Introduction

Recognizing the lack of available hands-on learning resources on synthetic biology among high school students, we sought to address this gap while also raising awareness about climate change and plastic waste. We realized that there was abundant waste of PET bottles within our school community. To that end, we teamed up with Ecolve, a high school service club that promotes reducing and recycling plastic waste, calling on our community to recycle PET bottles. In parallel, we created a 4-module curriculum and an agar art workshop, designed to introduce synthetic biology in a way that is both accessible and engaging. Its approachable content not only introduces synthetic biology and iGEM to high school students, but it also provides valuable skills through practical experiences in microbial transformation and agar art. We sought to bridge the gap between synthetic biology and high school students by developing a curriculum that provides experiential learning and integrated workshops as an extension to the normal high school biology curriculum.

Ecolve Collaboration

Upon completing the life cycle analysis, we recognized the importance of recycling PET bottles. Deciding to take action 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 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.” The project aimed to collect 100 kg of PET bottles per semester and collaborate with a company, Goodcycle, which transformed the bottles into polyester fiber. This initiative combined visual campaigns (such as posters displayed in the school café, hallways, and cafeteria) with direct outreach efforts, including school-wide announcements.

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 to transform waste into products to create social and environmental value.

Vision/Mission

Building on our efforts to promote sustainability through circular economy practices, we sought to further education on the field of synthetic biology, which can then be harnessed to address global issues such as plastic pollution. Our approach centered around hands-on, accessible learning experiences, starting with the creation of a four-module curriculum and an Agar Art Workshop, which introduces students to synthetic biology through practical, real-world applications. This curriculum is designed to be flexible, serving both as an accessible introduction to synthetic biology and as a gateway to more advanced laboratory skills.

In our research, we found that despite its rapid growth, “synthetic biology education initiatives are underreported and disconnected from each other” (Menard et al., 2024), accompanying “a 48% decrease in those intending to pursue STEM careers between 9th and 11th grade.” Additionally, widespread standardized biology curricula such as IB and AP often neglect key concepts like genetic engineering. This underscored the need for engaging educational experiences that maintain students' interest in science. To address these issues, we decided to develop our curriculum to not only cover standard biology concepts such as gene transcription, translation, and regulation but delve deeper into synthetic biology content including how operons, repressors, and promoters work and are used in synthetic biology. Additionally, we included examples of real-world applications and introduced the DBTL cycle to encourage critical thinking and design-based learning.

Further research on project-based learning reinforced the effectiveness of hands-on, collaborative activities in improving both technical skills and engagement in science. Such methods “create rich learning environments that foster critical thinking, collaboration, and practical skill development” (Laurienti, 2024), with project-based interventions having been shown to increase engagement and confidence in science. We were further inspired by our own experiences with synthetic biology at Concordia International School Shanghai: through the Applied Learning (AL) program, we were exposed to project-based courses like AL Synthetic Biology, which allowed us to create agar art and see the real-world impact of synthetic biology firsthand. This hands-on experience deepened our understanding and enthusiasm for the field, motivating us to share that excitement with others. By prioritizing lab skills and encouraging design-based thinking, we sought to offer a more dynamic alternative to traditional textbook methods that could make synthetic biology more approachable, interactive, and engaging for students.

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 goal is to inspire students to explore synthetic biology and show them how it can create meaningful solutions to pressing global challenges.

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

Table 1: This table depicts the overlap between our curriculum and leading standard syllabi for high-level biology. However, as stated in the module, “The Agar Art Curriculum brings to life the concepts delineated in these curricula and extends it to the breakthroughs happening at the modern frontier of gene editing, allowing students to engage with and understand the implications, applications, and impacts of the scientific content.”

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

Post Lab

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.

---