The HudsonAlpha educational team is hosting a full-day informational workshop today to help teachers and students prepare for the national Genes In Space™ experimental design competition. For the workshop, Mugdha Narasimhim and Sebastian Kraves from miniPCR and Scott Copeland and Jayme Poppin from Boeing are helping students prepare for the competition, walking them through hands-on, lab-based sample experiments.
“We’re excited to be at HudsonAlpha to help all of you get ready for Genes in Space,” Narasimhim told the students at the workshop. “Maybe you could watch one of your experiments launch to the international space station!”
The free competition, a partnership between miniPCR, Boeing, Math for America, CASIS and New England Biolabs, is an opportunity for students in grades 7 through 12 to design DNA experiments for space. No equipment is required to compete. Proposals will be judged solely on their creative and scientific merit.
The winning DNA experiment will be performed aboard the International Space Station in 2017. The designer will attend Space Biology Camp at New England BioLabs and receive travel awards to the Kennedy Space Center to witness the launch of the experiment.