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Synthetic Biology Workshop

To promote better understanding of synthetic biology by the general public and arouse students' interest to integrate a broad variety of science discipline in their science study, we have organized a summer Synthetic Biology Workshop in July 19-23, 2010 at our university. This Synthetic Biology Workshop was coordinated by our instructors, Mr. Sun Wong and Dr. King L. Chow, while we all participate as tutors throughout the week. The workshop aims to bring 25 high school students from F.4 to F.6 (equivalent to grade 9-12) to look into the future of biological research using synthetic biology as a platform. These students recommended by their science teachers all came with bright eyes and enthusiastically engaged in the five-day activities. Even though we had two days risking a direct hit by the Typhoon Chanthu, red signal of heavy rain, the determination of the students and tutors was un-deterred. People stayed on and finished a productive learning journey for the tutors and the tutees.

In this five days workshop, we focus on the exploration of science and engineering and their integration. We have organized daily lectures covering various aspects of synthetic biology, from the introduction of different applications of synthetic biology, concepts of Biobricks, basic molecular biology techniques for plasmid construction, PCR amplification of DNA for the subsequent manipulation, discussion about device and system design, and mathematical modeling using software, etc. Participants have done some direct quantification in a gene expression study. All these topics were accompanied by hand on experimental work dispersed into the daily schedule running from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

There are also two sessions that are worth highlighting. We have group projects led by students themselves. They started their own "iGEM project by design" and came up with a presentation at the end of a day and a half. We were all surprised to see how quickly our high school students picked up the ideas and gave a number of interesting design proposals within these two days. Their presentations were filled with enthusiasm and proposed topics spanned from using algae to make biofuel, to using bacteria for targeting cancer cells for treatment. We also had a project using fecal bacteria to absorb carbon dioxide to improve the green house effect – it would be a good idea if we can all tolerate the smelly discharges. The second highlight was a discussion on social ethical impact of biotechnology and synthetic biology.

In the discussion, we were very surprised that students are in fact more receptive to these new ideas and the applications of synthetic biology. In general, as long as the new development is helping the advancement of our ability to cope with medical problems, environmental issues or energy crisis, students were very supportive to have them further developed.

Exciting time flies, and the workshop that was prepared for a few months ended with a sharing sessions filled with drinks, chips, clicks of the camera and of course good memory of the participants about our enthusiastic group of iGEM team members. Who knows, they may be our future iGEM team member next year!

Comments on Workshop

Yimo:
The experience of serving as a student helper during HKUST Synthetic Biology Workshop benefited me a lot. I really appreciated the process of learning together with all those participators. From the discussion with those students, I was able to see something which I had never thought before. When talking about the application of synthetic biology, the ideas they came up with were quite inspirational and really constructive. Through working within a group, the strong sense of team work among these participators showed by their excellent performance also let me learn a lot. Besides, the workshop also offered me a chance to know more about synthetic biology.

Hanson:
The workshop is fantastic! I get to know a bunch of students who are crazy about biology. Though it is the first time they hear about synthetic biology, these high school students have shown their talents and affection to this field of science. Their inspiring ideas have left me deep impressions, which make me believe that they probably will be the new members of iGEM, exploring more about synthetic biology. In addition, by introducing and elaborating iGEM 2010 HKUST project, I have a more comprehensive understanding of what I am doing.

Wendy:
I think the workshop we organized in July for those high school students is a great memory and a valuable experience for us all. For one thing, we are really pleased to help those students to learn more about synthetic biology. Their enthusiasm and interest in biological research encourage us a lot. And their improvement makes us feel proud. For another, we are inspired by their creative thinking and effective teamwork. And we ourselves also have a deeper understanding about synthetic biology through this workshop.

Victor:
The most impressive part of this workshop is the enthusiasm of participants. They are all students who are interested in biology from high schools of Hong Kong. So, some of them have even learnt a little bit about genetics and experiments about that. As a helper (I was in charge of helping 3 boys), what I did is simply having an eye on them and drawing them back when they had done something quite wrong. I didn't even demonstrate any experiments for them and I never gave them a hand while making decisions. But to my surprise, they have done quite well. They can use pipetman without any difficulties after listening to the introduction; they can always keep things near fire under the circumstance that I didn't tell them about this. Most importantly, they are quite eager to do things themselves but will consult us first. That is really a good performance. I enjoyed this workshop so much~

Julie:
This synthetic biology workshop is an inspiring one. Participants learned amazing things about genetic engineering. How amazing? Just imaging you can change some characteristic of a creature. In this workshop, high school students were taught basic knowledge and skills about synthetic biology. And since it was their first time to step in this field, many of them were curious about how can we actually change the DNA within bacteria. By the end of the workshop, they learned to cut a plasmid with restriction enzyme, to paste two fragment of DNA with ligase and to amplify a specific DNA sequence with PCR technique.
To work as a helper, I also learned to appreciate the beauty of life through the introduction section of the workshop. This was the first time I knew that so many scientists are devoted to synthetic biology and they are actually creating miracles. Recently, a breakthrough was made by Craig Venter. And I am sure that we will see more in the near future.

Memories