Community Biology Labs as Hybrid Spaces for Inclusive, Collaborative Learning

• In Event: The Biomaker Ecosystem: Technologies, Spaces, and Curriculum for K–12 Making With Biology

Abstract

Genspace is a community biology lab — a place where people of all backgrounds can learn, create, and grow with the life sciences. As life sciences become the next innovation frontier, our goal is to avoid equity and inclusion pitfalls experienced in other emerging STEM education domains (e.g. Artificial intelligence, computer science, and engineering) by supporting multidiverse first-time biomaking learners across generations and backgrounds are fluent in the language of biotech and able to explore its scientific, economic, ethical, and social implications. Biotech learning experiences are typically limited to formal education or institutional spaces. Community labs create a unique learning environment for self-directed exploration of emerging life sciences. Since 2009, we have served the greater New York area by providing hands-on STEAM education programs for youth and adults, cultural and outreach events for the public, and a membership program to support New York’s community of creatives, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Our programs demystify scientific processes, provide a platform for innovation, and cultivate the next generation of life sciences leaders in emerging global technologies.

In our Biorocket Research Internship Program, we ask 12-15 high school students per year to co-create their learning and research experience in Synthetic Biology and Biomaking. The interns are purposefully selected to represent a multidiverse community of learners with a range of academic and practical strengths, skills, and experiences. Our program philosophy is rooted in leveraging socioemotional learning and hands-on, youth-led experiences to develop agency in life science learning (Malti & Noam, 2016, Rahm 2008). We base our program on the knowledge and experiences students bring from their homes and communities to help them explore questions that are connected to their lives and rooted in their identities. For example, based on student interest in the genetic, microbial, and environmental causes of acne, the 2019 cohort investigated the skin microbiome, eventually designing a novel antimicrobial nanomedicine. In recent conversations regarding genome editing and “designer babies,” participants expressed concerns regarding the social and ethical inequities and harms. In response, we asked students to take on the roles of social, cultural, and legal decision-makers and create messaging or policy recommendations in accordance with their values.

We have begun to implement more standardized evaluation methods, looking at the PEAR Common Instrument Suite (2020) to assess student outcomes (e.g. life science attitudes, interest, awareness, and science identity) and components of the Biorocket informal learning practices and facilitation that contribute to Social/Emotional Learning. We also use informal indicators of program success, including: interviews and conversations with participants; youth-made product designs and accompanying “pitch” materials; creative scientific communication modalities (i.e. storytelling, podcasts, drawings, video); and youth-led hands-on teaching demonstrations for family and community members. With Biorocket, teens develop a sense of agency to proactively shape the future they want rather than one they passively inherit. By holding space where learners bring their multiple, hybridized identities to explore their own questions and design their own futures, we are fostering a new generation of scientists and designers who will investigate the world differently.

Author

• Elizabeth Tuck