Team:UCSF/ALHS Project1

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Human Practices: Lincoln High School Outreach

A common misunderstanding held by proponents of organic food, is that once genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are incorporated into our food supply, they will become undetectable, and cannot be differentiated from other foods. To educate their peers, students in the Biotechnology Academy at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco offered to teach their fellow students in the school’s ecological Green Academy how to test for, and recognize, genetically modified food ingredients. Additionally, we taught our peers about some of the beneficial real-world applications of GMOs.

Our educational program included a pre-learning survey, direct instruction by our biotechnology teacher, George Cachianes, and a series of three lab exercises in which the iGEM/biotech students taught the Green Academy students how to recognize genetically modified foods using common biotech lab techniques. Afterwards, a post learning survey assessed the knowledge of the Green Academy students to see if their attitude and knowledge about GMOs had shifted.
A pre-lab survey measured the Green Academy students'knowledge of, and attitudes toward, genetically modified food. Before the lectures and lab activities, the majority of the student had heard of genetically modified food crops (77.8%) and could identify corn as a crop likely to be genetically modified (66.6%). 85.2% of the students felt that GMOs should be labeled. About half of the students (48.1%) said they would avoid eating GMOs (66.7%) and would pay extra to avoid them (18.5%). After the unit, one student said he learned “that a lot of what we eat is genetically modified”. Another echoed that statement, “I learned that a lot of the food we eat are made from GMOs,” and went on to explain, “I also learned that we can check if they contain GMOs by a process that we learned in this biotech class.”

In search of two genes

In order to find out if GMOs were present in common, every-day foods, such as tortilla chips and papaya, we tested these common foods for the presence of two genes: CaMV35S, which codes for a promoter, and NOS, which codes for a terminator. We specifically looked for the presence of promoter and terminator genes instead of the actual functional genes themselves because the functional gene may vary from organism to organism, depending on what qualities of the organism are being altered. In order to determine which of our samples were GMOs and which were not, we used some very common lab techniques including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which amplifies a certain piece of DNA.
Download this presentation on our Materials Page !
The goal of our exhibit was to provide relatable information about the general techniques scientists use every day in the laboratory. We presented brief “elevator talks,” broken down into two topics to more clearly present the information to the public. The first talk explained the Central Dogma of Biology, where DNA is transcribed into mRNA, and mRNA translated into protein. The second elevator talk was about the execution of transformation in molecular biology and the basic experimental concepts, while also giving real life examples of how it is used as an application. In addition to our presentations, we gave away synthetic biology informational bookmarks and scientific temporary tattoos, and brought culture plates with E. coli transformed with GFP and RFP for visual demonstration of transformations in cells.
The UCSF iGEM team interacts with patrons at the Exploratorium: After Dark event

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