Team:UCSF/Our summer experience

Summer Curriculum

 * Selecting/Development of the iGEM team: High School teacher Mr.Cachianes hand selected seven students from his second year biotechnology class for the iGEM team.
 * Pre-meetings: Starting early April, Mr.Cachianes and his seven students met with UCSF's iGEM coordinators to start the pre-project and learn more about synthetic biology and cell motility.
 * Bootcamp: For two weeks, the iGEM team met everyday for four hour lectures on the mechanisms of cell motility, and discussed scientific papers.
 * Student Brainstorming: Bootcamp culminated in one large brainstorming project where we put our heads together and put what we learned to the test by trying to find ways to brake, accelerate, and steer a cell.
 * Execution: We took the best ideas from brainstorming, modified them, and prepared to carry them out.
 * Curriculum for Teachers by Saber Khan: Cells as Robots Unit: iGEM/UCSF Summer 2009

Personal Blogs about the Experience

 * Alex Smith:Conducting research at UCSF Mission Bay this summer opened up my eyes to the plethora of fields within biomedical research and it further bolstered my interest in cutting-edge scientific research.
 * Allen Cai: iGEM gave me hands-on experience on how it would be like to work in a real lab. I loved it and couldn't see myself doing anything else this summer than iGEM.
 * Cathy Liu: This summer has been a lot of things. Demanding, stressful, tedious? Sure. But it has definitely been amazing, and a bunch of things I couldn’t express with words. I know we’re going to rock the Jamboree; it’s going to be epic. And I know I’ll only think of all the wonderful times when looking back at all this. There will always be a special place in my heart for UCSF. (P.S. “SUCCESS!”)
 * Edna Miao: iGEM has forced me outside my comfort zone many times and consequently has taught me better public speaking and critical thinking skills, on top of new lab techniques of course.
 * Ethan Chan: This experience has brought me closer to my peers and gave me critical lab experience that not many High School students get!
 * Eric Wong: MADNESS? THIS IS RESEARCH!!! >:O well yeah i enjoyed my time at UCSF, I learned many new things such as lab techniques and chemotaxis as well as meet a bunch of people who i got along great with. CAZZO!!!
 * Hansi Liu
 * Jackie Tam: Participating on UCSF’s iGEM team is unparalleled learning experience. This is my first formal lab experience, and I am incredibly thankful that it took place here at the Lim Lab at UCSF.
 * Katja Kolar: Mix half a gallon of chemotaxis, mid-sized pack of surface tension gels, big handful of amazing UCSF people, a cup of interesting science, and sprinkle with curious and fun iGEM kids. Bake for 3 months in San Francisco, serve anytime! I loved being part of this summer experience.
 * Ryan Quan: This summer I learned many new techniques and how cells move, but the best thing was teaching other people techniques because it really makes you make sure you know your stuff before you open you explain something.
 * Ryan Liang: This summer has been engagingly educational and highly demanding as well as personally valuable in career-building.


 * Buddy David Pincus's blog