High-Level Project Summary
Our team developed a game to let young learners learn about the gene transcription process in a fun way. At the same time, learners are exposed to native handcraft and culture through the game. We hope that young audience will build a strong foundation in the molecular biology so that those who are talented in this field could jump into the biological research aspect of space science sooner or later. We could engineer organisms that could adapt to the space environment, for example, planting vegetables on moon or Mars.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
We designed a learning game by combining the Sarawak local handcraft with Molecular Biology . It will make the learning of central dogma of molecular biology fun and easy at young age. Also, the local element of the project makes the kids appreciating native's culture. The kids will learn the gene transcription process with fun. The learners will craft two strings with alphabet beads(representing the nucleotides that make up codons). Two strings are called Co-A and Co-B. They pair with each other with certain rules, like the gene transcription process. We use the Molecular Biology textbook and websites as the theory behind the game. One of our team members, Suzie, is adept in Borneo handcraft. Therefore, we combine both and design the STEAM lesson.
Space Agency Data
We browsed through the Genelab Open Science for Life in Space from NASA (Website: https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/projects). The effects of spaceflight conditions, e.g. gravity and space radiation on the model organisms are browsed. Inspired by these data, we think it would be good if young kids are exposed to molecular biology at their young ages.
Hackathon Journey
We enjoy the teamwork. As a group of teachers and tutors, we often time found students having difficulties in their learning path. Memorizing the codon for amino acids is often a formidable task, even for high school students. Therefore, we think that exposure to the topic at young age would help them to learn and solve biological aspect of space science. We think that it would be interesting if we could study the molecular biology of organisms, be it microbes or plants in the space, e.g. with microgravity effect on them. We might be able to find out what gene(s) or protein(s) are regulated in the space. Then we could engineer the organisms that can survive in the space. With the combination of scientific knowledge and local handcraft, we hope to nurture young audience to possess biological literacy. We would like to thank NASA and Sarawak government for organizing the events. This is also the first attempt from our school to design a STEAM class, We hope it serves as a good start and more to come.
References
What are amino acids, 23 Sep 2022, Ajinomoto,
Website: https://www.ajinomoto.com/zh-CN/aboutus/amino-acids/what-are-amino-acids
Animation of Protein Synthesis, 1 April 2020, Bilibili,
Website: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Mi4y1n7Ui/
Milton H. Saier Jr. Understanding the Genetic Code. ASM Journals/Journal of Bacteriology/Vol. 201, No. 15
Sarawak Handycraft, 27 Sep 2022, Dreamstime,
Website: https://cn.dreamstime.com/%E6%B2%99%E6%8D%9E%E8%B6%8Ahandycraft-image113487071
Genelab Open Science for Life in Space from NASA，
Website: https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/projects
Tags
#STEAM #Art #Codon #Molecular Biology