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From 2012.igem.org

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Why did we organize this workshop?

• Only 12% of the french population had heard about synthetic biology in 2010 (Eurobarometer 2010 on biotechnoly). In our human practice report, we came to the conclusion that awarness should be raised, and that educating middle and high school students could be one way, amongt others, to acheive this goal. Our aim is that people can better understand the world they live in, the technologies that are shapping/will shape their lives, and to allow them to make up their mind (pro, against) on the subject in the most enlightened way possible. Please note that our primary aim here is NOT: "getting a higher approval rate of synthetic biology".

• GMO crops and food were masively rejected in Europe. In our human practice report, we concluded that this was partly due to the fact that scientists, European citizens and biotechnology firms never took the time to agree on what can be seen as a benfit, and whatcan be seen as an acceptable risk.

For all of the above reasons, we invited 60 high school students from the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel to come and visit our lab, and we organized a 3h workshop on syntehtic biology.

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Aims