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Revision as of 18:49, 20 September 2018
The Copenhagen High School Symbiotes Project
It was our PhD. supervisor Kyle who got the idea to expand the iGEM participation in Denmark and include a high school team of students in the age of 16-19. Philip, from the last DTU team, Tenna and Jacob therefore set out to establish a high school team in the greater Copenhagen area to compete in iGEM; and so the project ‘Copenhagen High School Symbiotes’, CHSS for short, was born.
As it would be the very first high school team from Denmark to enter iGEM, a lot of regulations and rules had to be checked with the proper authorities to make sure it was feasible. With the green-light hasn't been given yet, but CHSS is starting to take shape.
Firstly, by the suggestion of Philip, they got in contact with the non-profit organization Biotech Academy, located at DTU, to plan a collaboration with them as they would with more expertise facilitate the project. The project could be modeled after the Biosensor project, which is another collaboration between Biotech Academy and DTU Biobuilders.
As past and present participants of the DTU iGEM team, they could contribute with structure of the process, planning, gathering information necessary and having the needed information regarding the competition to sell it to the teachers of the different high schools. Biotech Academy, on the other hand, offered experience with teaching biotech, engaging the students and what was necessary to be allowed to work in the lab with high schoolers.
With the forward movement of the project, they realised many more benefits of the CHSS team becoming a reality. Not only would it spark an interest in synthetic biology in high schools, which had been close to zero before, but it would also make a great chance for a collaboration with future teams from DTU and hopefully inspire more teams from Denmark.
The next step was getting the faculty to confirm the project as well as the necessary budget. They all spent weeks researching, corresponding through emails and having meetings with Biotech Academy and the DTU faculty to make the plans reasonable and feasible.
However, to make sure the project stood solid when going to the faculty to get approved, and also for when sending out funding applications, they knew they needed to have the high schools behind them supporting the CHSS project.
The participants would come from different high schools and conduct their research at DTU. The high schools were chosen based on location compared to DTU, the general level of education and competitiveness, as well as the level of science taught.
It didn’t take very long until a total of 7 high schools had shown interest and so funding began. To get a strong head-start, they decided to apply for a three-year period. Many hours were spent in perfecting their applications since they knew it was a lot of money they asked for.
Priming the Next Generation
In the early months of our iGEM project, Tenna from our team was recognized by her old science teacher from her elementary school from seven years ago who felt delight that one of his students had been touched and chosen a career in science. They agreed that back then, the chances for being inspired and learn about different branches, such as biology, had been too low.
It was between the two of them that our project, ‘Priming the Next Generation’, grew.
As a part of our community engagement, we embarked on this journey of presenting the many possibilities in biotechnology and its intriguing possibilities to make the world a better place to ninth graders in elementary school.
Lina, Tenna and Jacob began the venture with three classes, a total of 60 students, who were all very eager to learn the advancements and capabilities that biotechnology holds in transforming our every day. After a short introduction to iGEM and our project, we spent some time embarking in subjects such as medical microbiology, bioinformatics, astrobiology and, of course, synthetic biology. We wanted to illuminate the variation of branches one could take and remove the stigma that biotechnology is “only bacteria and yeast”.
They proceeded to teach the students about existing projects, here among some old iGEM projects from DTU, and what their possibilities with education and careers in Denmark are. After the enlightenment of what you could do with synthetic biology a discussion began between the students with what a possible project could be. No ideas were too out there and Tenna, Lina and Jacob tried to develop on their ideas and illuminate the feasible aspects of them.
Of course, it shouldn’t be too heavy for the fleeting minds of ninth graders and, so they not only made sure to keep it interactive with questions, but they also held a fun Kahoot quiz where the students’ listening skills were put to a test and their Fortnite knowledge was questioned.
This work may relate to or overlap with the work you document on your Human Practices page. Whereas Integrated Human Practices relates to the process of refining your project purpose and design, this page may highlight significant efforts that go beyond your particular project focus and/or address a significant broader concern in iGEM.
Of course, we didn’t want it to be too heavy for the fleeting minds of ninth graders and, we not only made sure to keep it interactive with questions, but we also held a fun Kahoot quiz where their listening skills was put to a test and their Fortnite knowledge was questioned.
The students were thrilled and the teachers all agreed that they would like this to be an annual event with the future DTU iGEM teams.
After having gotten success with the first school, interest grew among other schools. A short period went by and they’d gotten into contact with Lina’s old school, Sankt Annæ elementary school as well as the private school Skt. Knud Lavard, near DTU.
At the end of the iGEM-period, they had visited 3 schools and had plans of visiting 1 more school.
It was an overall great learning experience for the team members as well and they were all extremely pleased having had the possibility of establishing this project. Being at university-level, it can be hard to remember what was interesting in elementary school, but many of the pupils surprised in their great ideas and pre-knowledge of biotechnology and it was great practice in building a presentation for the proper audience.