As part of our project, we felt that educating younger students in the field of synthetic biology and sparking their interest in iGEM would be an important human practice advance. We sought to do this by creating a lesson plan for middle school students that can be found <a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/3/37/UCDavis_IGEMWorksheet.pdf">here</a>. By learning a basic foundation of synthetic biology, we believe that it will provide an opportunity for them to think, use, and apply what they have learned now to something more complex that they might do in the future. Synthetic biology is not commonly taught in middle schools but is a field that we feel can be introduced in earlier grade levels. Its abstraction of genetics into basic parts is something that can be easily grasped by students of a younger age. We feel that it is vital to educate people about the significance of the field and introduce them to what can be accomplished with it. The first step in doing so is by educating younger generations with the basic principles. | As part of our project, we felt that educating younger students in the field of synthetic biology and sparking their interest in iGEM would be an important human practice advance. We sought to do this by creating a lesson plan for middle school students that can be found <a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/3/37/UCDavis_IGEMWorksheet.pdf">here</a>. By learning a basic foundation of synthetic biology, we believe that it will provide an opportunity for them to think, use, and apply what they have learned now to something more complex that they might do in the future. Synthetic biology is not commonly taught in middle schools but is a field that we feel can be introduced in earlier grade levels. Its abstraction of genetics into basic parts is something that can be easily grasped by students of a younger age. We feel that it is vital to educate people about the significance of the field and introduce them to what can be accomplished with it. The first step in doing so is by educating younger generations with the basic principles. |