Introduction
Our team recognized that the first step in taking action towards plastic reduction was raising awareness. Noting the lack of available hands-on education resources covering both mitigating plastic waste and synthetic biology, we took action within our own community. Drawing knowledge on hands-on learning and application of content from our school’s Applied Learning program (which includes courses such as AL Business and Finance, AL Synthetic Biology, and AL Design), we sought to patch this lack, developing a curriculum introducing students to synthetic biology with integrated workshops and real-life examples. To bring climate action to our own school community, we teamed up with Ecolve, a high school service club, to lead an in-school initiative promoting reusing, recycling, and removing plastic waste.
Ecolve Collaboration
Upon completing the Life Cycle Assessment, we recognized the importance of recycling PET
bottles. Deciding to stay within our community, we collaborated with a student-led club called Ecolve. Ecolve is one of the subgroups in Concordia International School’s GIN (Global Issues Network), which is dedicated to SDG goal 12, responsible consumption and production.
One of our first initiatives addressed the large number of PET bottles used in our school (Concordia International School Shanghai), which we identified as a potential resource rather
than waste. Two iGEM members partnered with Ecolve to launch a project called “Waste to Wardrobe.” This initiative combined visual campaigns (such as posters displayed in the school café, hallways, and cafeteria) with direct outreach efforts, including school-wide announcements.
The project aimed to collect 100 kg of PET bottles per semester and collaborate with a company called Goodcycle, which transforms the bottles into polyester fiber. This fiber is then used to produce uniforms for students in rural areas, aligning with our iGEM goal of upcycling plastic
waste into practical products.
As part of the Waste to Wardrobe project, we interviewed Goodcycle’s Sustainable Project Manager, Chiarun Wang, who provided valuable insights into the transformation process.
She explained that the PET bottles undergo a series of steps, including disinfection, degradation, and fabrication, before being converted into uniforms.
Chiarun also emphasized the significant reduction in carbon emissions achieved through upcycling PET bottles, highlighting the broader environmental benefits of our initiative.
To extend our influence beyond the school, we presented at the Youth Sustainability Summit, where iGEM members shared our experiences to inspire other schools to combat plastic waste.
In conclusion, by collecting and turning PET waste into uniforms, our collaboration with Ecolve demonstrates how waste can be reimagined as a valuable resource within a circular system.
Instead of following the traditional linear model of “take, make, then dispose”, we emphasized a circular approach, extending the life span of plastics, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting
responsible consumption. Beyond the environmental benefits, our project reinforces the idea that a circular economy can start small in a school community, where students collaborate with sustainable industry to
transform waste into products, creating social and environmental values.
Realizing The Gap
Building on our efforts to promote sustainability through circular economy practices, our team also recognized the importance of education that can drive longer-lasting changes. Just as calling
upon students to be aware of daily plastic waste, advancing synthetic biology also depends on equipping the next generation with the knowledge and skills to engage in the field. We realized
by creating a potential curriculum that provides accessible knowledge to synthetic biology, we could empower students to think critically about global issues, such as waste, health, and
sustainability, and design innovative solutions through the means of synthetic biology. This connection between environmental responsibilities and scientific literacy led us to focus on
bridging the educational gap in synthetic biology through hands-on, accessible learning experiences.
We began our research by exploring existing educational attitudes toward synthetic biology. Despite being a rapidly growing field, “synthetic biology education initiatives are underreported
and disconnected from each other” (Menard et al., 2024). This revealed a significant lack of student awareness about synthetic biology. Furthermore, we noted that there has been “a 48%
decrease in those intending to pursue STEM careers between 9th and 11th grade.” This trend highlights the urgency of creating more engaging and accessible educational experiences to
sustain students’ interest in science and expand their exposure to fields such as synthetic biology. AP or IB curricula often do not explore fundamental synthetic biology concepts such as genetic
engineering. However, synthetic biology is a rapidly advancing field with significant potential, yet it remains inaccessible and foreign to many students. To address this, we aimed not only to
teach core biological concepts, such as how cells use operons to regulate genes, but also to mirror real-world scientific thinking and incorporate key principles of synthetic biology. Our
approach uses engineered bacteria to produce colorful agar art, which helps students grasp the broader implications of their work. The design and hands-on process involved in creating agar
art enables students to effectively apply their thinking to real-world scientific scenarios. Researching further into project-based learning, we found strong evidence that hands-on
activities and real-world applications significantly improve learning outcomes. Such approaches “create rich learning environments that foster critical thinking, collaboration, and practical skill
development” (Laurienti, 2024) and are especially beneficial for students who “benefit more from laboratory exercises that simulate real-world practice” (Menard et al., 2024). Beyond
technical skill development, project-based interventions have also been shown to increase engagement and confidence in science regardless of gender, location, or age.
A study on the effectiveness of project-based learning found that hands-on projects often emphasize collaboration and experimentation, which can spark innovative and effective
solutions. This approach “gives students a chance to practice scientific knowledge and acquired skills in real-life situations.” Furthermore, the study's results showed that interactive teaching
methods can encourage students to “think, reflect, [and] exchange feedback,” promoting a more collaborative learning environment and allowing them to practice skills they would continue
building in college and the real world (Bawaneh & Alnamshan, 2023).
Vision/Mission
Recognizing this gap, we set out to design a curriculum that prioritizes lab skills and encourages
design-based thinking, offering a more dynamic alternative to traditional textbook methods,
while teaching basic concepts of gene regulation. These concepts include how operons,
repressors, and promoters work, as well as how synthetic biologists use operons to modify
pathways in organisms. By doing so, we hope to make synthetic biology more approachable,
interactive, and engaging for students.
Our motivation stemmed from our own experience with agar art and synthetic biology. At
Concordia International School Shanghai, students are encouraged to pursue their passions
through Advanced Learning (AL) courses, which are project-based and modeled after real-world
applications of knowledge.
When the AL Synthetic Biology course opened in 2023, it offered students opportunities to
create agar art pieces. The 2024 theme, “What brings you joy,” was especially inspiring. As we
worked with the bacteria, science and synthetic biology became more than just a subject, they
became a hands-on memory and experience. Working with transformed bacteria allowed us to
see the impact and success of synthetic biology right before our eyes in a way that PowerPoints
and handouts could not. This hands-on engagement deepened our appreciation for the field and
inspired us to share that excitement with other students.
To achieve this, we developed a four-module program that culminates in a hands-on agar art lab.
Over several iterations, we refined the curriculum with guidance from professionals, such as
Chloe Franklin, as well as the incorporation of case studies. We developed a framework that not
only teaches fundamental principles of synthetic biology but also sparks interests in students.
Ultimately, our project seeks to foster long-term interests in STEM fields by showing students
how we can use synthetic biology to create something meaningful.
Iterations
First Iteration - Curriculum
Applying all the previous research, we laid out a basic blueprint for our module. First, we examined the curriculum standards and expectations for IGCSE, AP, and IB Biology relating to gene regulation, taking note of each curriculum’s key requirements to ensure our syllabus addressed them. Our curriculum consists of four modules covering key components of gene expression and regulation, beginning with transcription and translation, followed by operons and gene regulation, then transformation and plasmids, and culminating in the agar art activity. Each module includes foundational content followed by a section that ties it to synthetic biology, explaining how synthetic biologists use each biological concept to engineer organisms. We added possible lesson plans, learning objectives, and teaching materials for each module, including a section on aseptic technique for the agar art lab. Additionally, we incorporated a lab activity for the module on transformation and plasmids, allowing students to perform plasmid transformation themselves. This moved the aseptic technique lessons forward to ensure students gained more hands-on lab experience early in the process. Lastly, the curriculum incorporates instructions for teachers regarding the agar art activity and includes an introduction to synthetic biology, iGEM, and our team’s mission, culminating in a single, comprehensive module document.
Local Iteration- Interview with Ben Kask, Instructional Coach at Concordia International School Shanghai
Our first local iteration involved an interview with Ben Kask, an Instructional Coach at Concordia International School Shanghai, to spot and address potential issues and improve the curriculum. Once the module document was finished, we reached out to educators for feedback. In an hour-long meeting, we shared our syllabus and pre-and-post module surveys. His primary feedback was to make the module’s information more appealing and accessible to teachers. The revised module incorporated this feedback by including basic lab information, learning objectives before each lesson, and step-by-step lesson plans for teachers. This encompassed formatting changes, such as bolding keywords and separating blocks of text. To market our module and emphasize its value as a hands-on activity and introduction to synthetic biology, we included examples of student-made agar art in the first few pages and added a foreword. This foreword elaborates on how the module introduces synthetic biology and provides a detailed explanation of the field itself. Additionally, we incorporated examples of the Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) process within the module, applying each lesson’s content to a genetic engineering situation to expose students to real-life applications of synthetic biology. Furthermore, after discussing with Mr. Kask, we changed the feedback forms to incorporate Likert scales. This change allows us to gather more quantitative statistics and data that are easier to analyze.
Global Iteration- Interview with Chloe Franklin, National Program Coordinator for Biobuilder
After making our changes, we decided to seek out feedback from a specialist in science education and teaching resources, this time on a global scale.
We scheduled an online meeting with Chloe Franklin, the National Program Coordinator of Biobuilder, to find and address issues in our module.
The primary feedback received from Chloe was to give teachers additional resources beyond the handbook (such as lesson PPTs, lab quizzes, master material lists, and student handouts), revise the way that our surveys were written to increase effectiveness, and make lab instructions clearer.
With her guidance, we formatted our learning objectives in accordance with AAMC standards.
Each lesson and the lab included PowerPoint presentations and student handouts. Page 2 in the introduction compared our module with different worldwide curricula standards for learning gene regulation and editing (e.g., IB, AP, IGCSE, etc) as per her advice.
Additionally, she suggested using iGEM teams as case studies to teach DBTL thinking, which we incorporated into the module with a case study examining how the iGEM Team Uppsala in 2011 synthesized the chromoproteins used for the agar art.
For our workshops, we included a case study on how the iGEM Team Bolivia used chromoproteins as indicators for arsenic.
Chloe Franklin also suggested that we should include two questions in our surveys–first, asking about the environment of the school (urban/rural, high/low income), and second, asking teachers how likely they were to use the module again.
| Module Number | Topic | International Baccalaureate Diploma Program High Level Biology (2025) | Collegeboard Advanced Placement® Biology (Fall 2025) | Cambridge IGCSE™ Biology 0610 (2025-2027) | Cambridge International AS & A Level Biology 9700 (2025-2027) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Protein Synthesis (Transcription and Translation) | Continuity & Change: • Protein synthesis • Gene expression |
6.3, 6.4 | 17.1.8 (Transcription and translation not required) | 6.2 |
| 2 | Bacterial Gene Regulation | Continuity & Change: • Gene expression |
6.5, 6.6 | N/A | 16.3 |
| 3 | Transformation and Plasmids - DNA Cloning | Continuity & Change: • Mutations and gene editing |
6.7, 6.8 | 21.1, 21.3 | 19 |
Agar Art Workshop
Implementation
To test our module, we synthesized the Agar Art Curriculum's final module into a mini-workshop. This allowed us to test our instructional approach and engage our local community as part of our educational outreach program.
We created a PowerPoint presentation that synthesized the module’s information, focusing primarily on foundational content such as transcription and translation, an introduction to the field of synthetic biology, and the science behind the agar art lab. Each session included a concise 20-minute lecture detailing these biological concepts, as well as the instructions for the agar art lab. To collect quantitative data, we created pre-lab and post-lab surveys designed to gauge the students' growth in knowledge and their opinions on our instructional approach. Our objective in collecting this data was, first, to promote interest in the field of synthetic biology and, second, to see if the data correlated with our research on the effectiveness of project-based learning applications of synthetic biology.
Our first iteration of the workshop was a small session of eight high school students with high school biology experience ranging from general science classes to AP Biology. In order to gather data, pre- and post-workshop surveys on the students’ most advanced biology class and self-reported understanding of the concepts we would be teaching were conducted. Furthermore, we surveyed the perception of the workshop compared to conventional classroom methods. The survey called for respondents to answer what they found most valuable in the lesson and for additional comments and suggestions. Finally, the students were asked how likely they were to recommend the workshop to other students on a scale of 1-5.
Data Analysis
Figure 1:
Student responses from the Agar Art Pre-Lab Survey indicating the most advanced
biology-related course they have taken prior to participating in the lab.
Thirteen out of twenty-three took biology, and the other ten took AP Biology
Post Lab
Figure 2:
Student responses from the Agar Art Pre-Lab Survey indicating student familiarity with scientific categories as
mentioned in the image. Most students were unfamiliar with the concepts of aseptic technique and the
application of reporter-proteins in biotechnology before the lab while familiarity of design-based
thinking and gene regulation were more split.
Figure 3:
Responses from the Agar Art Pre-Lab Survey indicating student interest in various aspects of biology.
Most students expressed interest in these aspects, but only a few indicated strong interest.
Figure 4:
Responses from the Agar Art Post-Lab Survey indicating student understanding in the topics as shown in the image. The majority of the participants experienced some level of growth in understanding, with some experiencing great growth. No students indicated a decrease in understanding after completion of the lab.
Figure 5:
Responses from the Agar Art Post-Lab Survey indicating student interest after the completion of the lab. The majority of the participants indicated a growth in interest and knowledge in synthetic biology. No participants showed a decrease in knowledge or interest in synthetic biology after the completion of the lab
Figure 6:
Image showing student rating of the lab in response to a question asking students whether they would recommend the Agar Art course to others. Ratings of 5 indicate that the student strongly recommends the course to others, while ratings of 1 indicate that the student would not recommend the course to others. 19 out of 23 participants would strongly recommend the course to others, and the other 4 would recommend the course to others.
Our first iteration of the workshop was a small session of eight high school students with high school biology experience ranging from general science classes to AP Biology. In order to gather data, pre- and post-workshop surveys on the students’ most advanced biology class and self-reported understanding of the concepts we would be teaching were conducted. Furthermore, we surveyed the perception of the workshop compared to conventional classroom methods. The survey called for respondents to answer what they found most valuable in the lesson and for additional comments and suggestions. Finally, the students were asked how likely they were to recommend the workshop to other students on a scale of 1-5.
The total sample population was eight students. We used pre- and post-lab surveys that contained Likert scales to assess the students’ knowledge. Our first iteration consisted of two participants whose most advanced biology class was general science, two who had taken freshman biology (which covers gene expression but not regulation), and three who completed AP biology.
The pre-lab survey revealed that over 50% of the students reported being unfamiliar with aseptic technique, DBTL thinking, applications of reporter proteins, and gene regulation. However, after the workshop, 75% of the students reported having an increased understanding of these aspects.
Prior to doing the workshop, 75% of students agreed that hands-on lab experience was more effective than traditional classroom settings. By the end of the activity, 100% of the students agreed that project-based activities were more engaging, interesting, and effective than conventional teaching methods.
Analyzing the data and feedback, we determined that the process of making agar art was a relatively brief activity, and as such, more time could be spent going more in-depth on gene expression and regulation to increase understanding in future workshops. Furthermore, we focused on encouraging more participation and increasing the real-life applications and comparisons within the module. We used real-life applications in our lessons, including lab work for the aseptic technique and the example of the iGEM Team Bolivia to teach applications of reporter proteins. After the workshop, fewer participants reported “neutral” on whether their understanding of these topics increased, as opposed to gene regulation, a topic that lacked a real-life example. Overall, the data indicated that the workshop was generally successful in increasing engagement and understanding of synthetic biology and concepts of gene regulation, and it received a 4.75 average rating out of 5 on the likelihood of participants recommending it to a friend. Moving forward, the next step was to conduct this workshop with our changes on a larger population.