Team:NUS Singapore/Public Engagement
Overview
Along with the NTU-Singapore iGEM team, we organised a one-day educational outreach event, Life Hacks!2.0. The event, consisting of experts sharing, panel discussions and interactive activities, aimed to provide Singaporean pre-tertiary students a fun yet educational opportunity to learn about Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship.
PRE-EVENT
THE RELEVANCE OF LIFEHACKS! 2.0
Synthetic Biology is key to Singapore’s sustainability
The National Research Foundation, Singapore’s primary research agency, recently launched and funded the national Synthetic Biology R&D programme, to encourage deep science research that expands our country’s synthetic biology capabilities. It aims to promote a bio-based economy that drives the development of more sustainable manufacturing processes and improved health and nutrition practices, as well as create high quality job markets. Singapore thus believes that Synthetic Biology, an interdisciplinary form of research, has great value and potential for growth.
Many students know little about the emerging field of Synthetic Biology
Despite the aforementioned initiatives of Synthetic Biology development by the government, most of our undergraduate peers from non-biological science domains have little understanding of this field. We identified that this was likely due to the lack of exposure of students to Synthetic Biology in their pre-university curriculum. Figure 1 shows that the standard Biology curriculum of a Singaporean Junior College (High School equivalent) student does not include Synthetic Biology.
Local universities also provide limited outreach to pre-tertiary students to explore Synthetic Biology. Currently, only two modules on Synthetic Biology are offered by the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University to few academically inclined pre-tertiary students.
Local universities also provide limited outreach to pre-tertiary students to explore Synthetic Biology. Currently, only two modules on Synthetic Biology are offered by the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University to few academically inclined pre-tertiary students.
Life Hacks! 2.0 - A fun crash course about Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship
We believe that the lack of involvement of students in Synthetic Biology at the pre-tertiary level is a huge missed opportunity for them to learn and develop interest in Synthetic Biology, which may influence them to pursue related fields in their studies. Even if pre-tertiary students choose non-biological science fields in the future, their knowledge about Synthetic Biology and its potential will encourage multi-disciplinary efforts to bring Synthetic Biology from the lab to real-world applications.
We thus decided that in order to foster interest in this field, we had to come up with fun and engaging activities to bring the world of Synthetic Biology to Singapore’s youths. Together with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) iGEM team, the outreach sub-teams from both schools spearheaded a collaboration - Life Hacks!2.0, a one-day symposium for pre-tertiary students to learn all about Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship.
We thus decided that in order to foster interest in this field, we had to come up with fun and engaging activities to bring the world of Synthetic Biology to Singapore’s youths. Together with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) iGEM team, the outreach sub-teams from both schools spearheaded a collaboration - Life Hacks!2.0, a one-day symposium for pre-tertiary students to learn all about Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship.
EVENT
WHAT WE DID IN LIFEHACKS! 2.0
Life Hacks! 2.0
In collaboration with the NTU iGEM team, we organised Life Hacks!2.0, a large-scale educational outreach event to promote Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship to among pre-tertiary students. We disseminated our event poster (Figure 2) to 10 major pre-tertiary institutes in Singapore, as well as our social media pages to call for participants. We also invited university professors and iGEM Ambassadors to attend the event and share their expertise in Synthetic Biology and bio-entrepreneurship with the students.
Life Hacks!2.0 was successfully held on 19th June 2019 at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Engineering, with over 60 student participants from Junior College, Polytechnics and High Schools in Singapore. It consisted of three segments - Synthetic Biology & bio-entrepreneurship sharing by subject matter experts, a panel discussion revolving around the topic of bio-entrepreneurship, and interactive activities that engage students to reflect about Synthetic Biology. The interactive activities included a tour around the home of NUS iGEM, our BiomakerSpace Lab in the NUS Faculty of Engineering.
Life Hacks!2.0 was successfully held on 19th June 2019 at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Engineering, with over 60 student participants from Junior College, Polytechnics and High Schools in Singapore. It consisted of three segments - Synthetic Biology & bio-entrepreneurship sharing by subject matter experts, a panel discussion revolving around the topic of bio-entrepreneurship, and interactive activities that engage students to reflect about Synthetic Biology. The interactive activities included a tour around the home of NUS iGEM, our BiomakerSpace Lab in the NUS Faculty of Engineering.
Synthetic Biology & bio-entrepreneurship sharing
Our first keynote speaker was Professor Tan Meng How, an Assistant Professor at the NTU School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, who is also the Principal Investigator of the NTU iGEM team. He introduced what synthetic biology is and illustrated key breakthroughs in synthetic biology. Our second keynote speaker was Prof Jimmy Peng Chih Hsien, an Assistant Professor at the NUS Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and our team’s co-Principal Investigator. He shared about the relevance of Synthetic Biology in engineering, and how it can be applied to areas outside of just biology – even in his own field of expertise, that of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Professor Hanry Yu, the founder of a biotechnology company InvitroCue, as well as a principal investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute & Department of Physiology of NUS, and Dr Edison Wong, a lecturer in the Singapore Institute of Technology and the Senior Advisor of Longrunn Medical Technologies, shared their experience in bio-entrepreneurship and company startups in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutics respectively.Assistant Professor Oliver Mueller, a lecturer from NTU whose expertise is in Plant Biology, introduced Plant Synthetic Biology, an less-known but nonetheless exciting field in Synthetic Biology.
Panel discussion
Following the sharing sessions, we held a panel discussion titled Bio-entrepreneurship: Understanding and Creating a New Ecosystem. Our panelists consisted of Professor Hanry Yu, Dr Edison Wong and Dr Tan Yann Chong who are experienced in bio-entrepreneurship and start-ups. Mr Rahmat Azhari Kemal, an iGEM alumni from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IBP) and a member of the Human Practice Division in the iGEM headquarters moderated the panel discussion.
Throughout the panel discussion, the moderator prompted the panelists to share their own experience in the field of bio-entrepreneurship. They shared their journey from academic researchers to start-up entrepreneurs, and addressed questions such as “How to determine the right mix of people and skills in a biotechnology start-up” and “Should a biotechnology start-up take a technology-driven or a business-driven approach”. The panelists’ optimism and confidence in bio-entrepreneurship was inspiring to the students.
Interactive activities
After lunch, the iGEM teams from NUS and NTU gave a short sharing of our projects. We played a Kahoot! Quiz at the end of the sharing, in which the students enthusiastically participated in to win prizes.
We then split the participants into 5 teams to rotate around the 5 station activities planned: Charades, HangMan, Synthetic Biology SNAP card game, CRISPR CAS9 + Cas13 poster sharing and a lab tour. As Albert Einstein once said, ‘Play is the greatest form of Research’ - play is an effective way to enhance learning and thinking about what was learnt. Both NUS and NTU teams came up with a few activities to prompt students to reflect about Synthetic Biology concepts and current problems in the world that we hope to solve with Synthetic Biology. For example - commonly-used Synthetic Biology terms such as “directed evolution”, “modularity” and “DNA sequencing” were introduced to students in the HangMan game, while topics for the charades game include climate change. The students also had the exciting and exclusive opportunity to tour the ‘Home of NUS iGEM’, our BioMakerSpace lab in the Faculty of Engineering. The BioMakerSpace is a cozy laboratory-cum-office space for our team to perform our experiments and have project meetings. We started off the lab tour with a safety briefing and ensured that all participants wore appropriate safety attire such as lab coats and safety goggles. In the lab tour, we introduced the participants to the different lab equipment we use for our experiments, and showcased the robotic liquid handler (OT-2) proudly sponsored by Opentrons.
Life Hacks!2.0 came to a fruitful end with a post event survey and group photo-taking.
We then split the participants into 5 teams to rotate around the 5 station activities planned: Charades, HangMan, Synthetic Biology SNAP card game, CRISPR CAS9 + Cas13 poster sharing and a lab tour. As Albert Einstein once said, ‘Play is the greatest form of Research’ - play is an effective way to enhance learning and thinking about what was learnt. Both NUS and NTU teams came up with a few activities to prompt students to reflect about Synthetic Biology concepts and current problems in the world that we hope to solve with Synthetic Biology. For example - commonly-used Synthetic Biology terms such as “directed evolution”, “modularity” and “DNA sequencing” were introduced to students in the HangMan game, while topics for the charades game include climate change. The students also had the exciting and exclusive opportunity to tour the ‘Home of NUS iGEM’, our BioMakerSpace lab in the Faculty of Engineering. The BioMakerSpace is a cozy laboratory-cum-office space for our team to perform our experiments and have project meetings. We started off the lab tour with a safety briefing and ensured that all participants wore appropriate safety attire such as lab coats and safety goggles. In the lab tour, we introduced the participants to the different lab equipment we use for our experiments, and showcased the robotic liquid handler (OT-2) proudly sponsored by Opentrons.
Life Hacks!2.0 came to a fruitful end with a post event survey and group photo-taking.
POST-EVENT
WHAT LIFEHACKS! 2.0 HAS ACHIEVED
It was a success!
To gauge the impact of Life Hacks!2.0 on participants’ knowledge and interest in Synthetic Biology, we conducted pre- and post surveys. Before the event, more than three quarters of students were unaware or unsure of Synthetic Biology, and were unsure if they were keen in pursuing their studies or career related to Synthetic Biology.
After the event, more than 70% of the participants understood what Synthetic biology was and were also able to point out some of the applications that Synthetic Biology can contribute to; 40% of the students whom indicated that they understood Synthetic Biology post-event are confident of educating others about Synthetic Biology. Moreover, a number of students also shifted in favour of pursuing studies and careers related to Synthetic Biology after the event. Despite the positive outcomes from the event, there is still a sizable group of students who were hesitant to pursue Synthetic Biology.
Nonetheless, a thorough analysis of our post- and pre-survey showed that students are much more aware about Synthetic Biology and interested in the futuristic applications it entails. Therefore, we conclude that our event, LifeHacks!2.0 was a very successful one.
Nonetheless, a thorough analysis of our post- and pre-survey showed that students are much more aware about Synthetic Biology and interested in the futuristic applications it entails. Therefore, we conclude that our event, LifeHacks!2.0 was a very successful one.
Participants were not the only ones to learn from Life Hacks!2.0
Through organizing Life Hacks!2.0, we discovered that there are many high school students who are interested in the field of Synthetic Biology but they do not have enough exposure to it. Synthetic Biology may seem very distant to them but they are still passionate about the topic. One of the visions of iGEM is to raise awareness about Synthetic Biology. Therefore, as iGEMers, it is also our duty and responsibility to educate the public about Synthetic Biology. We were very honored that we made it by making high school students interested. Many of them indicated in their survey saying that they will look out for iGEM news and might even consider pursuing Synthetic Biology in the future.
After iGEM event
As proud iGEMers, the ethos of responsible science is part of our core mission, and we are proud to have exemplified it through LifeHacks!2.0. We hope to continue this tradition in subsequent years, promoting the wonders of synthetic biology and inspiring the next generation along the way. We are heartened to have Ms Nurul Izzati - iGEM alumni of the University of Lund and iGEM ambassador of Asia, along with Mr Rahmat Azhari Kemal- iGEM alumni of Institut Pertanian Bogor (IBP) and a member of the Human Practice Division for coming down to our event. With their help, we are able to recruit some iGEM alumni to our event which contributes to the after iGEM aspect. To download the after iGEM report, click here.