Preparing Educational Material

With education available to the wider public we started preparing specific educational material. When preparing educational material, it's essential to consider both the target audience and the key messages you want to convey.

During our outreach to different schools, two opportunities presented themselves each with a different target audience, but we wanted to convey the same message to each group. The first was the 9th-grade students of ‘Højby Friskole’, who would be visiting the university for SDU Outbreak, an outreach effort to cultivate an interest in STEM and academia. The second group was the senior students studying biology and chemistry at Midtfyns Gymnasium.

Now that we had the target audience and key messages pinned down, the next step included selecting an appropriate teaching approach. To guide us in that process, we drew inspiration from three places:

• Conjugaid, a former SDU iGEM team from 2019.

• Our interview with Lise-Lotte Frisch, Head of Education at Nyborg High School.

• The 5E Teaching Model, which can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The 5E model is structured into five distinct stages: 1. Engage, 2. Explore, 3. Explain, 4. Elaborate and 5. Evaluate.

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The 5E model is structured into five distinct stages:

1. Engage: This initial stage involves understanding the students' prior knowledge and sparking their interest in the upcoming topic.

2. Explore: In this phase, students engage in hands-on activities to actively investigate and discover new concepts.

3. Explain: During this phase, the educator clarifies and expands on the concepts learned during the Explore phase, addressing any questions or gaps in understanding.

4. Elaborate: This stage provides students with opportunities to apply their knowledge through activities like presentations or further research.

5. Evaluate: In the final phase, the educator assesses whether students have grasped the core concepts. This may involve self-assessment, peer assessment, poster sessions, or quizzes.

Our interview with Lise-Lotte Frisch was very enlightening about how to present our material once we had made it. She highlighted the importance of allowing the students to work with the material on their own, and to present their findings to one another. As such we tried to keep the 5E teaching model and the advice of Lise-Lotte Frisch close to heart as we prepared and presented our material.

Højby Friskole - SDU Outbreak

Preparing Educational Material for 9th Grade Students

SDU Outbreak was an outreach event organized by Magnus Malling, Head of Education at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at SDU, who reached out to us and asked if we would be interested in a timeslot to present our project throughout the day.

We accepted, seeing it as an opportunity to raise awareness amongst students aged 15-16. Our main challenge in preparing material was simplifying complex biological mechanisms and tools in a way that students could understand. To address this, we made use of metaphors and comparisons, making the content relatable and easier to understand. We also included a quiz at the end of the presentation, which not only sparked the students' competitive spirit but also helped them reflect on what they had learned.

Our considerations concerning the 5E model were:

1. Engage: To capture the students' interest and assess their prior knowledge of the topic, we shared a story of a patient with Endometriosis, making the subject more relatable. Additionally, we provided a list of key terms we would be using throughout the lesson and asked the students how many they were familiar with.

2. Explore: Throughout the presentation, we encouraged open discussions, allowing students to actively engage with the challenges being presented.

3. Explain: A substantial part of the presentation was dedicated to explaining the tools of synthetic biology and their application within our project.

4. Elaborate: We aimed to provide opportunities for students to apply their newfound knowledge but found constraints in time hindered deeper exploration.

5. Evaluate: We concluded the presentation with a quiz that engaged students with the material while reflecting on their learning outcomes from the session.

The PowerPoint created for the workshop can be found in the material section. We ended up organizing two presentations and a tour of the university for the students and participated and helped in the laboratory work to spark their interest in academia, synthetic biology, and Endometriosis. We also created a survey for the students to answer at the beginning and end of the presentation to serve as feedback. The first presentation, "What is iGEM?", introduced the students to synthetic biology and our project. The second, "My Way to University," shared our journeys and the decisions that led us to academia. During the presentations, we engaged students with open-ended questions to foster discussion.

Midtfyns Gymnasium

Preparing Educational Material for High School Students

When preparing educational materials for high school students on an academic track in biology and chemistry we shifted our approach from our previous one. Instead of a presentation, we shifted our approach to a self-directed learning model using our educational compendium, “How to Solve Big Problems, with Small Tools”, created by our team.

This educational compendium aimed to introduce concepts in synthetic biology, Endometriosis, and gene regulation through a series of questions and problems for the students to explore independently. We incorporated a variety of metaphors and comparisons to make the text more engaging for the students.

In the compendium's final chapter, students were allowed to explore synthetic biology independently by examining the work of a previous iGEM team. They were tasked with creating a poster and presenting the key issue their chosen team focused on and analyzing how synthetic biology was applied as a solution during a poster session with us and their teacher.

Our considerations about the 5E model were:

1. Engage: To effectively engage students and establish a solid foundation for their learning, we prioritized ensuring equal academic levels among the students. In the first chapter of “How to Solve Big Problems with Small Tools,” students received an introduction to synthetic biology, endometriosis, and the learning objectives they would aim to achieve after interacting with the compendium and participating in the poster session.

2. Explore: Throughout the educational compendium, we ensured that hands-on learning was integrated through small questions, discussions, and collaborative activities for students to engage within their groups.

3. Explain: The significant part of the educational compendium was to explain the principles of synthetic biology, the techniques employed, and how synthetic biology can be utilized to solve problems like endometriosis. This content was particularly emphasized in the second, third, and fourth chapters.

4. Elaborate: To deepen their understanding of the practical applications of synthetic biology, we assigned the students the task of investigating key issues addressed by previous iGEM teams. They explored how these teams utilized synthetic biology to tackle these challenges and summarized their findings on a poster to present during the poster session.

5. Evaluate: During the poster session, students received feedback from us and their teacher. This collaborative evaluation enabled them to identify strengths and areas for improvement while considering different perspectives on how synthetic biology can address real-world challenges.

Teaching of 3.S and 3.Y

Our visit to Midtfyns Gymnasium consisted of two teaching sessions for two different classes 3.Y and 3.S. A consideration we had to keep in mind for one of the classes - 3.S - was the fact, that it was an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) class. Considerations of their comfort was taken into account, both before and during our visit, and included:

• Ensuring that each group had one person close by to ensure that they could ask any questions.

• Allowing students who needed a break to leave for a comfortable space without questioning them.

• Allowing students to present their poster exclusively to their teacher instead of having us be present.

During our first lesson, the students worked with Chapters 1 through 4 of our educational compendium, "How Do We Solve Big Problems with Small Tools". At the beginning of the module, the students were introduced to the day's objectives and given an overview of what to expect when working with the compendium.

Afterward, the students were divided into working groups where they read through the compendium and discussed the questions and activities found throughout. To ensure that each group was actively engaged, we conducted a summary session where we asked questions and followed up on what they had read and discussed.

Materials

In the boxes below our educational material from the SDU Outbreak and the High School lessons can be found.