Lab-on-a-chip workshop activities for secondary school students

Abstract

The ability to engage and inspire younger generations in novel areas of science is important for bringing new researchers into a burgeoning field, such as lab-on-a-chip. We recently held a lab-on-a-chip workshop for secondary school students, for which we developed a number of hands-on activities that explained various aspects of microfluidic technology, including fabrication (milling and moulding of microfluidic devices, and wax printing of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices, so-called μPADs), flow regimes (gradient formation via diffusive mixing), and applications (tissue analysis and μPADs). Questionnaires completed by the students indicated that they found the workshop both interesting and informative, with all activities proving successful, while providing feedback that could be incorporated into later iterations of the event.

FIG. 1.

Five lab-on-a-chip based activities designed for school students.

FIG. 2.

(a) Polymer injection moulder used to fabricate PMMA keyrings. (b) The aluminium mould and the PMMA devices formed from it. (c) Food-grade silicone moulds fabricated from the PMMA keyrings.

FIG. 3.

Wax designs for paper devices: (a) Y-shaped channel, (b) gradient channel design, and (c) laminar flow assay design.

FIG. 4.

Exploded view of SolidWorks designs for CNC milling of oversized gradient devices. (a) Design 1, used as a “demo chip,” featuring four levels of branching and six outlets. (b) Design 2, referred to as the “juice chip,” which consisted of two levels of branching and four outlets.

FIG. 5.

SolidWorks design for CNC milling of an oversized tissue analysis chip. The top plate featured access holes, while the bottom plate featured a channel.

FIG. 6.

(a) Photograph of a tool cutting a design into a metal workpiece via CNC milling. The example shown would then be taken for use as a master for injection moulding. (b) Pantograph being used by a student to “mill” a channel design from a template into a scratch art card. (c) The channel designs on the template and the resultant designs transferred to the scratch art cards. Reprinted with permission from Grimes et al., Lab Chip 8(1), 170–172 (2008). Copyright 2008 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

FIG. 7.

Moulding of chocolate microfluidic chips. (a) A student extracting molten chocolate into a 10 ml syringe from an improvised bain-marie. (b) The student dispensing molten chocolate into a silicone mould. (c) Cooled chocolate LOC devices and their moulds.

FIG. 8.

(a) Preparation of paper microfluidic devices for the workshop by melting wax into the paper. (b) Laminar flow style device. (c) Y-shaped channel. (d) Gradient channel design. (e) Students preparing their own paper designs.

FIG. 9.

(a) Demonstration of gradient formation in microfluidic devices to schoolchildren, using a demo chip and a juice chip. (b) Continuously flowing red and blue food dye solutions pumped through the oversized demo chip to show the principle. (b) An oversized juice chip, with syringes of fruit juices connected for students to try to manually generate their own gradient across the chip.

FIG. 10.

(a) Oversized tissue chip featuring a chamber into which pH paper was added to mimic a tissue sample. (b) Students manually operating the device by drawing either lemon juice or water through the channel by negative pressure, exposing the pH paper “tissue” to different “drugs.” (c) Effect of water and lemon juice on the pH paper, indicating positive and negative effects of the “drugs.” An actual tissue microfluidic device was also shown to students to demonstrate the features of the real device compared to the oversized demonstration device.

FIG. 11.

Student responses to the questionnaire. (a) “How did you find the workshop?” (b) “How well was each station explained?” (c) “What was your favourite station?”.