Olympic B3 Science Summer Camp 2011
  Biotechnology, Biodiversity and Bioinformatics

  June 14th - June 30th

Schedule:
(Subject to change)

Date - June
9am-10am
10am-11am
11am-11:30pm
11:30pm-12:30pm
12:30pm-2pm
2pm-3pm
14th Anderson -
Getting Acquainted Activity
Intro to lab.
Establish rules, and set expectations.
Form lab teams.
Anderson
Biodiversity in North Carolina
Smith
The Scientific Method and Experimental Design
Lunch Break
Activities and jobs that Biologists do.
Pre-assessment questions.
Weller
Lab Methods for Sample Collection
Smith and Weller
Rules for the field trip - lists, times and places
Informatics introduction
Job of the Day
June 15th- Field Trip to Crowder's Mountain
Please arrive at 8:15am
Wear proper clothing and bring water and your lunch!

Trip Pictures
16th Smith
Measurement Theory: Accuracy and Precision
Device Identification
Ranger Cooke
Natural History of Crowders MT.
Chestnut Blight
Ranger Cooke
Chestnut Blight
Concepts of scale, accuracy and precision.
Lunch Break
How did the Chestnut Blight affect North Carolina? What industries were most affected? Identify another plant disease that has had large human consequences.
Weller
Lab Skills- Pipetting
Verifying accuracy by weighing volumes
Weller
Presentations by group


20th Anderson
DNA and Heredity - part 1
Job of the Day.
Anderson
Experimental -explain methods used in extracting DNA from plants
Weller
Lab skills- making dilutions, using centrifuges
Lunch Break
What was the first experiment that showed DNA carried genetic material? Was it dangerous? Viruses are used in some type of gene therapy - what types of safety precautions would you want?
Weller
Lab Skills- Following a protocol
Using ice to preserve solutions. Mixing and recovery methods.
Weller
Informatics: statistics and Excel.
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
21st Anderson
Expression and the Environment
Job of the Day.
Morrison
DNA extraction: grinding plants in dry ice. Experimental -explain methods used in extracting DNA from plants
Morrison
Continue DNA extraction - use CTAB to solubilize DNA.
Lunch Break
A Phenotype is how things look. SOme cells /organisms look different because they have different genes, somelook different because they turn on a different subset of the same genes What types of experiments could you design to tell the difference?
Weller/Morrison
Continue DNA extraction - spin out the DNA and resuspend in TE.
Overall
Introduction to Bioinformatics
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
22nd Weller
Genetic Experiments: Genotype and Phenotype
Job of the Day.
Smith
Spectrophotometry to determine concentrations
Making serial dilutions, standards and blanks.
Weller
Lab Skills: pellet DNA and resuspend it.
Make serial dilutions and replicates
Lunch Break
Markers are sign posts that show you are near something. Talk about an example of a marker for a cell and a marker for an organism. What is an example of a disease marker? What types of experiments could you design to tell the difference?
Smith
Lab Skills: use the spectrophotometer to quantify the DNA
Re-precipitate the DNA for storage.
Weller
Computational: Beers Law, setting up the equation in Excel and accounting for dilutions
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
23rd Weller
DNA replication, Central Dogma
Job of the Day.
Weller
Electrophoresis, agarose gels.
Visualization of DNA in gels.
Smith
Lab Skills: Pour agarose gels and load, along with ladders
Lunch Break
A recent book about Henrietta Lacks makes it clear that her cells were used without her consent (or her families). Many important discoveries have been made using those cells. Find a discussion site where the pros and cons of patenting human genes is discussed. What is your own opinion? What types of experiments could you design to tell the difference?
Smith
Lab Skills: Stain gels and document the results
Image analysis software
Weller
Informatics: using image analysis software, figuring out the size and quantity of an unknown on a gel.
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
27th Smith
Enzymes
Weller
Types of jobs in Biotech at various levels
Weller
Lab Skills: Setting up a restriction digestion reaction
Lunch Break
Biotechnology was originally mostly about making enzymes useful for research - then it moved to transfroming organisms to produce usefuyl products.Find an example of a bioengenieered protein and a bioengineered organism to discuss.
Weller
Lab Skills: Recover digestion products and run gel
Smith
Intro to PCR for tomorrow
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
28th Overall
The BLAST algorithm and sequence databases
Overall
Computational Lab
Morrison
Intro to Master Mix preparation
Lunch Break
Biotechnology was originally mostly about making enzymes useful for research - then it moved to transfroming organisms to produce usefuyl products.Find an example of a bioengenieered protein and a bioengineered organism to discuss.
Morrison
Setting up PCR, programming the thermocycler
Weller
Genetics and Molecular Markers
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
29th Weller
Start gels of PCR products
Weller
Sizing bands on gels and tracking the results
Weller
Bioethics
Lunch Break
What are 'Frankenfoods'? Breeders claim that humans have been forcing selection for thoursands of years. Do you think targeted methods of genetic selection are more dangerous than classical breeding methods?
Smith
Lab Skills: Spectrophotometry
Weller
Beers Law and using Excel for graphing
Last 15 min: update notebooks.
30th
Parents Night - 4:30-5:30pm - Please come see our results!!!
Anderson
Biodiversity
Weller
Producing graphs and figures to summarize PCR data
Smith
Prepare stations for demos for parents
Lunch Break
Final assessment - knowledge of biotechnology and bioinformatics.
Anderson
Assessment of class
Weller
Suggestions for next year
Q & A with Morrison and Overall
Class Presentations
Lists
Extra Reading
Web Links
Discussion Questions
Lab Protocols
This site is maintained by Dr. Jennifer Weller
Top of Page
©2007 UNC Charlotte Copyright| Privacy Statement
Page Maintained By: Dr. Jennifer W Weller