The Big Birkbeck House
Notebook
Week 1 in the Big Birkbeck House
During our first week on the project, the OwligO team was invited to take part in a training week kindly organised by UCL. This involved all training aspects of the project from Lab work to writing this wiki page! The weeks training also involved members of the OwligO team travelling to the London BioHackspace and being given training on DIYBiology. From each of the teams, people were divided into 3 groups to take part in three workshops.
The lab training involved the cloning of rfp into pXXXXXXX using the rfc10 biobrick assembly protocol. There were 3 promoters cloned from pX, pY & pZ. Each construct would have been used for the interlab study.
In the group doing the DIY biology constructed a spectrophotometer using a LED light source and 3D printing. These workshops were all carried out at the London BioHackspace community lab.
The "software" group had workshops in modelling, coding & wiki design.
And at the end of a hard weeks iGEM training, wine, beer & nibbles were kindly provided :)
Week 2 in the Big Birkbeck House
The Science Busk
On Wednesday 24th June the Birkbeck 2015 iGEM team visited Canonbury Primary School in order to carry out a “scientific” busk. The Birkeck team and other current students/graduates of Birkbeck College presented on a wide variety of scientific topics.
There were 3 talks;
1. The importance of cleanliness and application of microbes in industry.
a. Kids took part in an activity using glitter to illustrate the epidemiology of bacteria being passed in a population through contact. Clapping & shouting was involved in this activity which the kids animatedly took part in.
b. It was also explained that not all microbes are bad & that in fact some are actually used in the production of food.
2. Imaging, Geology & Planetary Science.
a. Kids interacted enthusiastically with an activity involving piecing together an image of a planet.
b. Real geological samples were on display, with a Birkbeck Geology graduate describing the fossil & rock samples on show.
3. Genetic Inheritance, DNA Structure & DNA function.
a. The use of coloured beans (to represent genes) and paper flowers (to represent the phenotype) was used in an activity to show the nature of inheritance.
b. Kids took part in formin a human DNA double helix.
c. Kids took the role of detectives in the “Break the Code” DNA game. Paper models of a DNA with a secret code was used to illustrate the different functions of DNA based on the sequence and reinforce the structure of DNA.
Along with teaching the kids a little science (although the level of understanding & knowledge the kids had was grossly under estimated) an important message was conveyed by each group. “What actually interested each individual in science?”, was used to try to inspire the kids into perhaps studying science at degree level. Many people presenting were from all walks of life, ages and reasons for being enthusiastic about their specialized subject area.
Lab Training
On Thursday 25th of June, the OwligOs were inducted into Lab303/307 at the main building at Birkbeck College (Mallet Street). The induction involved training with lab equipment (such as centrifuges, pH meter, plate readers & PCR machines), the disposal of waste materials, procedures to follow in emergencies, staff members to contact for particular problems & location of consumables (including logging consumable usage).
Week 3 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 4 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 5 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 6 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 7 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 8 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 9 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Week 10 in the Big Birkbeck House
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Document the dates you worked on your project.
What should this page have?
- Chronological notes of what your team is doing.
- Brief descriptions of daily important events.
- Pictures of your progress.
- Mention who participated in what task.
Inspiration
You can see what others teams have done to organize their notes:
