Team:SDU-Denmark/Education and Public Engangement
Education and Communication
Abstract
On this page, you can read more about our work in the Education and Communication field. You can read about how we created a compendium for High School Classes and conducted a class for some of the most talented youths in Denmark.
Introduction
We have had a focus on communication and education of high school students. We have created a compendium containing theoretical information about plasmid purification, restriction enzymes, and gel electrophoresis to meet this medal criteria. It also includes a detailed protocol on how to perform experiments within the above standing methods.
We choose to create the compendium with multiple recipients in mind. We want to make it easier for high school classes in Denmark and around the world to try some of the techniques that we often use in the laboratory. More on, we want to make this information accessible, which is why we have chosen to publish the compendium on our wiki and distribute the information about this to several high schools in Denmark. Due to our experience, we have noticed that many high schools in Denmark lack the means to teach their students about some areas like synthetic biology, which is another reason we choose to make a compendium. The primary target audience for our compendium is high schoolers, but it is free to use by anyone who would like to take on the challenge.
The compendium contains a brief walkthrough of the theory and methods that the user needs to know of. We also made sure to introduce our project to spread awareness of iGEM and PsiloAid. The different protocols in the compendium contains a list of materials and chemicals but, most important, safety information. While making the compendium, we asked our fellow students what they would like to have in a protocol, and an answer that recurred is an easy and understandable walk through the many steps. We took this information and made the protocol with three main focuses: purpose, protocol and illustration. The actual protocol is composed of simple instructions and boxes to check of is you have done the step. This ensures that the students and users of the compendium can keep track of the process. We also wanted to give the compendium a design that is pleasing to the eye; however, it should focus on the main objective, learning more about synthetic biology.
We invited the Academy of Talented Youth, which consists of high school students from different fields of studies, to join us in the laboratory using the compendium. We started the afternoon by covering all the theories involved in the laboratory exercises. The theory was coupled with the different practical methods whilst the experiments were performed. The high school students helped us by purifying and cutting the plasmids for our PsiDKM project.
We made it clear to the participants that they could always ask us if they had any questions. Moreover, we discussed our project and synthetic biology in general before we went to the lab. We also made a quiz testing the theory we had covered during their visit to introduce a fun element. This also made the students engage in the multiple components of the afternoon since they knew that a fun quiz awaited.
Feedback
We received feedback from the participants; some of these are listed below:
“The laboratory exercises were fun, the quiz was nice, the iGEM participants were excellent at creating a fun learning environment lastly it was cool to get a souvenir (picture of the gel)”.
“All the steps in compendium were easy to follow”.
“It has been great to get the opportunity to actively participate in the project”.
Implementation
