Team:ITB Indonesia/Synbio at School
Synbio at School
SMAN 3 Bandung Senior High School
Background: After an open discussion with our peers in campus, we want to try to engage with high school students. Although they’re younger, we believe that high school students are already equipped with the imagination, a problem solving mindset and basic biology which would make them ready to form their own thoughts and opinions regarding synthetic biology.
Goals: Synbio at School hopes to inspire high school kids, to make them feel that synthetic biology is not something scary and difficult, rather it is still a new concept with so much potential to be explored.
Our team visited a high school in Bandung, specifically the science and research club. We started the discussion with an introduction on synthetic biology, to give all the students the basic concept of the discussion. In the middle of the introduction, several students have expressed their enthusiasm by asking about the topic they had trouble understanding. After moving on to our project, the students tried to relate what we explained at the beginning and what they’ve learned in class to gain a deeper understanding of synthetic biology.
In the QnA sessions, it seemed true that this was an interesting topic for them. Some of them asked in depth about our project while others voiced their opinions on synthetic biology and even their concerns regarding its potential to be a biological weapon. Lastly, the discussion concluded with a quiz and a photo session.
After seeing the enthusiasm of the high school science and research club regarding synthetic biology, we became certain that synthetic biology as a concept could be understood and well received by high school students. Hopefully, Synbio at School was able to light up a spark of curiousity which will lead them to further explore the world of synthetic biology.
