Colony counting activity - coming soon! (Reach out to be a beta tester)
Agar art examples (bacteria)
Amino Labs experiment kits & safety
Discover which bacteria is used in the kits, where it comes from and what biosafety levels are.
Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Book Chapter 3: Growing E.coli cells
Page of resources excerpted from the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero book ch. 3
Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Book Chapter 4: Genetic Engineering your E.coli cells
Page of resources excerpted from the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero book ch. 4
Bacterial transformation presentation and Jeopardy game
Presentation and in-class game on bacterial transformation concepts
What is Gene Expression?
Blog post
Bacterial transformation simulator, en Français
Use these drag-and-drop experiment simulators in the browser. Students can go through the full experiment steps either as practice before doing the experiment in real, or as a subsitute. Students will also gain context on the steps and kit components.
Engineer-it Kit experiment page
Lesson, activities, instructions & more
Flour dilution exercise
Practice and understand the principles of streaking bacteria for cell dilution with this simple flour (or any fine powder) exercise. From Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero chapter 3
Be the Cell Machinery activity and Solution
Use these exercises to test your understanding of the translation cypher. - From Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero chapter 4
Be the Cell Machinery! Bidirectionally! activity and Solution
Try the regular 'Be the cell machinery' exercise before moving onto Bidirectionality. From Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero chapter 4
Learn how to: Copy a segment of DNA from a plasmid using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and confirm your result using agarose gel electrophoresis with our PCR-it Kit! Includes 3 bioinformatics activities
Get started with genetic engineering for bacteria using our Engineer-it Kit!
What are Bioplastics
Classroom-ready presentation General Bioplastics introduction with examples of new biobased applications. Same presentation as included in the lesson guide above.
Bioplastics Kit experiment page
Lesson, activities, instructions & more
Bioplastic Experiment Simulator
Use this drag-and-drop experiment simulators in the browser. Students can go through the full experiment steps either as practice before doing the experiment in real, or as a subsitute. Students will also gain context on the steps and kit components.
Bioplastics vs. regular petroleum-based plastics: How do they compare?
Blog post
Plastic Pollution: Can AI and Biotech pave the way to solutions?
Blog post
Comparing Bioplastic Material Properties to Steel Alloys
Blog post
What is DNA? - Virtual Simulator
Use this drag-and-drop experiment simulator in the browser. Students will learn about the double helix structure, how it was discovered, and some DNA-related terminology. They will get to assemble a strand and match nucleotides.
Build a DNA Strand - Activity Package
Activity package for the classroom leveraging the What is DNA simulator
Know your strand, and Solution
Fill in the blanks on this DNA strand to test your knowledge.
Lesson Guide Discover DNA
Ready to use lesson guide on DNA. Best if used alongside your Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero chapter 1 & the DNA Extraction Kit.
Discover DNA Presentation
Classroom-ready presentation with speakers notes. Works alongside the Discover DNA Lesson Guide
Classroom Breakout Discussion Is DNA the chicken or the egg?
Classroom discussion activity
What is DNA?
Blog post
Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Book Chapter 1: Isolationg DNA, the Bluprints of Life
Page of resources excerpted from the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero book ch. 1, including a Lesson guide.
The Human Genome Project
Blog post
DNA extraction Kit experiment page
Lesson, activities, instructions & more
Gattaca Movie Activities
Are you showing Gattaca in class? We have 3 follow-up activities available on our Ethics page
23andMe is in trouble. What happens to all the DNA data?
Classroom discussion prompt on biological privacy
Agarose Gel Electrophoresis - presentation
Classroom-ready presentation on gel electrophoresis
Gel electrophoresis simulation
Use this drag-and-drop experiment simulator in the browser. Students will learn the step-by-step process of making and casting agarose gel, adding DNA samples, DNA ladders and running the gel.
Gel electrophoresis experiment kits
A series of all-in-one kits to learn agarose gel electrophoresis in the classroom. Perfect for beginners!
Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Book Chapter 7: Controlling genes with lights, temperatures and chemicals
Page of resources excerpted from the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero book ch. 7.
What is Gene Expression?
Blog post
The Human Genome Project
Blog post
Induce-it Kit: control genes with chemicals
All-in-one experiment to learn to control gene expression using chemicals. Students first do a bacterial transformation using the provided DNA which only changes color in the presence of the provided inducing chemical.
Heat-it Kit: control genes with temperature
All-in-one experiment to learn to control gene expression using temperatures. Students first do a bacterial transformation using the provided DNA which only changes color at the right temperature.
See bacterial transformation or gel electrophoresis for experiments and more activities
Infectious Agents presentation and Jeopardy game!
Classroom-ready presentation on Infectious Agents and How They Infect the Human Body - viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. Includes a fun jeopardy-style game to test your students understanding.
Transmission/Outbreak Activity
Classroom-ready activity on the spread of infections using easy-to-obtain materials.
What is Agar
Infographic
Weighing, Measuring, and Concentrations in the Life Science Lab
Molecular Modelling
Videos on how to use computer software to visualize and manipulate computer representations of real molecules.
Molecular modelling module coming soon!
Amino Labs is happy to take part in your professional development and host half-day workshops, hour-long sessions, or online presentations related to any of our topics! All of our programs are available online and can also be in person, depending on your location.
Contact us to discuss your options, or book a session today
1. Modeling and engineering your own protein:
As you'll see in the Z2H journey, proteins are a critical type of macro-molecule created by living organisms, and proteins are the "work horses" of cells. Throughout the Z2H journey, Heroes will learn about many different kinds of proteins with different functions. Becoming familiar with some of the proteins that cells make will enable your student/teen to seek out other remarkable proteins that they may want to investigate and even modify. Molecular modeling is a tool learned in the Z2H journey that enables one to use software to look at and modify known proteins. Those modified proteins can then be created and investigated in real cells using the hands-on skills learned in the Z2H journey.
2. Bio-manufacturing of your own molecules
As you'll see in the Z2H journey, bio-manufacturing is an essential industry that supplies the world with medicine, food, industrial products, cosmetics, and much more. Biology is an indispensable manufacturing platform! Throughout the Z2H journey, heroes will engineer cells to create many different things, from proteins to sustainable chemicals. The idea of using biology for manufacturing different things will become second nature. By the end of the Z2H journey, your student/teen will have a foundation to start exploring other things that could be bio-manufactured. This could be a fantastic science fair project and overlap with high-interest areas like medicine, climate change, sustainability, material science, and agriculture.
3. Creating your own genetic circuit to make a sensor
As you'll see in the Z2H journey, genetics is much like programming and electrical circuits. DNA can be designed to turn on under certain conditions and turn off under others. There are many reasons for wanting to do this, many of which are unveiled in the Z2H journey. One innovative area where genetic circuits are used is to create a biosensor. When a genetic circuit is designed to turn on only in the presence of an environmental cue, it turns the organism into a sensor! Many young people are already exploring this exciting field, from looking at biosensors for environmental and human health sensing to food safety.
Read more about science fair topic ideas from our blog!
From a parent
Need help getting started on a science fair project?
A helpful guide for parents and learning coaches
A helpful guide for iGEM teams and mentors
Rattan's science fair journey: Creating sustainable paint with biology
Stories from the community blog post
Learning to make better petri dishes
Stories from the community blog post
Video series by the Jet Propulsion Library
Help your students start from brainstorming an idea to seeing it through completion.
Bioplastics vs. regular petroleum-based plastics: How do they compare?
Blog post
What are Bioplastics
Classroom-ready presentation General Bioplastics introduction with examples of new biobased applications. Same presentation as included in the lesson guide above.
Bioplastics Kit experiment page
Lesson, activities, instructions & more
Bioplastic Experiment Simulator
Use this drag-and-drop experiment simulators in the browser. Students can go through the full experiment steps either as practice before doing the experiment in real, or as a subsitute. Students will also gain context on the steps and kit components.
Rattan's science fair journey: Creating sustainable paint with biology
Stories from the community blog post. Rattan used the Extract-it Kit to create sustainable paint for the science fair.
Extract-it Kit
All-in-one experiment to learn to extract proteins from engineered cells. This kit comes with pre-engineered colorful cells from which students can extract the pigments. The pigments can be used as a sustainable ink/dye.
BioPrint-it Kit
All-in-one experiment to learn how to used engineered bacteria to create dyes for fabric.