For the purpose of implementing our picture book teaching module and gathering direct feedback from the targeted audience, our team conducted an interactive lesson with Shenzhen Longhua kindergarten.
<br>Considering Giant African snail as an local problem, we also felt the urgency and necessity of educating elementary kids regards to the health threat associated with GAS as kindergarten-age children are most vulnerable to the infection shown by our previous research. We have also gathered even more worrying information on the Internet stating that not only children themselves are unaware of the danger of GAS, but also teachers in kindergarten and elementary school have lack of recognition to the potential health harm. Therefore, our team incooperated education related to GAS in addition to our picture book story lesson.
<br>On October 7th, three of our team members visited Shenzhen Longhua Kindergarten to deliver an educational lecture to children. Using our original picture book, we taught them the basics of synthetic biology. Our goal was to unveil the captivating potential of synthetic biology technology, aiming to spark their interest in the subject. We believe that these young minds represent a bright future with infinite possibilities, and they can make significant contributions to the synthetic biology community.
<br>To fully gauge the impact of our lesson on the children, we decided to conduct two feedback sessions, one before and one after our presentation. Initially, we engaged the students by allowing them to use stickers to express their understanding on a whiteboard. This pre-activity feedback session set the stage for our lesson.
<br><br>Considering Giant African snail as an local problem, we also felt the urgency and necessity of educating elementary kids regards to the health threat associated with GAS as kindergarten-age children are most vulnerable to the infection shown by our previous research. We have also gathered even more worrying information on the Internet stating that not only children themselves are unaware of the danger of GAS, but also teachers in kindergarten and elementary school have lack of recognition to the potential health harm. Therefore, our team incooperated education related to GAS in addition to our picture book story lesson.
<br><br>On October 7th, three of our team members visited Shenzhen Longhua Kindergarten to deliver an educational lecture to children. Using our original picture book, we taught them the basics of synthetic biology. Our goal was to unveil the captivating potential of synthetic biology technology, aiming to spark their interest in the subject. We believe that these young minds represent a bright future with infinite possibilities, and they can make significant contributions to the synthetic biology community.
<br><br>To fully gauge the impact of our lesson on the children, we decided to conduct two feedback sessions, one before and one after our presentation. Initially, we engaged the students by allowing them to use stickers to express their understanding on a whiteboard. This pre-activity feedback session set the stage for our lesson.
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During the lesson, we focused on teaching the children about the dangers of GAS (Giant African Snails), explaining why they are harmful and what to do when encountering them. Recognizing that young children may have shorter attention spans during longer lessons, we continually asked brief questions and encouraged children to participate.
<br>At the end of the lesson, we conducted a second feedback session with similar questions to the initial one, such as "What harm do snails pose to us?", "What is the role of DNA?" and "Can bacteria have positive effects?" Once again, we employed stickers and a whiteboard to collect feedback. To our satisfaction, we observed an increased number of stickers in the correct option area after the lecture, demonstrating that our lesson had been effective and made a positive impact on these children.
<br>Following this session, we read our picture book to the children in both Chinese and English. To our surprise, we discovered that the children were highly engaged with the story and illustrations. They quickly grasped the concept of CRISPR technology through our two likable main characters, Cathy and Robbie. In fact, the children were so captivated that they kept asking our members questions about synthetic biology after the lesson, showing a strong attraction to this new subject they had just learned.
<br>With the goal of continuing our educational activities in the future, we provided ten copies of our picture book, our read-along video, and the PDF English version of our picture book to each class. We also offered insights and suggestions on how they could integrate our teaching materials into their classrooms.
<br>Overall, by analyzing the feedback and the students' responses, we believe the students became aware of the dangers of GAS, and they were inspired and intrigued by synthetic biology after this session. On our end, we gained valuable suggestions for improving our lessons in the future. Quoting the teachers, they suggested that it would be beneficial if we provided a more detailed lesson plan for them to review before the actual lesson and that we should consider using simpler language when explaining synthetic biology to the children.
<br><br>At the end of the lesson, we conducted a second feedback session with similar questions to the initial one, such as "What harm do snails pose to us?", "What is the role of DNA?" and "Can bacteria have positive effects?" Once again, we employed stickers and a whiteboard to collect feedback. To our satisfaction, we observed an increased number of stickers in the correct option area after the lecture, demonstrating that our lesson had been effective and made a positive impact on these children.
<br><br>Following this session, we read our picture book to the children in both Chinese and English. To our surprise, we discovered that the children were highly engaged with the story and illustrations. They quickly grasped the concept of CRISPR technology through our two likable main characters, Cathy and Robbie. In fact, the children were so captivated that they kept asking our members questions about synthetic biology after the lesson, showing a strong attraction to this new subject they had just learned.
<br><br>With the goal of continuing our educational activities in the future, we provided ten copies of our picture book, our read-along video, and the PDF English version of our picture book to each class. We also offered insights and suggestions on how they could integrate our teaching materials into their classrooms.
<br><br>Overall, by analyzing the feedback and the students' responses, we believe the students became aware of the dangers of GAS, and they were inspired and intrigued by synthetic biology after this session. On our end, we gained valuable suggestions for improving our lessons in the future. Quoting the teachers, they suggested that it would be beneficial if we provided a more detailed lesson plan for them to review before the actual lesson and that we should consider using simpler language when explaining synthetic biology to the children.
