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Team:Peking/HumanPractice/SowingTomorrowSyntheticBiologists/GuidanceAndFundingApplication
From 2012.igem.org
Summary
We analyzed the questionaires the students filled after the lectures, and obtained crucial information about their opinions and intention. Guided by the questionaire, we wrote a report to apply for a specific funding for iGEM-HS in Beijing and began to guide three students from the SHSBNU towards their future participation in iGEM competition.
Questionaire Analysis
In order to more about what high school students thought of Synthetic Biology, iGEM, and our lectures, as well as what supports do they want to get from us, we made a questionaire. After the lectures, 53 students (24 male and 29 female) out of all the audience filled our questionaire.
Figure 13. Questionaires.
Questionaire. (Chinese Version)
Questionaire. (English Version)
The datas are of great help. According to Question 1 and Question 4 in the questionaire, we recognized that over three-fifths of students have not heard of Synthetic Biology and over nine-tenths of students have not heard of iGEM competition before our lectures. Therefore it is extremely necessary for us to popularize the concept of SB as well as iGEM before any other actions. What makes us impressed is nealy 60% of students attended desire to take part in the iGEM competition, according to Question 6, which means our lectures of SB and iGEM did attract most of students' interests and enables us to fulfill our goal to guide them towards future participation in iGEM.
Figure 14. Question 1 Have you ever heard of Synthetic Biology before this lecture?
Figure 15. Question 4 Have you ever heard of iGEM competition before this lecture?
Figure 16. Question 6 Would you like to participate in the iGEM (HS) contest in the future?
Furthermore, based on the analyses we made it clear what we should do next. As we could see from the datas, there are 40% of students who are not willing to participate iGEM in the future; actually, only a few of them are not interested in SB or the iGEM, so we decided to analysize the reasons behind. According to Quesion 7, out of all the possible reasons "Having little academic support" and "No funding" are the most important. In addition, when we managed to find out what supports do students who desire to participate iGEM need, corresponding to Question 9, we discover that "Elementary Genetic Engineering Techinque" and "Guidance from previous participants" are the most crucial aspects.
Figure 17. Question 7 For which reasons you are not willing to take part in the iGEM (HS) competition?
Figure 18. Question 9 If you'd like to participate in iGEM (HS), from which aspects of support do you need?
In conclusion, our lectures helped to propage the concepts of SB and iGEM competition to high school students, most of who didn't know about those issues. Some students are willing to participate in the iGEM competition while others are not due to academic and financial shortage. Hence, next step we considered to offer some help to the students with interests, like teaching them how to implement elementary molecular cloning experiments; if it is possible, we would also like to guide students and schools to apply fundings from the Education Commission.
Funding Application
After the lectures, Ms Lee Xuemei, the Science Director of Beijing No.4 High School, exhibited strong interests to Synthetic Biology and international Genetically Engineering Machine (iGEM) competition. On July 27th, Ms Lee came to the lab of Peking iGEM. It was the time PKU-UCSF Workshop taking place, with the company of our advisor Prof. Ouyang Qi, we took Ms Lee to the workshop field and had a serious talk on how to spread ideas of SB and iGEM to high school students.
Durign our discussion, we have reached an agreement. Unlike most universities, high schools in Beijing, even in whole China, are short of an abundance of financial support, private or public. Thus, we thought that participation in iGEM HS Division in China would better be government-aided. Therefore we decided to write a report together with Ms Lee Xuemei to apply for a specific funding for Beijing high school students to participate in the iGEM competition. The report contains survey of iGEM competition these years, aptitudes and abilities of high school students in Beijing, and a comparison between students in China and the United States. It has been submitted to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and waiting for approval.
Guiding HS students towards future participation
After our lectures, we decided to guide students from The Second High School attached to Beijing Normal University to participate in the coming iGEM HS in 2013. On August 28th, our several team members once again went to The Second High School attached to Beijing Normal University and had a talk with Ms Shen Jinghong, the Associate Principal of the school, and two other teachers who are interested in iGEM. We also took lots of photos recording the scene of discussion.
According to our great job in propagating the concept of iGEM HS division one and a half month before, their students are motivated to take part in the iGEM competition, fulfilling their utmost potential. We discussed in details about the total number of students participated, the schedule, and what we are able to do in supporting them. They were thankful for our efforts and began to consider subsequent issues.
In September, we invited some of the students, YAN Wumo, GE Qiuchen, and HAN Yutong, in The Second High School attached to Beijing Normal University (SHSBNU), who are willing to participate in the iGEM contest, to join our group discussion and study basic molecular experiments techniques, such as plasmid extraction and gel electrophoresis. In the process, they have made a great progress in learning primary knowledge and frontiers of Synthetic Biology, as well as in the elementary experiment manipulation. We have also taken lots of photos recording their study process.
