Senior microbiology student and iGEM MSU team member Erin Uhelski is very excited for the event and the positive impact on the community. 

"We have four different stations of science related hands-on activities and we wanted to have a range of things to do to get a range of ages," Uhelski said. "The coolest thing we have is DNA extraction from strawberries."

Other activities include building your own alien, leaf rubbing with crayons and a water race to see who can transfer water the fastest into beakers using a pipette.

MSU iGEM is a research team comprised of eight undergraduate students selected to perform research in synthetic biology.

"iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machines and we’re basically a synthetic biology team at MSU. We develop a project that has something to do with synthetic biology to help towards solving some problem in the world. So it can pretty much be anything you want it to be," Uhelski said. 

Other universities also have iGEM teams and compete at competitions as well. MSU’s iGEM team has been established for three years and this year’s team is hoping to increase their visibility on campus and in the community through educational outreach programs. 

"One of the main purposes of iGEM is to provide more immersive, hands-on, training experience for students in science. Another main part of iGEM is about fostering communications around synthetic biology," said Daniel Ducat, faculty advisor and professor of Plant Biology Laboratories.

Ducat also identified the two major components of iGEM as research and human practices.  

"This gets members of the team out engaging with the community, having conversations about the role of sciences in society, discussing ethics and hopefully getting the public excited about the potential of synthetic biology,” Ducat said. 

He hopes the iGEM team can promote constructive conversations between scientists and the public about concerns, questions and processes of synthetic biology. It is one thing to conduct the research, but another to understand and be able to explain the technology and its implations. 

"Part of these outreach efforts are also really to get the team thinking about the broader ecosystem in which science is conducted. Science is intimately connected to society, it’s really a two way street," Ducat said. 

To learn more about the youth outreach event, visit the East Lansing Public Library’s events website.

For more information on MSU iGEM’s research, team members and other outreach events, check out their Facebook page.