Project Based Learning

Two Strategies we are using at Salt Lake Community College

Centralized Projects

Decentralized Projects

InnovaBio CRO Distributed Gene Discovery Project

Adam BlaszczakDirector, InnovaBio

Mary NelsonAssistant Director, InnovaBio

Alejandro PabonResearch Technician, InnovaBio

Active Projects

• Protein Expression and Purification – Four proteins for three clients

• Cell culture • Cloning

– Human genomic DNA– cDNA from total RNA– Mutagenesis

• Plant/Fungus RNA and DNA extraction– Species identification– Gene expression

• Quantitative/Real time PCR for Gene Expression• Phage Display

Internal control over the Internship/Project Experience

• New Intern Training– Lab orientation and safety– Simple plasmid DNA manipulation– Protein expression– Lab math problem sets

• Skills assessment and project assignment• Regular mentoring addressing techniques and

experimental design • Evaluation of intern performance every 1-2 months

Problem Solving

Teamwork

Community

Communication

NSF STEP Grant in partnership with Utah Valley University

Distributed Research Project Concept as an outreach and

recruiting toolSLCC

Or UVU

Teacher Academy

High School A

High School B

High School C

High School D

Gene Discovery in a Great Salt Lake Halophile in partnership with Dr. Bonnie Baxter

• UV resistant strain isolated from GSL with 16SrRNA gene similarity (99%) to Halorubrum genus

• Named “Halorubrum salsolis” by Hannah Walsh, 9

Support for distributed projects…

Support for distributed projects…

Alignment of student generated sequence information to other Halorubrum sp.