Team:Exeter/Notebook/Sept14
Monday, 14 September
Most of us went to Peter Chalk (the building on campus which we used as our main workspace) to work on writing wiki pages and video scripts, although some people couldn't make it. At this point however the university term had started and Peter Chalk no longer provided a quiet learning space so we decided to work from home or at each others' houses (in groups of six or less) for the rest of the week.
Pazzy finished the first draft of the project video (full length but missing voiceovers) and sent it to the rest of the team.
Lab Work
Izzy and Velizar conducted an experiment to investigate carbon dioxide diffusion through hydrogel. They made up a hydrogel containing 0.1% agarose in Milli-Q water and left it in the fridge for an hour to solidify. The purpose of using only 0.1% agarose was to create a low-density hydrogel that would allow CO2 to diffuse through it more easily, as a positive control. The hydrogel flasks (and a control flask) were placed in an incubator for 24 hours - the non-control flasks were exposed to CO2 throughout this time whereas the control flask was covered in parafilm and so was not exposed to CO2. A video camera was set up overnight to record the colour change which should occur when carbonic acid forms as a product of the reaction between CO2 and the hydrogel.
Science Communication and Outreach
Last year's Exeter iGEM team had created a short presentation about their experience, to include in the university's Bioethics module run by Dr Mark Ramsdale. Chloe and Nina had been in contact with Dr Ramsdale to discuss the possibility of doing the same this year, and today he got back to us asking us to include the following in our presentation:
- What iGEM is
- A description of our project
- Our journey in terms of the organisation and planning of our project
He also suggested that we include answers to the following questions:
- Why did you want to do iGEM?
- What have been the most significant hurdles to overcome? (and how have you done this).
- What is the value of team work - what challenges do you face working as a group?
- What are the key organisation challenges you face in planning a scientific project?
- How do you think the experience may have influenced your attitudes to study, work and career choices?
Matthew collected everyone on the team's answers to the above questions then concatenated them into a presentation script.