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Team:Peking/HumanPractice/Sowing/Lecture
From 2012.igem.org
Summary
On July 14th, we gave a series of lectures to Beijing high school students, presenting the basic concepts and research methods of synthetic biology and introducing affairs of the iGEM high school division. These lectures turned to be a huge success. After the lecture, most of students eagerly flocked to the Peking iGEM team members and actively asked for suggestion about forming an iGEM team for their schools.
Life as Machines--- Rational Design for
Artificial Biological Systems
On July 14th, with the help of the Beijing Teenager Science & Technology Club, we gave a series of lectures under the theme of "Life as Machines --- Rational Design for Artificial Biological Systems". We presented basic concepts and research methods and techniques of synthetic biology to these students, and introduced the affairs of the iGEM competition to them. Hundreds of students attended this lecture and the Peking iGEM team members were bombarded with questions afterwards.
Figure 1. Lecture "Life as Machines --- Rational Design for Artificial Biological Systems".
The first lecture, "Introduction to Synthetic Biology" was given by one of our team members, Xing Wenmin. At the beginning of the lecture, Wenmin asked a question, "What is biology in your mind?", which strongly captured students' imagination and then led to our theme --- Life as Machines. This introductory lecture covered some fancy work of synthetic biology over the years, such as the colorful and aromatic E. coli, as well as fundamental biological knowledge necessary for better understanding of synthetic biology, such as the use of E. coli in the laboratory, central dogma, gene regulation and biosensors.
if you can not view this video，please click HERE.
The second lecture, "Research Guidelines of Synthetic Biology" was given by Xiong Hongyu, our deputy team leader. He used an analogy to compare research guidelines of synthetic biology to the engineering cycles, and used a typical project, "A synthetic biological approach to solve heavy metal contamination", which was Peking 2010's iGEM project, as a demonstration. The lecture exhibited research guidelines as "specification --- design --- modeling --- test --- production" and revealed that the researching approaches have combined methods in multiple subjects such as physics, biology, and chemistry.
if you can not view this video，please click HERE.
The last lecture, "iGEM HS-Division in a Nutshell", was given by Zhou Wenyuan, another deputy team leader. As the most important part, the introduction of the iGEM high school division is designed to motivate high school students to participate in the iGEM competition, and to encourage them to become future synthetic biologists. Hence, Wenyuan firstly introduced what the iGEM HS-Division to the students and further explained what their American peers who have previously taken part in the competition feel about the iGEM. Then Wenyuan introduced the application prospects of synthetic biology. Finally he used the 2011 Heidelberg iGEM team as an example to introduce the steps and requirements of participating in the iGEM contest. In the end of this session, Wenyuan also brought about the topic of safety issues of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
if you can not view this video，please click HERE.
Then a sharing session was held to provide a chance for these secondary school students to ask any questions that had sprouted in their minds with all this newfound knowledge in synthetic biology and iGEM, and also to share any opinions they had. For example, they expressed major concerns about GMOs around them and asked about suspected GMO-induced health problems that had been reported. Such questions were analysed and further discussed; thus, a more scientifically-based and alert vigilance was established among lecture attendees.
Figure 2. Students are seriously listening to the lectures.
Figure 3. Students are discussing the topics covered in the lectures.
Figure 4. Students are consulting How to establish a iGEM HS team to participate in the competition.
Figure 5. A group photo of Peking2012 team and Ms Zhou Lin, the Chief Secretary of BTSTC. (Ms Zhou is on the right hand side)
The lectures turned to be a huge success. Afterwards, many of the students approached Peking iGEM team members and actively asked for suggestions about forming their own iGEM teams, and for guidance in their experiments as well. In fact, students from Beijing No.4 High School and The Second High School attached to Beijing Normal University had shown they were more than willing to form a team to take part in the coming iGEM high school competition in 2013. The splendor of this occasion was recorded by the club and was put on its official website Beijing Teenager Science & Technology Club.
Reflection
The Peking iGEM team members XIONG Hongyu, XING Wenmin, and ZHOU Wenyuan presented a vivd description of the concept and the research guideline of Synthetic Biology, and clearly explained matters of iGEM High School Division. Today's lecture is certainly a good start and I believe more and more students will be attracted to Synthetic Biology.
------ Ms Zhou Lin, the Chief Secretary of Beijing Teenager Science & Technology Club
"To those high school students, this mysterious subject exhibits the possibility to design an artificial bio-system which functions as they want, an excellent idea not only challenging the students' intelligence, but also encouraging them to work together to explore the charming nature."
------ Ms Lee Xuemei, the Science Director in Beijing No.4 High School
"Incredible! I never thought of improving our lives in this way. The research guideline is so simple that I'm itching for a try myself in iGEM!"
------ A student from Beijing No.166 High School
"I'm so happy to get touch with the very frontier of the scientific research today and deeply impressed by the elegance of revealing the mystery of nature. Thank you, Peking iGEM, I've learnt a lot."
------ A student from The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China
"Synthetic Biology is such a interdisciplinary subject that knowledge of Biology, Physics and Chemistry are all incorporated, so we are enabled to work together to create our own living machines."
------ A student from The High School Affiliated to BIT
"Synthetic Biology is very exciting and of great potential!"
------ A student from Dongzhimen High School
