Team:Hong Kong-CUHK/Preface

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PREFACE

The iGEM High School Division first started in 2010 and we have observed that there are relatively few Asian teams participating in this competition. We conducted questionnaires to investigate the reasons for this, and this guidebook was drafted on the basis of the first round of our findings.

Survey findings showed that a majority of Hong Kong high school students still do not know about Synthetic Biology. Therefore the primary aim of this guide is to further promote Synthetic Biology and enable high school students to understand its prevalence in our society. One teacher responded, “Our students are not so creative. They are highly dependent on teachers' guidance”. Thus our second aim is to inspire students, help them comprehend and apply an abstract set of concepts in different situations and aid in the design and implementation.

Another major concern is a lack of laboratory facilities and instructors. So with this guidebook, we offer checklists of requirements and policies that need to be met to form a team and jumpstart an innovative project, so high school students may articulate, document and legitimize their creations. It also includes step-by-step instructions and examples on BioBrick design and construction to illustrate meaningful links of BioBrick constructs to various fields of expertise and industries.

We believe this publication will be of great value to potential project innovators and entrepreneurs, and encourage them to be involved in the design, creation and execution of Synthetic Biology projects.

It is also important to state the limitations of this guidebook. The examples included are not intended to dictate project design or methodologies. There are several approaches that may be used in project design, construct and execution. One method used in one project may not be compatible and fail in another.

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