Register now!
Description
Synthetic Biology is a relatively new and unfamiliar field of science to most high school students. The Common Core curriculum implemented by most countries excludes Synthetic Biology from its covered contents, and students are provided neither opportunities nor resources for it until undergraduate studies. Hence, the high school population across the world is in urgent need of Synthetic Biology-based education and assistance from the necessary professionals, given the field’s relative significance in the 21st century.
As most high school teams enter iGEM with shallow knowledge of Synthetic Biology, the network of collaboration between high school teams is weak when compared to that of undergraduate and overgraduate teams. This in part stems from the lack of a solid institution in iGEM that is able to guide the high school iGEM teams to successfully find potential collaborators and maximize their experience in High School caliber through meaningful collaboration and the iGEM cycle.
Goals
The High School Synthetic Biology Summit (HS SynBio Summit) has the purpose of:
- Promoting Synthetic Biology in high school through various initiatives targeting both iGEMers and non-iGEMers.
- Bolstering international collaboration and friendship amongst high school iGEM teams through a solid collaborative initiative. - Assisting Highchool iGEM teams’ projects and programs.
- Revitalizing the iGEM High School Committee.
Summit details
| Component | Goals | Format | Date | Time | Target Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For iGEMers | Establish a high-school iGEM Community and provide resources and communication platforms | Topic-oriented online meetings and collaboration platforms on Instagram, Facebook, Discord and WeChat. | May-, 2022 | TBD | iGEMers |
| By Alumni | Invite iGEM alumni to talk about their experience and provide support for high-school students in their college applications | Online panel discussions and Q&A and 1-1 tutoring sessions | Mid-May/Mid-June, 2022 | TBD | Students applying for Bio/BME majors |
| HS Synbio Bootcamp | Introduce Synbio to more people and break science and research stereotypes | Online webinars, online experiments simulations and collaboration platforms on Instagram, Facebook, Discord, WeChat and Gathertown. | TBD | TBD | All students (from middle school too!) |
Events
Alumni Talk with Tingzhen Liu
Alumni Talk with Jane Liu
Alumni Talk with Annika Shi
Student Centered iGEM
Alumni Talk with Wanji Li
Firsts in iGEM
Alumni Talk with Richard Hou
Bootcamp class schedule
Week One: Project development
- Ideation: research 101, Synbio 101, DNA & Central Dogma
- Implementation: biobricks, Cloning/PCR/SDS PAGE, introduction to Bacteria and plasmids
- Presentation: scientific writing, presentation skills, storytelling
Week Two: Discussions on synbio application in real life
- Morals & Ethics
- Bioentrepreneurship
- Policies & Regulations
- Biosafety
- Human Practices & Education
Organizers
Collaborators
- American HS synbio Corporation
- Synbio.ID – Indonesian synbio association
- GEMS Academy - Taiwan synbio academy
- Education Network from iGEM Communtiy
- Synbio Alliance from iGEM Communtiy
- iGEM Indian League
- iGEM ambassadors to Europe
- iGEM ambassadors to Africa
- Mentors’ Network from iGEM Community
- JOGL
FAQs
We will invite you after you submit your registration! And the invitation link of Facebook and Discord is in the registration link.
We will have a 1-hour lecture, followed by 1-hour activities, and then a lecture… It will take a total of no more than 4 hours.
We DO NOT have lectures on Weekends! Enjoy!
We strongly recommend you to attend the entire boot camp to get a full view of synbio, to make friends, and to fight for your house! If you have other important things, attendance is not mandatory, but remember to look over the materials after you come back and make sure you will be able to finish your project!
Mostly in English, but we will open a transcript function. The one-on-one tutoring may be in other languages (Mandarin, Korean, etc) depending on the participants’ preference.
We will offer certification if you are absent from less than 3 sessions during the bootcamp. And we offer special prizes for those who have outstanding performance. We will offer special prizes to members in the house that wins (with the most credit) at the end of the bootcamp.