Team:Calgary/Second Life/SBI1

THE SYNTHETIC KINGDOM

This is the first main area the learners will explore on our island. Here, they will find applications of synthetic biology, interactive bacteria, and a vivid colourful world.

STATION INFORMATION

Bacteriocins (Station 1): Here, learners will click on the ‘Squid Buddy’ just like every other station in order to get instructions and a notecard with further info. To complete this station, they will need to find bacteria in the Synthetic Kingdom that produce something to kill the rogue bacteria. Once learners figure it out, they will need to type it in the chat box.

Vitamin Bacteria(Station 2): The ‘Squid Buddy’ here is sick and vitamins must be found for him. Users will click around to find the bacterium that produces vitamins. By clicking and dragging the vitamins to the squid, learners will develop object manipulation skills needed for other sections of the island.

GFP (Station 3): Learners will learn a little bit about Green Fluorescent Protein and how genes expressing the protein can be isolated from animals and be expressed in bacteria. It also teaches users to move items between the inventories of objects.

Bioremediation (Station 4): This station shows a possible future application demonstrating the power of synthetic biology. Learners will spawn a bacterium and use it to ‘wipe up’ an oil spill while becoming better at moving objects between locations.

Quorum Sensing (Station 5): Users will learn how to go through their inventory in order to participate in some interactive quorum sensing. This station is important because it gives some general information on ideas that our project is on.

Bacteria vs. Bacteria (Station 6): This station has a large eukaryotic cell that allows users to go through and see the parts. Then they can unleash ‘bad bacteria’ which attack the cell as well as good bacteria which that eliminate the ‘bad bacteria’. This expands on the idea presented in Station 1 and also shows another possible application of synthetic biology.