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Team:UCSF/Human Practices
From 2009.igem.org
Contents |
Abstract
Biotechnology is exponentially growing in popularity over the years due to the great potential of new scientific inventions like alternative biofuels and various lifesaving vaccines. Biotechnology companies are emerging all over the California coast especially the Bay Area. Surprisingly, within this field of science, another source is bustling for attention: High Schools. At Abraham Lincoln High School, students learn about biotech and its real-world applications in an exclusive two-year advanced biotechnology class. The credentials needed to teach a biotechnology course in high school has raised questions as the work is somewhat similar to that of DYI Bio. The issue is that both DYI Bio and high school biotechnology courses can be potentially dangerous as well as hazardous to the environment if an outbreak were to occur. The safer alternative would be to work in a lab where the qualifications must be met and guidelines must be followed. But back in the classroom, what are the teacher’s qualifications? What preparations must be done to ensure safety of the students? There is no definite answer for these questions because biotechnology is a brand new subject in schools and has yet to be regulated. But that doesn’t mean there is no attention brought to it; teachers and members of the BABEC often meet to answer these questions and create a safe and ethical high school curriculum for the most beneficial learning experience.
Section 1 – Biotech classes in High School
The world of biotechnology has never been as big as it is now. This fairly new field has already been responsible for the birth of biofuels and many vital vaccines used today. In fact, many believe that biotechnology has the potential to solve many of our everyday challenges. With the promises it is expected to bring, biotech has already started to appear in high schools across the world. At San Francisco’s Abraham Lincoln High School, the hype for this new course always brings about long waiting lists. Students feel that pursuing biotechnology or biotech will result in an influx of different job opportunities. More importantly, having biotech in high schools allow students to gain the baseline knowledge required to solve everyday problems, and learning the material early on allows students to become future leaders in the biotechnology industry.
Abraham Lincoln High School offers five first-year biotechnology classes and one second-year biotechnology class. Each class is able to hold around thirty students. In first-year biotech, students are taught the fundamentals of using scientific instruments like micropipettes. The hands-on course teaches the very same techniques that are used in today’s industry and academic labs. After a few weeks of detailed lectures, students are directed to their lab bench, and learn how to make plasmids, recombinant DNA, and more. These experiments are not as simple as following protocols, but actually encourage the students to think outside the box. By the end of the first year, students will have the ability to do transformations, work with enzymes and run gel electrophoresis.
Second year biotech expands on the knowledge taught in first-year. Because of limited resources, thirty students are chosen from the first-year pool to continue on with the studies. This second course is much more lab intensive. Whereas the majority of first year biotechnology was spent on theory and basic lab skills, second year biotechnology teaches students the applications of first year biotechnology. Intense lectures accompanied by demos are followed by the labs themselves. The ability to perform each experiment is thoroughly tested by the teacher after every lesson. At the end of the year, students will be able to perform techniques such as the Bradford assay, western blotting, and protein purifications. Looking back, the skills that we acquired through second-year biotech played a tremendous role at our time with the iGEM team. Skills like protein extraction and ELISA are not ones that can be taught by a under qualified teacher. San Francisco has three high schools that offer biotechnology as a class, and Abraham Lincoln High School is fortunate to be one of them. San Mateo High School, located in the Bay Area, is the first to have a three-year program; they even have their own greenhouse! Few years prior, biotech courses were practically non-existent. With the popularity of biotech quickly entering the high school doors, more inexperienced teachers are thinking about teaching biotech. The interest of more schools having courses like biotech also brings about concerns. Although the benefits are obvious, the effect of having inexperienced teachers educating a class of students could prove to be risky.
Section 2 – Biotech classes in HS Versus DIY BIO
A teacher interested in teaching biotechnology must also have sufficient knowledge in the field of molecular biology. Most of the powerful tools explained in biotech courses expand from the foundations of molecular biology. This complex subject takes years to master even at the graduate level. Currently, the qualifications for new teachers wanting to teach a biotech course are not specifically designed for the course. Instead, the standards for teaching an advance class like biotech are much like any other science class. This brings up the concern that upcoming teachers are not only undereducated in the content they are teaching, but will also avoid the importance of bioethics. While these lessons might sound repetitive, potential dangers can occur if the educator does not stress the importance of it.
The knowledge given at current high school courses is similar to the work of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Bio. Although biotech courses are not meant to be dangerous, the basics taught is enough to create a potential hazard. In today’s world, the dangers of hidden labs in the garages of people’s homes are enough to alarm the FBI and CIA. Online forums are already available for those who want to do biology at home. Some would doubt the possibility of doing dangerous labs because of all the equipment required. But surprisingly, some of these forums also include instructions on how to make your own equipment. With all these resources easily available to the average person, the FBI is fully aware of the possibility of biohackers lurking in everyday homes. The concerns with DIY bio is that “organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage(Jim Thomas of ETC group).” Could the dangers of biosecurity also apply to the work being done in high schools? Questions like these are slowly coming up now that the field of biotechnology has expanded. Yes, the work being done at the high school level could be considered DIY bio, but they also have standards set by inspectors. However, these standards are still very brief, and with the possibility of inexperienced and under-qualified teachers quickly emerging, these standards deserve to be looked at once again.
How is the work being done at research labs any different from the ones done at high schools or in public homes? At the high level of science labs at hospitals, universities, and medical schools, the standards are developed by the National Institute of Health (NIH). These labs usually carry a lot of sophisticated equipment, and strict guidelines are put in place to ensure the safety of the employees. NIH has set guidelines from no eating in the lab to allowing only certified storing cabinets to be used. NIH feels that lab conditions must be kept in a consistent matter. Any violations to the guidelines could result in hefty fines and/or the closure of the lab. Even as temporary employees, each iGEM member had to go through a safety certification procedure before we were allowed to do any lab work. The online program consisted of reading about the disposal of dangerous chemicals, emergency procedures, and ‘the rules’ of working in a lab; each reading was wrapped up with a quiz. Each member had to successfully pass the quiz or else any related lab work was prohibited. At the classroom level, it is important for the educator to have some sort of freedom in teaching the class. George Cachianes (biotech teacher) of Abraham Lincoln High School admit that the lack of strict guidelines is one of the best things about being a teacher. Having written his own curriculum, Cachianes ensures that his lessons and labs are safe in a high school environment. One of the top priorities while making his curriculum is the safety of the students. Not having to worry about standards allows him to focus more on a certain topic, rather than being time pressured to move onto another lesson. As a former employee of the biotech giant Genentech, and member of the Bay Area Biotechnology Education Consortium(BABEC), Cachianes admits that not everyone is qualified to pursue a teaching career in science, “But if you haven’t had college and graduate school, you’re not trained to control that kind of environment. My concern is when a teacher only has a bachelor’s degree, they may know how to do it, but they don’t understand how to.”
Section 3 – The Future of Teachings of Biotech
This brings about the important questions of how to regulate teaching biotech in schools. What should the school requirements be? The safety of the facilities, faculty, and students must be observed at all times, and the safety of the general public outside the classroom must be observed as well. A teacher interested in teaching biotechnology must take into consideration safety bioethics. They need to be certified, and the qualifications of becoming a biotech teacher have not yet been defined. However, a science related bachelor’s degree is required. Some fear that the standards of a bachelor’s degree in science will be lowered in order to make teaching a more attractive career. Another option would be taking a very rigorous test that proves the prospective teacher is from industry. Bioethics is a must if teachers plan to teach, and Mr.Cachianes used to have debate projects at the end of each year, so students could go into more detail on the ethical sides of biotech. Now he shows Gattaca, a powerful movie discussing many ethical issues that can potentially arise from biotech.
Aside from basic lab skills such as gel electrophoresis, students should also be learning and discussing the perils and benefits of Biotech. For example, there has been much debate about Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs. GMOs come with a long list of both benefits and disadvantages, and much of biotech comes with a list of pros and cons. Students therefore should be educated, and be able to exercise good judgment on what they think is right. In order for that to happen, they need qualified teachers. Teachers from the bay area meet once every other month and are in an organization Bay Area Biotechnology Education Consortium or BABEC. People from industry are present as well, and together, they develop a high school curriculum. These meetings help pull resources by sharing materials and protocols. Furthermore, teachers tome to the workshops offered at BABEC to learn the techniques they will teach their students. The issue of ethics is covered at these meetings as well.
Some fear that the FBI will create rules and regulations that will limit the ability of high schoolers to do research and experiments in classes. However, Mr.Cachianes feels that the FBI will not try to enforce rules that will apply regular citizens, because it will be too difficult to monitor. However, if it was to come down to that, they should try to enforce it at the purchasing level. For example, make buying things like enzymes more difficult by having a legitimate license. Mr.Cachianes also feels that high schools will remain mostly unaffected, because the experiments performed are made to be safe. It will be possible to have the freedom of teaching a class without having to follow rules in the future, because if the rules are reasonable then there shouldn’t be a problem. Today, there are already some rules in place, like students cannot do any experiments that involve their blood. These rules are reasonable, because things like blood are a biohazard. However, if rules get out of hand, Mr.Cachianes has said that he will not be afraid to quit teaching. Hopefully, it will never come down to that.
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