Team:Gaston Day School/Implementation

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Implementation of the Risk Assessment

Bacteria are some of the most widely researched and easily made genetically engineered organisms. With laboratories all over the world working with these bacteria, there could be potential risks if they are released into the environment. The risk would come from horizontal gene transfer conducted by bacteriophages between the genetically engineered bacteria and wild bacteria. Our project assesses said risks depending upon where the research is being conducted.

Our proposed implementation is a process for assessing the risk due to gene transfer. It is known that horizontal gene transfer can occur between bacteriophages and bacteria. We have proven that genetically engineered material can transfer between bacteria with bacteriophages. We used a non-wild bacteriophage that could infect E. coli and found that the genetic material causing red fluorescence transferred between the bacteria the T4 bacteriophage infected. If horizontal gene transfer happened with released genetically engineered organisms, the altered genetic material would spread to wild bacteria which could be detrimental to the environment.

Our project could be used to formulate a process for assessing the risk of horizontal gene transfer if the environment where testing is being conducted were to be contaminated with bacteria. We have been testing soil and water samples from our school to determine if bacteriophages are present and, if so, which types bacteria they can infect. The E. coli represents the bacteria that would be genetically engineered. In our experiments, we found only 2 samples out of 20 that showed any evidence of wild bacteriophages. Those samples only showed infection when grown on E. coli strain B, a highly permissive strain used to grow and maintain bacteriophages in the laboratory. Therefore, while the theoretical risk of bacteriophage lateral transfer is quite high, the actual risk may be substantially lower.

Implementation of Adaptive Measuring Devices

Tools such as graduated cylinders expose children to science using metric measurements as early as kindergarten and elementary school. However, conventional graduated cylinders are hard for younger children to use and understand. Our adaptive measuring tool would make it easy for younger children not only to be exposed to the metric system but also to experimental science in general. The low cost of such materials makes them available to schools with little scientific funding, they are appropriate tools for every age group, therefore, increasing the likelihood of active participation in scientific inquiry in early age and grades.

Our adaptive scientific measuring tool would not only be useful to children who might not have access to experimental science but also to people with motor control and visual disabilities. These people are often left out of lab sciences and either do not participate at all or do not participate actively. This is in large part due to the accessibility of laboratory equipment. These people can either not read the markings or do not have the motor control to handle the equipment. We developed two experimental versions of a measuring instrument serving the same purpose as a graduated cylinder. Both versions have a pyramidal base that makes the measuring tool hard to knock over and are single use, would be used for one measure. They also have braille and a high contrast colored number for volumetric measurement markings. The difference between the two versions is one has a handle for a grip assistive device. While this is only a start to address the need for accessible lab equipment, because no one should have to miss out on lab sciences, it is a necessary one.