1. Poster presentation at Fukushima High School
We considered education to be a very important activity and held a poster presentation at Fukushima High School as a prelude to a full-fledged education program. We gave two 30-minute free poster presentations to first- and second-year high school students. The content of the posters was an introduction of our research.
Although the format was the same as a regular poster presentation, we were conscious of asking questions that required high school students to think, considering the fact that the presentations were positioned as a prelude to the Education program. Specific questions included "How can we keep inhibitors at the bottom of a ship?" and "What social problems can we solve with synthetic biology? are two of them. Despite the fact that this was not a solid education program, the students had a strong awareness of the issues and were eager to think about them. Many of the ideas of the high school students were very unique and deserved to be examined one by one to see if we could incorporate them into our research. For example, the idea of adding a peptide chain to cWA to make it hydrophobic and paintable was conceived at this time.
We believe that this education was effective enough because we were able to have in-depth discussions and exchanges of opinions with the students. In addition, we were able to learn how to interact with students and the order of explanations for future Educations. Because of the poster presentation at Fukushima High School, we were able to make the subsequent Educa-tion largely successful.
2. Education at Chiba Junior High School
Our education began with a class at Chiba Junior High School. Since the class was scheduled for about an hour with several dozen second-year junior high school students, we focused on "what makes synthetic biology interesting" in our lecture. Specifically, we explained the possibilities of synthetic biology, along with basic information about DNA. To have students experience the excitement of synthetic biology, we had students group discussions about how to utilize synthetic biology.
Thanks to simple slides and the group discussions, the class itself was very lively and somewhat successful as an education. The students who participated in the class were very enthusiastic, and we believe that we were able to achieve our goal of getting them interested in synthetic biology to some extent.
However, we also found some areas for improvement. The first one is that it is very difficult to explain DNA editing simply. I realized that the impression given to the audience can be easily altered by the content of the slides as well as the word expression in the presentation. The second is the progress of group discussions. We had only about 10 minutes for the entire group discussion, but we thought we should have prepared a little more time for that and also plenty of time to give feedback about the results of the discussion. These reflections will be important in the subsequent education at the Science School.
3. Education at SKIP Academy
After having conducted education through lectures and poster presentations at junior and senior high schools, we had an education for members of the science school hosted by the University of Tsukuba. This time, the audience was dozens of elementary and junior high school students, so we needed to make the content clearer than one at the Chiba Junior High School. The theme was “DNA and editing”. We made the slides easier to understand visually, and prepared kits that allowed students to experience DNA editing with their own hands.
These changes seem to have had some positive effects, and although there was a certain amount of feedback that the lecture was difficult, we didn’t receive any comments that they struggled to understand it. Though the lecture was held online, it was a very meaningful time thanks to many enthusiastic children and their plenty of questions.
After the lecture, we solicited feedback and questions via a questionnaire, and many students said they found the lecture interesting. We also received more than 100 questions, mostly related to DNA editing. We believe that this education, which played a great role in terms of generating interest in synthetic biology, proved that our efforts in education went well. We also found out that synthetic biology is an attractive field even for young children.
Of course, there were some points to reflect on for the next time. For instance, this was the first time we did Education online, so there were many things we did not fully understand, such as the explanation about how to use the kits. We need to improve on this point in the next year's online education.
4. Education at Science Forum
After feeling positive about the school education, we thought of conducting education at a science-related event held at the University of Tsukuba as the next phase. The event we’ve chosen as the best candidate we thought was the Tsukuba Science Forum. This event is designed for junior and senior high school students in the science field to hear from university students who are currently conducting research.
We applied to the university to attend this event and succeeded in obtaining an opportunity to give a presentation. The presentation was conducted over a two-day period, a poster presentation on the first day and a presentation with slides on the second day. Both of them were mainly reports of our activities along with the content of the event, but we also included the topic of barnacle ecology at some points, which got a good reaction.
Particularly in the poster presentation, we emphasize our uniqueness that all of our activities including fundraising are entirely run by undergraduates, which attracted a large number of viewers. This education was very successful in three ways, that it conveyed the attractiveness of synthetic biology and the attitude of engaging in research to students who were unsure of their academic paths, it gathered many viewers, and the members were able to improve their informing methods through the poster presentation.
5. Education at GFEST
As we've conducted many educational activities, we decided to have an Education in GFEST as our compilation. GFEST is a science school hosted by the University of Tsukuba and is a junior high and high school version of SKIP Academy, previously mentioned. We prepared a high-level lecture that was different from the previous one as we were informed that the students attending were well-educated. We newly set the objective of the lectures as helping them develop their scientific thinking skills by fully utilizing their knowledge, in addition to simply stimulating their interests.
The content of the lecture was to observe the larvae of barnacles, which are our experimental targets. Of course, we did not just let the students observe the larvae, but we also encouraged them to consider identifying the animal phylum barnacles belong to and the significance of the morphological characteristics of barnacle larvae by comparing them with larvae from surrounding animal phyla.
The lecture itself livened up as it included experiments, and the results of the post-lecture questionnaire were highly positive. Some excellent students hatched intriguing ideas we hadn't even expected, which contributed to the great success of this lecture.
Since this was the first time for our group to conduct an Education with experiments, we did have a few flaws in the progress. However, we could respond flexibly on the spot, and I believe this helped to enhance our experience. In addition, although there were some minor improvements in the lecture content, such as simplifying the introductory explanations, there were no major points to be regretted. We were able to give it our best shot, gaining a blameless outcome.
6. Bio e cafe
As we've conducted many educational activities, we decided to have an Education in GFEST as our compilation. GFEST is a science school hosted by the University of Tsukuba and is a junior high and high school version of SKIP Academy, previously mentioned. We prepared a high-level lecture that was different from the previous one as we were informed that the students attending were well-educated. We newly set the objective of the lectures as helping them develop their scientific thinking skills by fully utilizing their knowledge, in addition to simply stimulating their interests.
The content of the lecture was to observe the larvae of barnacles, which are our experimental targets. Of course, we did not just let the students observe the larvae, but we also encouraged them to consider identifying the animal phylum barnacles belong to and the significance of the morphological characteristics of barnacle larvae by comparing them with larvae from surrounding animal phyla.
The lecture itself livened up as it included experiments, and the results of the post-lecture questionnaire were highly positive. Some excellent students hatched intriguing ideas we hadn't even expected, which contributed to the great success of this lecture.
Since this was the first time for our group to conduct an Education with experiments, we did have a few flaws in the progress. However, we could respond flexibly on the spot, and I believe this helped to enhance our experience. In addition, although there were some minor improvements in the lecture content, such as simplifying the introductory explanations, there were no major points to be regretted. We were able to give it our best shot, gaining a blameless outcome.
7. Tsuku・Koi
As we've conducted many educational activities, we decided to have an Education in GFEST as our compilation. GFEST is a science school hosted by the University of Tsukuba and is a junior high and high school version of SKIP Academy, previously mentioned. We prepared a high-level lecture that was different from the previous one as we were informed that the students attending were well-educated. We newly set the objective of the lectures as helping them develop their scientific thinking skills by fully utilizing their knowledge, in addition to simply stimulating their interests.
The content of the lecture was to observe the larvae of barnacles, which are our experimental targets. Of course, we did not just let the students observe the larvae, but we also encouraged them to consider identifying the animal phylum barnacles belong to and the significance of the morphological characteristics of barnacle larvae by comparing them with larvae from surrounding animal phyla.
The lecture itself livened up as it included experiments, and the results of the post-lecture questionnaire were highly positive. Some excellent students hatched intriguing ideas we hadn't even expected, which contributed to the great success of this lecture.
Since this was the first time for our group to conduct an Education with experiments, we did have a few flaws in the progress. However, we could respond flexibly on the spot, and I believe this helped to enhance our experience. In addition, although there were some minor improvements in the lecture content, such as simplifying the introductory explanations, there were no major points to be regretted. We were able to give it our best shot, gaining a blameless outcome.
8. NIS-Kazakhstan team collab education
As we've conducted many educational activities, we decided to have an Education in GFEST as our compilation. GFEST is a science school hosted by the University of Tsukuba and is a junior high and high school version of SKIP Academy, previously mentioned. We prepared a high-level lecture that was different from the previous one as we were informed that the students attending were well-educated. We newly set the objective of the lectures as helping them develop their scientific thinking skills by fully utilizing their knowledge, in addition to simply stimulating their interests.
The content of the lecture was to observe the larvae of barnacles, which are our experimental targets. Of course, we did not just let the students observe the larvae, but we also encouraged them to consider identifying the animal phylum barnacles belong to and the significance of the morphological characteristics of barnacle larvae by comparing them with larvae from surrounding animal phyla.
The lecture itself livened up as it included experiments, and the results of the post-lecture questionnaire were highly positive. Some excellent students hatched intriguing ideas we hadn't even expected, which contributed to the great success of this lecture.
Since this was the first time for our group to conduct an Education with experiments, we did have a few flaws in the progress. However, we could respond flexibly on the spot, and I believe this helped to enhance our experience. In addition, although there were some minor improvements in the lecture content, such as simplifying the introductory explanations, there were no major points to be regretted. We were able to give it our best shot, gaining a blameless outcome.
9. Prospects for the Future
As mentioned above, we have conducted diverse education activities this year, but we also made some preparations for future years. For example, we have inquired for advice regarding educational activities from a professor from the Faculty of Education, and we have started developing a card game that could be applied to education. We are also preparing for a long-term science program in collaboration with the old schools of our members.
In this way, our Education never stops evolving to expand public awareness of synthetic biology.