Education

Overview

In the iGEM Qdai 2022 project.In order to makeas many people as possible aware of synthetic biology we organized several educational activities.

Through these events, we could successfully share the potential of synthetic biology with a total of approximately 550 people in 2 schools

We believe that we succeeded in making students more familiar with synthetic biology, partly due to the cooperation of the schools in these activities.

The lecture at “Kure Mitsuda High School”

On 15 September, we members of Qdai visited Kure Mitsuda High School in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, to educate high school students who major in Biology about synthetic biology, in particular about techniques and ethical issues. Specifically, we conducted two main activities.

1. We started with a lecture on genetic modification technology works and its applications, and then we used designer babies as an example to help the students understand the ethical issues raised by genetic modification technology. Finally, we engaged the students in a discussion about genetic engineering.
2. We conducted an advanced class on synthetic biology, introducing specific aspects of the field and introduced ongoing research at the university.

1

10 high school sophomores participated in class “1”. This lecture was aimed at those who have only just started studying biology,
To introduce them to the fascinating aspects of biology.
To make the students aware of the existence and gain interest in synthetic biology and iGEM.
To make people aware of the activities of synthetic biology in their daily life.
To provide students with the ability to think correctly about ethical problems of synthetic biology.

The class had followed these objectives.

The class began with an introduction to synthetic biology, covering research specifics, before addressing ethical dilemmas using designer babies as an illustration. The session concluded with a discussion with Qdai members on the advantages and disadvantages of designer babies. During the discussion, students expressed their views, advocating that designer baby procedures should be limited to therapeutic purposes, while some argued that they should be outlawed to promote diversity. These opinions fostered a meaningful dialogue.

The pre-class questionnaire included the following inquiries:
What is your level of understanding regarding synthetic biology?
Have you engaged in any practical applications of synthetic biology?
Have you independently explored any literature or materials pertaining to this lecture?


The results of the questionnaire showed that 92% of the students, even those studying biology, had no or little knowledge of synthetic biology, and 0% had read books or attended lectures on synthetic biology, so very few people have any knowledge or experience of synthetic biology This seems to be a trend.
The post-lesson questionnaire contained the following queries:
Was the lecture appropriate in terms of difficulty?
Were you satisfied with the lecture?

The results of the questionnaire showed that 70% of the students were very satisfied or satisfied, and 90% of the students answered that the level of difficulty of the lecture was appropriate or somewhat appropriate. Pupils were satisfied with the content of the lectures and considered that they were meaningful.
When asked about what they found particularly useful or interesting in the lecture, responses such as 'The power of synthetic organisms could save the world' and 'The negative image of genetic modification technology has decreased' were obtained. In the discussion held at the end of the class, students sometimes expressed opinions that surprised the iGEM members, and we believe that we achieved our goal of 'equipping students with the ability to think correctly about the logical problems facing synthetic biology'.

2

Twelve high school seniors participated in class 2. In this lecture, for those who have made some progress in their biology studies,
To familiarize them with synthetic biology and the iGEM.
The students learn about the development of synthetic biology.
To inform them about research in biology at universities.

The lectures were aimed at

In the lecture, after reviewing the contents of high school biology, the lecturers explained the developmental contents of synthetic biology, using an entrance examination on the subject of synthetic biology as an introduction.
The third-year high school students are preparing for the entrance examinations and are highly interested in the examinations, so we conducted the class using actual entrance examination questions on the subject of synthetic biology, and were able to gain a high level of interest from the students.

The teaching materials used were slides we had prepared and questions from the Kyoto University biology entrance examinations.

The following questions were asked in a questionnaire before the class.
How much knowledge do you have about synthetic biology? Do you have any practical experience in synthetic biology? Have you independently read any books or materials related to this lecture?

From the results of the questionnaire, it appears that very few students tend to have any knowledge or experience of synthetic biology, as 75% of the students said they had no or little knowledge of synthetic biology and 0% had read books or attended lectures on synthetic biology as well.

The post-class questionnaire asked the following questions.
∙ Was the level of difficulty of the lecture appropriate?
The results of the questionnaire showed that the students were very satisfied with the lecture.


The results of the questionnaire showed that 87% of the students were very satisfied or satisfied, while 70% said that the level of difficulty of the lecture was appropriate or somewhat appropriate. Pupils were satisfied with the content of the lecture and considered it to have been meaningful.
In addition, we obtained feedback from students such as: 'I became more interested in synthetic biology research', 'I think the power of synthetic biology can save the world', 'I wanted to know more about the mechanism of genes' and 'I wanted to do research related to synthetic biology at university'.

The lecture at Fukuoka High School attached to Kinki University

This time, on 16 September, Qdai members actually visited and gave a lecture on synthetic biology to 70 students at Fukuoka High School attached to Kinki University. Unlike in the past, this time the lecture was given to students who had not studied biology and also to students in the humanities. This time, the lecture was given to 70 students at the same time.

In this lecture.
To make people who are not familiar with biology aware of synthetic biology.
To make many people interested in what they can learn at university
To make as many people as possible aware of the potential of synthetic biology for society.

The lectures were given with the following goals in mind.

In the lecture, after an introduction to synthetic biology and an explanation of its technical content, we introduced examples of the use of synthetic biology in society and used the research conducted by Qdai as an example to let people know about research activities at the university.
The teaching material consisted of slides we had made.

The following questions were asked in the pre-class questionnaire.
What are your elective subjects?
Have you read any books on synthetic biology?
How much knowledge do you have about synthetic biology?
What are your interests in synthetic biology?


The results of the questionnaire showed that many had never willingly studied synthetic biology and did not have much knowledge about it. Students also seemed to be interested in synthetic biology, saying that they would like to know what synthetic biology is about in the first place, how synthetic biology helps us in our daily lives and what the rewards of research are, and would like to know about genetically modified plants.

In the post-lecture questionnaire, the following questions were asked.
How much did you understand the content of this lecture?
Please tell us how satisfied you were with this lecture.
Please tell us what you found interesting in this lecture.

The results of the questionnaire showed that 93% of the respondents were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with this lecture and 93% of the respondents were able to understand or somewhat understand the lecture. We can therefore say that we were able to convey to the students what we wanted to convey in our lectures. Students also stated that they would like to "see how living organisms are changed through actual genetic modification", "think about whether we should accept designed humans", "want to know about synthetic organisms and legal issues", "want to know about things I have only heard of in words, such as genetic modification, but didn't know much about in detail, so I was able to understand the mechanism of synthetic organisms in an easy-to-understand way with diagrams etc. I thought it was interesting to hear about the mechanism of synthetic biology and its development. I thought it was interesting to hear about the mechanism of synthetic biology and its development.

Conclusion

In this educational activity, we made an effort to provide the participants with correct knowledge about synthetic biology and its relationship with society. We believe that the participants were able to gain knowledge about synthetic biology, which they had only a vague image of.
We will be very happy if some of the participants take up the challenge of iGEM, invent new technologies and contribute to society in the future.