Nearly every hour of every day, synthetic biology is being conducted somewhere on planet Earth. The mix of research, manufacturing, and education never rests, and BioBuilder is part of the action! Let’s take a peek at a few of these student works in progress.
Oregon Episcopal School, Oregon
In the summer of 2022, teacher Bettina Gregg completed the BioBuilder teacher professional development training. When the new school year began in the fall, she brought her excitement and knowledge to her students, and they jumped into BioBuilder’s Idea Accelerator program.
The students designed some really innovative synbio projects: plastic pollution-digesting microbes, radiation-shielding fungi, carbon fiber-generating microbes, and more. They got to present their work in the Idea Accelerator Showcase, but it didn’t end there! The students formed four BioBuilderClub teams and are continuing to develop their projects. We can’t wait to see the results!
Oak Park & River Forest High School, Illinois
Teacher Matt Kirkpatrick is leading three BioBuilderClub teams this year, and he uses a unique approach to help students brainstorm ideas for their synbio projects. Matt and his students have been attending the Idea Accelerator Showcase events and iGEM team presentations to see what other students have been doing. They were even able to ask questions of the Grand Prize winning Lambert High School iGEM team – and we know how important question asking is in science! The teams also piloted a new kit from Arbor BioScience, and even tested a variation or two of their own. Sounds like the start of a great BioTreks article to us!
Tyngsborough High School, Massachusetts
Rebekah Ravgiala, longtime BioBuilder teacher and Board member, has a BioBuilderClub team that is continuing work on a project they designed in a previous season. The team is now building and testing their design, and telling the School Committee all about it!
This ambitious team is so excited about continuing their synbio projects that they have been fundraising for additional supplies by making and selling dog treats affectionately known as BioBiscuits! Now that’s ingenious!
Acton-Boxborough High School, Massachusetts
BioBuilderClub teams are also sharing the synbio buzz with others. Teacher Aaron Mathieu uses the BioBuilder Golden Bread and Guiding Light lab kits in his classes. His BioBuilderClub team took it even further by turning those experiments into activities they call “would you eat this” and “let it glow” for Back to School nights for parents and students. Now that’s real hands-on outreach!
BioTreks 2022 is now available!
Craving more student synbio? Check out the 2022 issue of BioTreks journal. This year’s 16 selected articles include 14 from BioBuilderClubs!
Device Dude
That’s right, on November 1st, BioBuilder officially entered its “tweens!” We’re celebrating 11 years of inspiring students to learn and love life science, and we’re happy to have you with us!
We had a party (of course), and it was fun to reminisce about the early years and celebrate where we are now. Even more exciting is where we’re heading:
We’re committed to making our innovative programming even more publicly accessible, and to reaching new regions of the country and the world with the opportunities that a BioBuilder education helps to provide.
Check out our birthday celebration page and get a look at some of the BioBuilder team when they were 11 years old. Can you guess who this is?
