BioCakes: An Equity-Informed Approach to Middle and High School Synthetic Biology Learning

• In Event: Science Teaching and Learning Toward Collaborative Social Transformation and Justice

Abstract

Accessibility made possible through the development of low cost portable lab tools (Author, 2020), community lab spaces (Talbot, 2020), and curriculum activities (Kuldell, 2015)—have made it possible for K-12 learners to engage in preeminent life science fields. One such example includes a burgeoning area known as synthetic biology, where genetic engineering and design perspectives are used to manufacture cell-based products (Khalil & Collins, 2010). Examples of these products include: vitamin-producing yeast (Agmon et al., 2015) that can be used to enrich food items, pigment-producing bacteria (Ahmad et al., 2012) that can be used to sustainably dye fabric, or cancer-fighting immune cells (June & Levine, 2015) that can target and eliminate tumors with high precision. This approach for learning is paradigmatically different from what typically takes place in life science education—where emphasis is often placed on designing experiments to inductively examine the natural world (Author, 2019). Ultimately, the design-centric nature of synthetic biology represents a necessary stride toward expanding and modernizing life science education in support of civic engagement and occupational attainment.
Concomitant with these developments are growing concerns about how a synthetic biology-driven education might be framed such that it overcomes undermining practice-based risk factors that marginalize groups traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields (Vossoughi, Hooper & Escudé, 2016). Examples of these risks include culturally grounded epistemologies that are often not counted as science and thus excluded in its practice in learning environments. In life science, these risks are further exacerbated by the inherent limits in how living cells or biological materials can be handled and used—which often require narrowly prescribed assays and organism-specific growth parameters.
Perspectives in making provide important insights into the various affordances, constraints, and implications STEM-based activities that emphasize design have for K-12 learning. Making—where digital technologies, textiles and other inanimate objects are used novelly to support creativity, personal expression, and play (Honey & Kanter, 2013)—has been taken up in significant computer science education research, where similar issues related to marginalization persist. While making has shown, in many ways, promise in creating more equitable computer science learning, very little research has examined its potential for framing K-12 life science learning experiences. Here, I present a case-study example of a middle and high school curriculum activity that provides important insights about how a synthetic biology education might be framed as to provide more equitable and culturally relevant learning experiences.
Specifically, youth use synthetic biology as a maker activity where they genetically modify yeast to produce Vitamin A and then incorporate those cells in a cake batter they assemble with unique food ingredients that is ultimately baked in a silicone mold they design. Data sources include activity artifacts (e.g., curriculum guides and worksheets) and observation notes. I report on how youth were able to leverage culturally familiar baking practices to engage in synthetic biology and ultimately produce a functional and edible enriched food product, a biocake. Key affordances and constraints about using a maker approach in life science are also discussed.

Author

• Justice Toshiba Walker, University of Texas at El Paso