Team-wide goals: Over the course of the spring semester, the team should:
- Choose a problem about which they're interested.
- Learn enough about the problem, and synthetic biology, to propose a (few) solution(s).
- Plan a general approach to the solution (including talking to stakeholders)
- Plan specific approaches and the first set of characterization experiments.
- Design DNA
Learning Goals (Planning/Design): When students finish the spring, they should be able to:
- Identify interesting research problems for which synthetic biology would be an appropriate approach
- Find relevant reports from the primary literature and summarize those reports' salient findings
- Plan a synthetic biology approach to address an interesting research problem
- Design experiments to demonstrate that implementation
- Design the DNAs necessary to implement the proposed strategy
- Design the cloning strategy necessary to construct those DNAs
| Date | Goal/Activity |
|---|
| Feb 5 | - Intro: uh ..... olive oil? If available.
- What is synbio? How is it different than bioengineering?
- Semester overview / expectations
- Instructor / advisor roles
- Project possibilities
- Weiss lab biases
- Student roles / specializations
- Project list - assignments
- How to find a paper
- How to read a paper
- Homework: find and read (at least) one paper about the "state of the art" on your problem
Come next week prepared to discuss one specific problem
|
| Feb 12 | GOAL: Learn more about reading papers; science-as-storytelling; group brainstorming - White board silent brainstorming
- Project owner gives title, specific problem
- Others: other problems, solutions, observations, connections, approaches
- Review projects together
- TPS: paper-reading experience
- Papers II
- TPS: paper-reading experience
- Concept map: parts of a paper < – > parts of an experiment
- Introduction to science-as-storytelling
- Intro to record keeping.
- Homework: meet as a group, find and read one paper about your project; come prepared to present ONE EXPERIMENT
|
| Feb 19 | GOAL: Narrow down to three projects - Intro: ??
- Each group presents (10 min each)
- Vote or self-assort to three projects
- Intro to synbio as a problem-solving strategy
- Parts, circuits, input / processing / actuation
- Homework: meet as a subgroup (with advisors, this time); propose two synbio-based approaches; come up with one relevant paper for each.
|
| Feb 26 | GOAL: Narrow down to two projects. - Intro: ??
- Each group presents.
- Vote one project off the island. (Preference voting?)
- Classwork & homework: swap projects. (Ie, if you were working on Project #1, this week you work on Project #2. The one that was voted off self-assorts.)
Propose two (different) synbio-based approaches; come up with one relevant paper for each.
|
| Mar 6 | |
| Mar 12 | |
| Mar 19 | Final project selection. - Project presentation, then feedback about
- working / group project structure (what are the parallel tracks?)
- risks?
- positives / benefits?
|
| Mar 26 | SPRING BREAK |
| Apr 2 | |
| Apr 9 | |
| Apr 16 | |
| Apr 23 | |
| Apr 30 | |
May 7 | |
| May 14 | |