Overview

As we all know, iGEM isn’t just pipetting and centrifuging while hunkered down in the lab; it entails addressing and solving problems within the community. Despite the circumstances, this year is no exception. Over the past few years, our iGEM team has been deeply involved in our community. We pride ourselves in raising awareness for many different issues and we place a large emphasis on human practices. As a part of our human practices, we made sure to emphasize communication and education since those are main themes of our project, BlacOps.

Lab Demos

It is a WLC-Milwaukee iGEM team tradition to host lab demos to inspire young scientists to study synthetic biology. This year, we hosted five different lab demos at high schools in the greater Milwaukee area. We also hosted a lab demo for a visiting high school from Florida at our own lab at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Our favorite lab demo to do is a simple DNA extraction with either strawberries or bananas. By visualizing the DNA, we are granted a unique opportunity to “wow” the students with instant-gratification science and can also educate them about the benefits of synthetic biology!

Vax Facts

We held an on-campus event in Spring of 2021 in which we interviewed a panel of local experts about the COVID-19 vaccine. At this event, over 115 Wisconsin Lutheran College students had the opportunity to ask any questions and voice their potential concerns about the vaccine. Overall, the event was a massive success with a much higher turnout than we were initially anticipating. Holding an event like this aligns with iGEM’s philosophy in the sense that it is important to listen to and have intelligent dialogue with people who may share different opinions. Synthetic biology still remains a controversial topic in many areas and Vax Facts helped expose our team to addressing controversial topics and holding meaningful conversations about them.

World's Largest Petri Dish

We made the world’s largest petri dish. On April 28, 2021, the WLC-Milwaukee iGEM team made an official attempt at a Guiness World Record and successfully did so. The petri dish has a diameter of 1.17 meters and a depth of .17 meters. Working on planning and creating the world’s largest petri dish was an excellent team-building exercise for our team and really boosted morale and interest in supporting the iGEM cause. Plus, we are probably the only iGEM team that has applied for an official Guinness World Record!

Pi Day

On 3/14/2021, we handed out pie and held a competition on campus. People wrote down as many digits of pi as they knew, and the person who wrote the most got a gift card! This was a fun way to engage with students on campus.

Young Women in Science Program

The female officers were asked by the Young Women in Science Program at WLC to tell prospective students about iGEM! Because their exploration day was virtual this year, we made a video about what iGEM is and the science we do. This was a cool way to introduce iGEM to prospective students and help to encourage young women in science!