Those who can, do and teach

Synthetic biology is poised to change everything from energy development to food production to medicine but theres a bottleneck looming.How fast things develop depends on the number of people developing things. Lets face it: there arent that many biocoders. Not in the universities, not in industry, not in the DIY sector. Not enough to change the world, at any rate. We have to ramp up.

And that means we first must train teachers and define biocoding curricula. Not at the university level try secondary, maybe even primary schools. That, of course, is a challenge. To get kids interested in synthetic biology, we have to do just that: get them interested. More to the point, get them jacked. Biocoding is incredibly exciting stuff, but that message isnt getting across.

Students thinkscience and engineering is removed from daily life, says Natalie Kuldell, an instructor of biological engineering at MIT. We have to get them engaged, and connected to science and engineering more specifically, bioengineering in meaningful ways.

As Kuldell sees it, thats a bipartite project. The first priority is creating curricula that are both comprehensive and compelling. Kuldell is doing just that through BioBuilder, a foundation she established with a broad array of partners in education and biotech (e.g., MIT, the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, Genspace, the BioBrick Foundation, Biogen IDEC, Pfizer, and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center).

Were developing curricula that let teachers show students how molecular genetic techniques apply to the real world, says Kuldell. With our materials, teachers can help students safely design, construct and analyze synthetic biological systems. Its hands-on stuff, with the emphasis on engineering and analytics. We provide procedures, for example, that allow students to alter existing devices to new specifications, and then compare the results.

Kuldell intimates that BioBuilders teaching materials must be like Caesars wife: above reproach. So, establishing and maintaining quality benchmarks are a major concern.

People have to have confidence in our materials, she says. We spend a lot of time identifying and recruiting the best curators possible.

Developing sound curricular materials is only half the job, of course. Once you have them, you have to find people who can deploy them effectively.

Natalie Kuldell

Without a great teacher, even the very best curriculum will fall flat, says Kuldell, and bioengineering can be a challenge for even the finest teachers. Biology teachers, of course, generally approach their subjects from a scientific perspective.Thats good, but we also need them to think like engineers. In synthetic biology, the engineering aspect is the dynamic, creative force. Its what gets students excited, so we focus on giving teachers the skills they need to elicit that excitement.

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Those who can, do and teach