4th International Conference on Plant Synthetic Biology, Bioengineering, and Biotechnology October 30 - November 1, 2020 Virtual
Bears, Beets, Paper Chromatography This activity will introduce 9th-12th grade students to liquid chromatography and the mass transfer principles behind it. Featuring a murder mystery theme from "The Office", students will put on their detective hats to determine who left the ransom note. By performing chromatography in various ink...
Building Block Air Quality Sensor Poor air quality is a problem that affects the health of many communities, and measuring air quality can be extraordinarily important to people with health problems. In this module you will build a simple air quality sensor with some standard electronic components and building blocks (e.g. legos) ...
Surface Tension In this 50-minute module, we introduce the concept of surface tension to students through three simple experiments: In the first experiment, students attempt to place as many drops of clean water as they can on a penny and learn that it is something called surface tension holding the blob of water...
Thermoelectric Human Power This module uses Peltier devices to teach students principles of the conservation and transfer of energy. The students place their hands on one side of the Peltier devices while the other side lies stationary on a cold surface, ice or ice water. The Peltier devices generate electrical energy from...
Adsorption: cleaning water with carbon Activated carbon filter to visually demonstrate adsorption by filtering out dye and other “contaminants” ...
Alternative Cleaner Fuels We will create a lemon battery and the material used for it is 4-6 lemons, zinc and copper electrodes, wires, LED, alligator clamps, tape, voltmeter. In the end we will present how lemon battery is a cleaner option for alternate fuel and hence on larger scale other alternate fuel options can be used...
Fun with Fluorescence This module allows students to learn about two physical phenomena: fluorescence and crosslinking polymers. Students will have the opportunity to add sodium alginate to calcium chloride to produce a cross-linked polymer, calcium alginate; this is unique because students can take two liquids and make...
Hydrophilic vs Hydrophobic After the demonstrations and activity students will know about the properties of hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials. To introduce the concepts, a demonstration of will be used, a “lava lamp” made with cooking oil, water, and alka seltzer. The topic of density will also be explored in the...
Investigating Fluid Flow Using PlayDoh This module uses PlayDoh extrusion to generate and visualize the parabolic profile for flow of fluids through a tube. Participants make predictions on the pattern of the flow profile, collect data and calculate velocities. Follow-up questions allow those leading the module to debrief on what the...
It's Crystal Clear, This Rocks! We teach kids about crystallization by making rock candy with them. ...
Lighting The Lighting module introduces the concepts of energy and power through a study of light bulbs power consumption. Students determine the power consumption of different light bulb types and compare to the values indicated on the original packaging. Energy consumption is calculated by assuming an...
Liquid Layers In this module, the interactions between liquids of different densities are shown by placing multiple liquids in a test tube. Each liquid will "isolate" itself from the others, thus showing clear boundaries between different-density liquids! Additionally, solid materials of different weight...
Milk That Turns Into Paint Make an important adhesive with pigment (paint) based on milk casein, using separation techniques and the functions of conventional materials ...
Racing with Interchangeable Parts Students are challenged to recreate a tire that is missing from a Lego racecar using measurements that they take. Students must first measure all of the dimensions of the tire that they need to recreate. Then the model car and tire will be taken away, and the students will work with...