liquid culture and mini prep. Students were able to culture their own bacteria and learned the important conditions necessary for doing so. We then took bacteria and isolated their DNA by performing a “mini prep”. Lastly, we discussed what iGEM is all about: teamwork and excitement for science. We introduced the project for the week: review a past iGEM project and make a presentation to present to the rest of the camp students so they can understand it too! We mapped out all of the components of a tip top iGEM project: a website, consideration of policy and practices, and of course, the science! Groups decided their interests right away and selected a past team’s work to review for the week.

Tuesday

Today was a busy day! We began with some review of proteins and chemical bonding. Then it was off to the Milwaukee School of Engineering Biomolecular Modeling lab. Gina first shared the principles of water with magnetic models so the students could feel the difference between hydrogen, ionic, and covalent bonding. We then progressed to building a peptide bond and understanding what composes the "NCC" backbone. Before we knew it, we built a long polypeptide chain! Once we understood the primary structure, we worked on forming the correct side chain interactions: hydrophobic in, hydrophilic out! Then it was story time. We got to see the large 3-D printers that they use to model and hold a GFP model. It helped us to understand RFP, which we used in the lab yesterday with our glowing red bacteria! The small scale science that we are performing in the lab this week really came to life.
Back at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Dr. Werner walked us through the basics of genetic engineering before we delved into the lab once again. It was the student's turn to make bacteria glow red, and we used the plasmids they had isolated on Monday in the mini prep to do so. We will see how this fared tomorrow! Lastly, students were hard at work on their group projects to make a presentation to share past iGEM projects with each other.

Wednesday

We made it to the middle of the week. Now that we had our feet on the ground, we began the day discussing viruses and medical microbes. Students learned the difference between viruses, bacteria, and how these organisms can wreak havoc on our bodies. We reviewed articles found on the internet and discussed their strengths and weaknesses. Being knowledgeable about reading scientific literature is important! In lab, we saw that our transformations from yesterday to make bacteria red were successful! Then Dr. Henkel lead us on an investigation as we learned how we detect these organisms with differential media. Students sampled various places: the bathroom floor, their armpits, and anything else that they wished to swab to determine what type of bacteria was growing. Tomorrow, we will see what types of organisms are lurking in places that we touch every day. Students continued working on their group projects and began to craft their presentations.

Thursday

The week is flying by! Now that we knew about viruses, bacteria, and their medical implications, we were ready to learn about biosafety and biowarfare. Dr. Henkel shared his experiences and expertise in dangerous organisms. We then discussed how we can fight these organisms with antibiotics. However, camp instructors did not miss a beat to discuss antibiotic resistance and the implications of this. After lunch, we learned how to make thousands of copies of DNA using the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. Then we learned how to specifically cut DNA with a restriction digest reaction. Plus, the results from yesterday were in! We saw beautiful bacteria on our plates and were able to identify what we grew! Looks like railings make a great home for bacteria! As it was the last day to work on presentations, students were then able to practice with the projectors to prepare for tomorrow. Tomorrow is show time!

Friday

Today was the busiest of our days yet! The morning was spent polishing presentations and playing a game of jeopardy reviewing the week’s topics. We enjoyed lots of laughs and learning some things that we may have forgotten! In lab, Matt showed us how to run a “gel electrophoresis” in which we were able to separate DNA and confirm that our previous week’s experiments were successful. Next, we took some strains of bacteria and stained microscope slides in order to visualize the tiny buggers. It was exciting to see our tiny friends that we had been working with all week! After this, Sierra spoke to the students about how we are able to genetically engineer organisms like yeast, rats, and even our own cells. Students got to view HeLa cells, the immortal cell line that originated from the cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks. It was incredible to see human cells! Summer campers had some free time to explore different human tissue samples with the light microscope as well as learn how we make slides to see the incredible structures of these tissues. After this it was finally time for presentations! Instructors were impressed as students spoke about past iGEM projects and explained their results. They shared their own creative ideas about how to spread the awesome knowledge of bioengineering. We finished up the camp with a grill out and said our last goodbyes. It was truly an awesome week, filled with learning, fun, and biology.