About
This program engages teens in the Salinas area of California in creative biomaking, frugal science tool design, and sustainability design. Teens are introduced to biodesign, explore innovative applications for sustainable biogrown materials, and imagine sustainable systems design serving community needs which they identify.
Each team will develop a project solution concept to present at the International Biodesign Challenge. Along the way, they will grow biomaterials and develop a range of prototypes and engage with custom kits and resources for their explorations. This program is free to participating teens.
Each team will develop a project solution concept to present at the International Biodesign Challenge. Along the way, they will grow biomaterials and develop a range of prototypes and engage with custom kits and resources for their explorations. This program is free to participating teens.
INSTRUCTOR
Corinne Okada Takara is a San Jose Area artist/STEAM educator who works with museums, libraries and after school programs to create workshops that elevate and empower community voices in conversations centered on civic spaces, identity, science, and technology. She conducts workshops on sustainability design and biomaterial design that celebrate existing cultural and community knowledge. She has conducted these workshops in Georgia, Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Jose and Salinas. She has mentored two teen Biodesign Challenge teams, the GIY Bio Buddies and CocoBucha. The GIY Bio Buddies, won Outstanding Field Research and Runner Up at the 2019 Biodesign Challenge Summit. Takara received the 2019 Biodesign Challenge Outstanding Instructor Award and is a 2020 Global Community Biosummit Fellow. Takara is a 2020 National Public Interest Technology Community Innovation Fellow representing Xinampa. She is a board member of the Salinas community biolab, Xinampa, and is on the Arts Advisory Panel of the Alliance for Youth Achievement in East San Jose, California. She has won local and national awards for innovative community STEAM programs. Takara develops programming out of her garage makerspace and is co-founder of BioJam, a teen camp of the Stanford Bioengineering Department. http://www.okadadesign.com/ & https://nestmakerspace.weebly.com/ Article about Takara's biodesign philosophy: What Biodesign Means to me email: [email protected] instagram: @corinnetakara |
BIODESIGN CHALLENGE MENTOR
Jose Pablo Dundore-Arias, Ph.D. California State University Monterey Bay Assistant Professor of Biology and Chemistry Dr. JP Dundore-Arias is a plant pathologist with an interdisciplinary background and broad experience investigating the biology, ecology and management of plant-associated microbes. He received his B.Sc. in Agronomy from the University of Costa Rica, and completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Pathology at Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, respectively. After completing graduate school, he received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to conduct research related to agricultural microbiomes at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). Research in his lab focuses on investigating the biology, ecology and management of plant-associated microbes (both plant pathogens and beneficial organisms) of agricultural crops grown in the California Salinas Valley and beyond. His teaching interests center on the development of accessible and adaptable training opportunities in microbiome research, including Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), for young scientists from diverse backgrounds and experience. In addition to his professional accomplishments, he is recognized for his personal commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in STEM fields, and for his contributions to broadening participation of underrepresented minority scientists in plant and microbial sciences. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @JP_DundoreArias Lab website: dundoreariaslab.weebly.com |
ADVISORS
Alba Cardenas, Guest Speaker and Advisor
STEAM Educator, San Jose, CA My name is Alba Cárdenas, I am originally from Mexico, the state of Chihuahua. I have lived and grown up in California since 1995 when I arrived at the age of ten. I have always been a science and arts lover. I have worked with students in both middle school and high school in various fields like STEM and STEAM. I have been fortunate to always find a space to explore, create, and grow as an individual. Some of my many favorite things to have learned in the last few years are soldiering and biomaterial exploration, being the most recent. In the last year I worked in the Art & Design Thinking camp with Alliance for Youth Achievement, I was introduced to biomaterials and some of its various mediums. I continued my exploration into the classroom to show the middle school students in hopes of sparking some interest in biomaterials as part of their STEM exploration. Today, I still watch over mealworms and beetles, and document my visits and what I do with them. Due to the pandemic, I am not able to visit as often, so documenting is very important to keep track of what has changed. Documenting has always been something I have done for as long as I can remember, and I will share some of my work with you all. |
Leticia Hernandez, Guest Speaker and Advisor
Educator and community garden leader, Salinas, CA Leticia Hernandez is a wife, mom, self-taught gardener. When she is not gardening she is working for the Center for Land-Based Learning as a program coordinator for a high school program called FARMS Leadership. She has also brought to life the Local Urban Gardeners Community Garden in Natividad Creek Park. “The idea to start a garden came from a lack of garden support in my neighborhood and in Salinas. I was just learning to garden and I struggled to find local garden resources or educational opportunities. I envied larger cities that had 25-100 year old community gardens and I felt like Salinas was missing out on all the benefits of having gardens for community use and education. I really wanted to be a part of a gardening community and I remember asking myself "If not me then who?" and "If not now then when?". I couldn't wait for someone else to come along and start a garden, who knows how long I might be waiting. There was also a sense of urgency for my children and all the children in the community. How long must they wait and what if no one does it? I felt a call to action and I took it. I figured the worst thing people could say was "no" and that never happened. We have been stewards of the land for nearly 5 years and I am excited to work on expanding programming for youth and learning from them.” - Leticia Hernandez, Local Urban Gardeners |
GUEST SPEAKERS
Matias Kaplan
PhD Candidate, Bioengineering, Stanford University Matias is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He had a BS in Biological Engineering from the University of Florida and is passionate about creating a more inclusive bioengineering community. Mr. Kaplan will be talking with us about biosensors, as well as sharing some of his research. |
Joshua Land, Technical Program Manager, Otherlab
Joshua Land is currently a technical program manager for the science and innovation hub Otherlab. He has worked at a number of startup ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Joby Aviation and Volute Inc.. After starting his professional career as a bread baker, he realized he would rather direct his focus to play a more direct role in the reversal of climate change, and to do so he returned to school to study robotics engineering and sustainability. With a technical degree under his belt and experience with founding and raising funding for community driven engineering efforts, Josh moved into industries focused on reducing our global carbon footprint. Having seen a number of innovative projects fail to launch while others rose into success, Josh is now developing projects to help bring the most impactful technologies in the world of carbon reduction and energy efficiency to market. Joshua will be speaking to us about ideation, prototyping, and testing. Otherlab is an independent research & design lab pairing creativity with rigor to bring new solutions in renewable energy and robotics to market. |
Josué Gil-Silva
Undergraduate student (Class of 2023), Mechanical Engineering Josué is a Mechanical Engineering student at Stanford originally from Salinas, California. Josué is passionate about using the design process to make a social impact, and he has worked on several projects in the past, including designing an affordable back brace for farmworkers and interning at a community solar company called Shake Energy. Through his Internship, Josué learned how innovative technologies like community solar are not accessible to low-income communities, and how much of a difference can be made by getting their input in the design process. Through BioJam, Josué is excited to work with the team to work with the team to put on a fun camp and inspire kids from his own community to dream big. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josue-gil-silva-20591a168 Instagram: @jdotgil23 |
Melissa Ortiz is a Salinas grown artist, designer, and educator with a passion for learning and sharing with youth in her community. Her earliest memories of creating piñatas with her mother continue to fuel her desire to integrate the arts in her practice. She graduated from Hartnell College, UCSB, and San Francisco State University towards a single subject art teaching credential. She continued her education in graphic design at The Bay Area Video Coalition, UC Berkeley Extensions, The Florence Institute of Design International, and as a marketing assistant with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. With 5 years of teaching experience at alternative ed high schools across the bay area and Salinas, Melissa has witnessed the power of play and curiosity in the classroom. This remains at the forefront of her teaching practice as an aspiring artist/STEAM educator. The intersection between community, art, design, technology, and science are the focus of her projects while she attends the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, for an MFA Design (Industrial Design).
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COLLABORATING ORGANIZATIONS
Xinampa a Salinas Community Bio Lab
Alliance for Youth Achievement (AYA) San Jose
Xinampa a Salinas Community Bio Lab
Alliance for Youth Achievement (AYA) San Jose
This is a program of the Nest Makerspace of Okada Design
SPONSOR
This program is made possible through the generous support of the Biodesign Challenge
This program is made possible through the generous support of the Biodesign Challenge
and made possible by in-kind donations from Xinampa, the Tech Interactive, Grow by Ginkgo Bioworks,
the Fischbach Group at Stanford University, Lectrify and the Alliance for Youth Achievement
the Fischbach Group at Stanford University, Lectrify and the Alliance for Youth Achievement