Public engagement events informed us that the public’s perception of synthetic biology was limited. We value the importance of bringing together stakeholders from industry to scientists to regulatory agencies to the public into the discussions on synthetic biology technology implementation. This is of paramount interest to us, as we are project works is for the ceiling tile industry and we are working closely with one of its global manufacturers. As much as we strive to incorporate functionality and safety into our solutions, we need to be in communication with the public about what we and others are doing in this new field. Towards that goal of increasing public awareness and knowledge about synthetic biology that goes beyond the completion of our iGEM project, we have targeted the age groups of middle and high school students to focus on teaching and active learning of synthetic biology. Using the synthetic biology project, Building with Biology, we have a middle school and two high schools committed to using this foundational material to promote synthetic biology learning. Additionally, to increase scientific inquiry through doing, we serve the middle school in the capacity of mentors and advisors for student independent science research.
1. Incorporating Synthetic Biology to Farmwell Middle School Science Curriculum Through Building With Biology
We approached the Farmwell Station Middle School principal, Mrs.Sherri Loya with our interest to bring synthetic biology to Farmwell through Building with Biology. After a successful meeting, where we demonstrated the learning objectives of the kit activities, she was enthusiastic about adopting this into their curriculum and set up a meeting for us with the biology teachers at Farmwell. In late August, we met with the biology teachers and explained each activity in depth. They greatly appreciated the concept behind the activities, and the manner in which the activities were designed to engage the students and provoke them to think deeply. Eagerly, they committed to incorporate the hands on activities into different portions of their biology curriculum, from supplementing their new genetic engineering unit to ecology to plant and animal science. Excited by these activities, the teachers told us about Farmwell’s budding student research program and expressed their interest in recruiting us to mentor and advise these students, given our team’s extensive individual and collective research experience.Farmwell Station Science teachers Mrs. Currier (left), our iGEM team member Marissa Sumathipala, Ms. O’ Malley (Right) with the Building with Biology kits. Having completed our Building with Biology public events in the beginning of October, we gave our kit activities to Farmwell’s biology teachers. They will use it in the coming years. We will assist them with running the first few classes, until they are comfortable with the synthetic biology content that lies behind the activities. We will use Farmwell as a model to implement Building with Biology kits into other local middle schools.
2. Synthetic Biology Public Forum at High Schools with Building With Biology Project
Given the positive impact of the first two public forums at Broad Run high school, as documented in our Building with Biology outreach section, we have gathered additional web content to supplement the Building with Biology kit and are taking it to Stone Bridge high school for use in their Independent science research and research biology classes. The forum stands to draw students into the debate on the larger questions associated with synthetic biology technology, the risks, safety, sustainability, regulation, and benefits. Through thought provoking questions and open discussion from gene drives, engineering mosquitoes or the Zika virus, to topics on applications in agriculture, energy, and health, the goal of the public forum will be to raise awareness, learn, and get engaged in the public discussions on synthetic biology.
3. Mentoring Program at Middle School by Broad Run iGEM Team
To foster STEM learning, Farmwell Station Middle School science teachers are developing a Science Research Program to support students that have an interest in exploring and conducting their own STEM research. Given our individual and team experience with science research, Farmwell’s biology teachers, talked enthusiastically about their student research program and how our contribution to that program could be beneficial. Equally excited to reach out to such an ideal target group of 12 and 13 year olds with a keen interest in the sciences, we eagerly agreed to help out.
Science Research Project Mentoring
Our overarching goal is for students to gain knowledge through investigation, discovery, and contemplation. To sustain this goal, we will support them through research project advising and mentoring throughout the school year.
2016-2017 School Year Plan
Provide overview of on research process through an informational presentation. A Power Point presentation was made detailing the research process; topic selection, background research, focused research question/identification of research problem, experimental design, developing well documented procedures, data collection and analysis, and conclusions. Also included was our iGEM project illustrating this research process from conception of an idea to making conclusions. This Power Point presentation has been made available to the students and teachers of FSMS.
- Meet students on a regular basis before school to discuss their work, check their progress, help the work through and solve problems, and overall provide advice- Keep students motivated and excited to discover, explore, and solve problems critically- Provide support to the students’ and teachers to communicate their research at Farmwell's culminating Science Research Symposium
The first meeting with the students at Farmwell Station Middle School was held September 27 at the school library. We walked the students through the research process using our power point presentation. We were surprised by the number of students that showed up to this before-school meeting; there were over 25 students. During the discussion portion, some students talked about their topics of interest from plate tectonics to osmosis to computer graphics. In the coming meetings, as the students progress with their projects, we will get to know them better and provide more specialized one-on-one advice.
