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Team:Paris Bettencourt/MOOC
From 2014.igem.org
| BACKGROUND Although an iGEM competition for High Schools exists, there is low involvement around the world. We are aware that many students would be interested in participating but do not know that the competition exists or are not sure about how to start an iGEM team. |
AIMS
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ACHIEVEMENTS Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras elementum mauris interdum lacus venenatis aliquet. In ac nulla semper, convallis orci non, vestibulum nisi. Maecenas quis ultricies tellus. Sed vulputate tempor ultrices. |
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Achievements
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Introduction
iGEM started in 2004 as a course in the MIT. Then, it evolved to become a summer competition for college students. In 2011, iGEM High School was created. Although the college competition has become more successful over time, this is not the case for the High Shcool competition (FIGURE). We are aware that many students would be interested in participating but do not know about the iGEM competition for Highs Schools or are not sure about how to start a team. There are some limitations that make it harder to participate in the contest, such as the lack of time or the appropiate lab facilities or the expenses of participating in the competition. To encourage more teams to participate in iGEM HS and spread Synthetic Biology, the iGEM Paris Bettencourt 2014 team has developed the platform MOOC iGEM High School.
What is MOOC iGEM HS?
MOOC iGEM HS is a multi-site platform that covers different topics necessary to create an iGEM High School team. As issues elated to organization, advice and support during the course are foreseen, we have developed a network to support High Schools. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) The Massive Open Online Course is composed by texts covering different topics important when starting an iGEM team. They can be found in Genius.com, a collaborative annotating website. Audiovisual material in English with subtitles in French and Spanish is provided with each topic. So far, the MOOC includes 21 topics distributed over 4 different areas: Fundamental facts of synthetic Biology, Bioethics at iGEM, Science project at iGEM, and Human practices at iGEM. MOOC iGEM HS network Many iGEM Practices & Policy projects (former Human Practices) are not continued after the competition. We plan that this tool will be used and improved by other iGEM teams in the future. For this aim, we have raised a network of organizations, people and institutions from all around the world interested in helping and supporting high schools teams of their area.
Structure of the MOOC
The MOOC for high school aims to cover different topics that are necessary to create an iGEM group in a high school. We also foresee some problems related to organization, advice and support during the course so we aim to create a network to support those teams. The MOOC has several tools to accomplish its objective: 1) Syllabus and topics: The MOOC has a syllabus, with text, documents, and audiovisual material that cover different general areas described below. There will be about 20 topics distributed over 4 different areas: Fundamental facts of synthetic Biology, Bioethics at iGEM, Science project at iGEM, and Human practices at iGEM. 2) Support and advice network: Several organizations have shown interest in participating in a network for helping and supporting high schools around the world that want to start an iGEM project. These organizations are: Andalusian Association of Biotechnologists (AsBAn), the Mexican Network for Synthetic Biology, iGEM team Göttingen (Germany), iGEM team Colombia, iGEM team Sevilla UPO (Spain), iGEM team Valencia UPV (Spain), iGEM team Gothenburg (Sweden), and iGEM team ETH (Switzerland). The aim of the network is to provide contacts for: funding options in both public and private organizations, lab equipment, scientific advice and project design. For that purpose, we aim to involve enterprises, universities and student unions from all around the world with the support of local iGEM teams and Paris Bettencourt iGEM team members. 3) Reward system and course organization: the course will provide a reward system to the participants in order to encourage them to finish the course. More resources will be unlocked as the participant finishes the different modules and answers correctly the different tests or activities (for example, contacts to enterprises and laboratories interested in supporting iGEM teams). For each topic, there will be an explanatory video with the main points to take home, a text with online resources and links, and a tool to interact with the MOOC community or organizers to post the answer to the different activities or tests.
MOOC Course
The MOOC consists of videos of around 3 minutes of duration that explain these subjects:
1) Fundamental facts of Synthetic Biology:
1.1) What is Synthetic Biology and the Central Dogma of Biology: what do we call the Central Dogma of Biology.
1.2) Engineering parts and genetic devices: How a gene is regulated? How to create a genetic circuit?
1.3) DNA & biobricks design: How to use the biobrick database? Tricks and advice
1.4) A model organism: E. coli: How do you use your biological chassis?
1.5) Main basic techniques that are used in iGEM: How to go from in silico to a plasmid
2) Bioethics at iGEM
2.1) Quick summary of history of bioethics concern in Synthetic Biology: Where did all the concerns about Synthetic Biology come from?
2.2) Data collection and sharing with the public: How to manage a database and private information of people?
2.3) Informed consent: What is informed consent? When do you need it? How to write an informed consent form?
2.4) Patentability: Can you patent your designed parts and devices for iGEM? Is patenting good for science?
2.5) Open access to research outcomes and concerns of bioterrorism: What is Open Access and which consequences can it have in the society?
2.6) Open discussion and bioethics education: How to allow a open discussion on bioethics within the iGEM team?
3) Science project managment at iGEM
3.1) Building a team: Human resources: How to build an iGEM team, where to find motivated people and how to select them?
3.2) Brainstorming: when ideas appear: How to brainstorm efficiently and select new ideas?
3.3) Choosing the project: from ideas to experiments: How build a good project?
3.4) Organizing the iGEM team: How to organize work and divide the tasks?
3.5) Funding options for iGEM teams: How to estimate the funding? What are the funding options? How to approach the potential funders?
3.6) The iGEM project wiki: What is a wiki? What should be in my wiki?
4) Human practices at iGEM
4.1) Advertising your iGEM project to the general public: How to advertise our iGEM project? What is the most effective way?
4.2) Measuring public opinion about your project: How can I conduct a survey measuring public concern regarding synthetic biology?
4.3) Science vulgarisation: presentations and meetings: How should I present my iGEM project to the general public?
4.4) Giving back to the community: As an iGEM team, what activities can we make to help the society?
4.5) Collaborations between iGEM teams
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MOOC Network
Many of our efforts were focused on developing a solid network of users ready to continue the project after iGEM Jamboree 2014 is over (Fig. X). High school work Our prototipe is based thanks to the Lycée du Valée de la Chevreuse: they are going to start the Biobuilder program next year and the MOOC iGEM HS is going to complement their Synthetic Biology classes. More than 15 high school teachers are currently working to include MOOC High School in their classes. Before launching the MOOC, we tested the platform with 4 classes (FIGURE). We recieved feedback from students and teacher about how to improve our course (FIGURE). Becasue iGEm is an international competition, the MOOC is multilingual. This has allowed us to contact high schools around the world (Fig. X). Specifically, We will make several workshops on October 13th to reach a total of 90 high school students in Seville during the "Week of Science" fair in the University Pablo Olavide. Student network and biohack spaces In order to continue this project, we have created a student association in the CRI (Paris) Thanks to biohack spaces and specially to the start-up Bento lab, we would be able to provide basic lab material for high schools that have no access to research labs. Many other iGEM teams and synthetic biology organizations have expressed their support to MOOC iGEM HS and committed to participate in its development during the following year (Fig. X).
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