Embryo Project at '16 Homecoming

Arizona State University fans and alumni gathered at the Tempe Campus on Saturday, October 22, from 1:30pm to 7:00pm to join in the traditional homecoming game festivities. Located beneath the School of Life Sciences tent between hissing cockroaches from Madagascar and a demonstration involving dry ice, the Embryo Project (EP) delighted homecoming visitors with a game called “Guess that Embryo”.Carolina Abboud

EP team members Alexis Abboud, Carolina Abboud, Christian Ross, and Kelle Dhein challenged visitors to identify pictures of animal embryos mounted on a spinning wheel. Successful guessers were rewarded with embryo stickers, EP trading cards, and chocolate. The EP team proved themselves generous hint-givers, and many ASU fans left the EP booth with prizes and a new understanding of the common developmental stages of animals.

Kelle Dhein“Is that a seahorse? A shrimp?” Many visitors to the EP booth began with such guesses after spinning the wheel of embryos. In fact, the intricately detailed embryo photos adorning the wheel were taken by ASU researchers, and though many of developing animals looked wormy and bent, none were a seahorse or shrimp.

Besides playing “Guess that Embryo,” the EP team encouraged participants to visit the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, an online Open Access publication that communicates concepts from reproductive and developmental biology to non-specialist audiences. By the end of the day, hundreds of ASU fans had stickers and trading cards pointing them to the resource.

More information: Kelle Dhein (kelle.dhein@asu.edu)