Team:Qdai/Communication
Education&Communication
・Kagoshima Prefectural Kajiki High School
We hosted an educational event at Kagoshima Prefectural Kajiki High School in October. This event aimed at second-year high school students and about 40 students listened to our lecture.
First, this event gave the students a chance to learn about iGEM. In fact, iGEM is not well known in Japan, and none of the participants in this event had ever heard of “iGEM”.
The students were also able to deepen their understanding of synthetic biology. Technologies such as Gibson assembly and CRISPR-Cas9, which are not taught in high school, captured their attention. In addition, we introduced our thoughts on the misconceptions of synthetic biology and encouraged them to become more familiar with synthetic biology. On the other hand, we also introduced the risks of synthetic biology and helped the students understand the importance of the Cartagena law.
Our Art team introduced how to appreciate art under the theme of “Art with Synthetic Biology”, and the students actually appreciate the bio-art. They were able to interpret bio-art in various ways by learning about synthetic biology.
At the end of the event, we introduced the current situation of the university and the international exchange at the university to motivate the students to learn more.
We believe that we were able to contribute to the promotion of synthetic biology through this activity.
Fig. 1 Educational event at Kajiki High School
・Hokkaido University
About
As Hokkaido University reinstated the iGEM team, we had the opportunity to take in new ideas and get back to the basics. We also discussed the future potential of synthetic biology.
Why did we decide to do this collaboration?
Hokkaido University used to have an iGEM team. However, after 2017, they stopped participating in this competition. Currently, two students are working hard to get back to iGEM. We, iGEM Qdai, as a newly established team last year, held a meetup to teach what is necessary for a startup.
How did we help each other?
We talked about iGEM, how to gather team members, how to proceed with the experiment and other details. We also presented our last year’s project and wiki, as well as this year’s project to give them a concrete image. We also had an After iGEM alumni from Hokkaido University who came to the meeting and gave us valuable advice regarding his former iGEM experience.
What did we learn from this collaboration?
It was very valuable to have the time to reflect on the history of the project from its inception to the present. It was a meaningful time for us to get opinions from different perspectives on how to gather sponsors and experiments. It was an enjoyable and educational time for both of us. Synthetic biology is difficult to deal with in Japan and will continue to face difficult challenges.
・Fukuoka Prefectural Chikushigaoka High School
In October, we held an educational event at Chikushigaoka High School in Fukuoka Prefecture. This event was for the biology club of Chikushigaoka High School. Some of the participants were students participating in the Quries Program, one of the programs at Kyushu University. This program is designed for talented and highly motivated female high school students who are not yet ready to enter university. The program not only exposes them to some of the cutting-edge research environments of the university but also provides them with opportunities to experience stimulating research activities under the mentorship of faculty members in the science fields of the university. However, even though some students knew about the International Biology Olympiad, none of them knew about iGEM. The participants this time were students from the biology club, but mainly freshmen and sophomores in high school. Hence we taught the basics of genetic modification and genome editing and introduced Gibson Assembly beyond the content of high school students so that the students could easily understand and be intellectually curious.
During the question period, there were questions about the article on genome editing that we introduced in the lecture, and questions about “Alternative To Canary” that we are working on this year, making it a meaningful time for both the students and us.
