This short course is about real hands-on practical skill building in the area of biology, biochemistry and specifically, genetic engineering. This course is a first of its kind and offers a way for you the learner to do a real world project at home or school.Practical skills are key to success, however, in the world of online or schoollearningit is difficult to learn practical lab skills. In fact, typically one has to wait untiluniversity.

This short course includes some basic computer based pre-assignments for learning about DNA and genetic engineering. The bulk of the course includes you the student doing real hands on genetic engineering of bacteria. Making "plates", streaking bacteria, and ultimately engineering those bacteria with DNA - all in a few hours over three days.To complete this course, you mustget an Engineer-it Kitfrom Amino Labs. This can be found at www.amino.bio.

The real world skills picked up in this course will anchor and bring context to what you've learned in class or online.Moreover, this is a learn-by-doing course, so the practical skills you'll gain through doing this exercise willenrichyour current and future education inbiology. In addition to the hands-on skills, throughout thecourse,somescientific jargon used in labs is clarified, so that if you do decide to pursue a career in science, or become friends with scientists, you'll wow them with some casuallab language.

If you're tired of biology class and material being all about memorization, this course is for you! At the end of the course, you will be able to say you are a novice genetic engineer.

Biohacking is becoming a more popular subject. By taking this course and doing it at home, you will get an idea of what Biohacking is because you'll be doing the course in an unconventional environment.

Time commitment:The pre-assignmentstake about 1 hour to complete. For the hands-on exercise,be prepared toblock off between one and three hours each day overthree consecutive days.

Budget: The budget neededtocover costs of the hands-on exercise willbe within the range of$45to$100(for those in North America), and depends on what you already have around your house or school.

What this course is not:This course is not a comprehensive biology course, so do not expect too much theoretical knowledge- this course provides you with relevant information in real-timeduring the hands-on exercise.This is not a study guide for a test, however, doing the hands-on exercise while studyingcanhelp you to remember related information and principles that you've been tasked to memorize.