Team:William and Mary/Human Practices/NASA

NASA

As a part of our Statewide outreach initiatives we wanted to connect with teachers and introduce them to new ways of teaching synthetic biology. With the support of a NASA Mini-Proposal we created a 10 subject course taught through William & Mary which engaged students by relating topics in synthetic biology to long term space travel and NASA. The descriptions for each lesson can be downloaded here. The 10 subjects include:
  1. Introduction to Mars
  2. Synthetic Biology Techniques & Tool Kit
  3. Utilizing a Closed System
  4. Food on Mars
  5. Waste Management
  6. Fuel
  7. Water Reclamation and Recycling
  8. Diagnostic Tools & Ready Medicine
  9. Gas Exchange
  10. Shelter
The use of long term space travel generated a lot of excitement in our high school summer students who worked with us over the summer, and allowed us to explore up and coming bioengineering projects. The course provides teacher with advanced synthetic biology instruction while simultaneously conducting in classroom activities which connect to the Virginia Science Standards of Learning.
Upon completion of this course teachers will receive credit toward their Virginia State Teacher Licence which must be renewed every five years.
This course will give teachers the background knowledge and lesson suggestions for the successful implementation of new synthetic biology research into their classrooms. The program varies in the complexity of the lessons depending on grade level. The higher level lessons include completing a series of wet lab experiments. These experiments help students develop a proficiency in bioengineering techniques, however, they require access to a lab, equipment, and reagents not always available at schools. To reduce these barriers we began a partnership with Thermofisher Scientific which will help improve student access to hands on activities related to synthetic biology. That part of our outreach initiative can be found here.
Registration for this course opens in November for teachers in the Williamsburg-James City County School District.
The original mini-proposal can be found here