(556g) Building Accessible Hands-on Biology Classroom Activities with Sensors and Freeze-Dried Cell-Free Technology (Invited Speaker)

Hands-on demonstrations greatly enhance the teaching of STEM concepts and foster engagement and exploration in the sciences. While numerous chemistry and physics classroom activities exist, few biology labs are practical and accessible due to the challenges and concerns of growing live cells in classrooms. Here we introduce a platform to develop hands-on molecular and synthetic biology educational activities based on easy-to-use, shelf-stable, freeze-dried, cell-free (FD-CF) reactions, which are simply activated by water. By using DNA which encodes fluorescent proteins to create visual outputs with these FD-CF reactions, we created a variety of engaging modules to teach gene expression, cellular functions, and other basic molecular biology topics that are otherwise difficult to easily teach in a hands-on manner in a classroom. By expanding the platform to incorporate sensor-based components, such as RNA switches, we also developed modules that can teach interdisciplinary biology topics, including biochemistry, biomaterials, and synthetic biology, as well as basic laboratory skills such as pipetting, experimental design, and the scientific method. Our initial kit launched from this platform has already been used in hundreds of classrooms/programs across the country, and initial results and feedback suggest that the activities are accessible, easy to use, educational, and engaging for middle school, high school, and undergraduate students. Overall, the platform introduces low-cost, user-friendly, and hands-on activities that can be used in classrooms to improve the quality of biology education and open the door for student-driven, independent explorations in the life sciences.