Back to School

Hi campers,

I'm not sure if any of you or you parents will check this again now that camp has been over for a while, but I just wanted to leave a note for anyone who might stop by.

As I return to classes tomorrow, it reminds me that you, too, are returning to school. I want to encourage you to maintain an interest in math and science this year and in the future. Make sure you take advantage of everything your school offers, and if it's not enough for you, seek out additional opportunities in your area - maybe programs offered by nearby community colleges or universities. I realize that we're all busy, and your parents may think you are too busy to take on any more activities, as mine did when I was your age, but I want you to fight for your interests. You may go to school with people who don't think doing extra math or science activities outside of school makes you a cool person, but I know they're wrong. I'm cool because I like math and science and love being a bioengineer, and so are all my friends here at college. Feel free to take that coolness to high school with you.

Good luck this year!

Sarah

Projects and Luau

Hi parents!

We've had a great week at GAMES camp, and today was the perfect conclusion. The girls investigated different characteristics of mock-vaccines (Jello) in the bioengineering lab in an effort to develop a new polio vaccine. Then they worked on cost evaluation for building the factory and manufacturing, delivering, and administering the vaccines.

After dinner we all headed over to the Illini Union for our annual luau and talent show. As always, it was amazing to see the talent your girls possess - especially those musical talents. "How low can you go?" got a whole new meaning after tonight's unbelievable limbo!

See you all tomorrow at Closing Ceremonies!

Chicken!!

Today in bioengineering we focused on the macroscale, learning mostly about biomechanics. We learned about the purpose of scaffolds and how they're made. We also did some three-point testing on repaired muscle models, and most importantly, we played with chicken leg quarters! We loved investigating the movement around the knee joint, pulling on tendons, dissecting out the knee joint, and finding bone marrow. We also looked at how damaged muscles work different from normal muscles - chicken treated with meat tenderizer represented muscle atrophy, and that with small transverse cuts represented muscle tears.

Actin

Today we learned all about actin and its role and location in cells. Actin is found throughout cells allowing them to attach to surfaces, attach to each other, communicate with other cells, divide, and maintain their shape. We stained actin so that it would show up red when we examined it with the fluorescent microscope. Later the girls modeled the roles of actin using some fun supplies like Splish Splat, straws, knee highs, masking tape, and more. Boy, were the girls creative! We loved what we saw!

Chemical Engineering Going Strong!

The girls have finished their third rotation out of four in the ChemE half of the camp. They have been learning about many aspects of chemical engineering. Today they made soap, lip gloss, and bath bombs, getting a taste of what chemical engineers do in developing new consumer products!

It is amazing to see the intellect, poise, and persistence that each of these young ladies posseses. I have been truly impressed and honored to be working with them!

The girls will be using the skills they have developed throughout the week to start working on their projects on Friday. It will certainly take a lot of work to figure out a way to manufacture and transport polio vaccines to the Dominican Republic!

--Katie

Camp is Underway!!!

Hi parents!

Since your girls may not have gotten a chance to email or call you yet, I'd
like to first assure you that they're all alive and well - and having tons of fun! You can rest assured that they're very busy enjoying themselves, and nothing can be better evidence for that than the (unfortunate) fact that they've forgotten to contact you. :)

On the Bioengineering side everyone got a chance to work in our biosafety hoods both yesterday and today. We've been culturing fibroblast and muscle cells which can be seen in the top two pictures. Yesterday the girls also learned about recognizing different types of tissue and looked at them under the microscope. Today they made muscle models out of spaghetti, straws, Kool-aid, and Nerds - they'll be more than willing to show these to you when they get home. Go ahead and ask them about what everything represents. Also today your girls transfected some cells - added DNA - so that the cells will glow green under fluorescent light. Though your girls haven't actually viewed their glowing cells yet (that's on tomorrow's agenda), I'm adding a picture of what they'll look like (bottom picture).

A sneak peak at tomorrow: We're going to look at the role and location of actin in cells. This means your girls will be staining the actin in real cell cultures to glow red under fluorescent light. Also on tomorrow's agenda is using everyday craft materials and some toys to model actin.

Just one more thing I'd like to share with you - we're all so busy here at camp that it's hard for me to find time to call my parents, too. :)

Hi G.A.M.E.S. Camper!

I hope you’re looking forward to camp as much as we are. We’ve been working hard to get everything ready for when you come, and even though we still have a lot left to do, we can’t wait for you to get here.

On the bioengineering side we’ll be growing cells and looking at particular structures under the microscopes. But that’s not all — you’ll get to build models of muscles and look at how disease changes their strength. You’ll also get to look at the same thing on real muscles, too! We’ll tour some labs so you can see how we use reflective balls to model human movement.

On the chemical engineering side of things you’ll be learning how to produce vaccines and make renewable energy. You’ll also get to use large-scale equipment that real chemical engineers use every day! Lastly, you will produce some things and get to take them home — like plastic, soap, and lip gloss!

At the end of the week, you’ll combine everything you’ve learned to build a factory that will manufacture and distribute polio vaccines to a rural part of the Dominican Republic.

Also, we’ll be ending the week with our annual luau and talent show, so don’t forget to bring your Hawaiian gear. If you’d like to share your musical, comedic, or any other talents with us at the talent show, don’t forget your steel drums, rubber chicken, or anything else you might need. And most importantly, don’t forget to bring yourself!

See you soon!
Katie and Sarah
(your Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering Coordinators)