Socrates Fellows at the Science Festival

Check out our booths from the 2011 San Diego Science Festival!

The San Diego's Next Top Science Model theme brought visitors a glimpse of how scientists use models and model organisms to study larger concepts, such as human disease. Each fellow had a different organism or model to work with:

Carmen: atomic models - Why do scientists use models of the atom? What can we learn about nature from differences in elements? 

Tristan: zebrafish - Interested in learning about embryo development? Want to know how we study vertebrates? These little fish are our model of choice!

Sarah: yeast - Beyond baking bread and brewing beer, these little fungi are used to study eukaryotes and processes within a single-celled organism. 

Alyssa: E. coli - This powerhouse of bacteria has been used for many scientific studies since it was one of the first organisms to have its genome completely sequenced.  

Jillian: algae - What can pond scum do for you? Potentially power your car! Algae is being used by scientists to create innovative biofuels. 

ScienceBridge staff member Heather L. stepped in and also displayed C. elegans, previously used in our RNAi lab. These little roundworms are clear and easy to alter genetically, so they are used for many studies in determining gene function. 

Can You Conquer Cancer?

Four of our fellows helped with Celgene sponsored booth, run by San Diego High School Science Club in collaboration with the UCSD Moores Cancer Center. 

Emily and Zephen: The Eastlake High School Chemistry Club collaborated on the booth 'Can You Conquer Cancer?' with San Diego High School Science Club, Celgene, and the UCSD Cancer Center.  As a mentor of the ELHS Chemistry Club, we worked on 'The Chemistry of Chemotherapy' designing a model representation illustrating how some cancer drugs work. The students were in charge of teaching people about what chemotherapy is and how the medication treatments work inside the body. The students created a lock and key model related to how researchers test thousands of molecules to find new cancer treatment drugs. 

UCSD printed an article featuring our fellows about the Science Festival. We even made the front page rotation of articles for all of UCSD! 

Interested in past booths? Here's some pictures and information about our past Science Festival booths!