PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Stark, Jessica C. AU - Huang, Ally AU - Nguyen, Peter Q. AU - Dubner, Rachel S. AU - Hsu, Karen J. AU - Ferrante, Thomas C. AU - Anderson, Mary AU - Kanapskyte, Ada AU - Mucha, Quinn AU - Packett, Jessica S. AU - Patel, Palak AU - Patel, Richa AU - Qaq, Deema AU - Zondor, Tyler AU - Burke, Julie AU - Martinez, Thomas AU - Miller-Berry, Ashlee AU - Puppala, Aparna AU - Reichert, Kara AU - Schmid, Miriam AU - Brand, Lance AU - Hill, Lander R. AU - Chellaswamy, Jemima F. AU - Faheem, Nuhie AU - Fetherling, Suzanne AU - Gong, Elissa AU - Gonzalzles, Eddie Marie AU - Granito, Teresa AU - Koritsaris, Jenna AU - Nguyen, Binh AU - Ottman, Sujud AU - Palffy, Christina AU - Patel, Angela AU - Skweres, Sheila AU - Slaton, Adriane AU - Woods, TaRhonda AU - Donghia, Nina AU - Pardee, Keith AU - Collins, James J. AU - Jewett, Michael C. TI - BioBits™ Bright: A fluorescent synthetic biology education kit AID - 10.1126/sciadv.aat5107 DP - 2018 Aug 01 TA - Science Advances PG - eaat5107 VI - 4 IP - 8 4099 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat5107.short 4100 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat5107.full SO - Sci Adv2018 Aug 01; 4 AB - Synthetic biology offers opportunities for experiential educational activities at the intersection of the life sciences, engineering, and design. However, implementation of hands-on biology activities in classrooms is challenging because of the need for specialized equipment and expertise to grow living cells. We present BioBits™ Bright, a shelf-stable, just-add-water synthetic biology education kit with easy visual outputs enabled by expression of fluorescent proteins in freeze-dried, cell-free reactions. We introduce activities and supporting curricula for teaching the central dogma, tunable protein expression, and design-build-test cycles and report data generated by K-12 teachers and students. We also develop inexpensive incubators and imagers, resulting in a comprehensive kit costing <US$100 per 30-person classroom. The user-friendly resources of this kit promise to enhance biology education both inside and outside the classroom.