This was our third year partnering with local high school teams CCA_San_Diego and WVHS_SanDiego. We met biweekly for about an hour each session, exchanging notes on projects and progress for all teams. By the end of the season, we were able to get familiar with each other’s topics and help each other through any difficulties we faced. Each meeting started with a walk-through of our progress from the last meeting and what we planned to do in the next week. Each team offered feedback and solutions to any issue the presenting team was facing. This was especially the case with wiki building and the creation of our summer camps which were common struggles for all the teams. Our previous knowledge, experience, and research aided our efforts in building each other’s projects.
We started off with an introductory meeting where we debriefed on last year’s partnership and how we can continue and improve for this year’s season. All three of our teams then presented our projects to one another - providing feedback whenever and wherever necessary. Our varied experience levels meant that every team benefited a lot from this partnership, as senior members were able to help out the rookie members.
Our team provided support by contributing ideas for increasing community engagement. We particularly helped out with creating surveys, publishing campaigns, and planning the ethics symposium. Working with the other teams was a highly productive and positive experience.
We held an ethics symposium at JCVI on October 3rd. First, our three teams presented the ethics involved with our projects. Then, we invited student researchers up to discuss other aspects of scientific ethics. Since all three of our projects were related to the environment, we had one speaker present a keynote on current applications and concerns with environmental ethics in synthetic biology. Our second keynote speaker’s presentation was similarly about environmental ethics, but also included a discussion on how to maintain good ethics in the new age of technology and innovation.
Our team provided support by contributing ideas for increasing community engagement. We particularly helped out with creating surveys, publishing campaigns, and planning the ethics symposium. Working with the other teams was a highly productive and positive experience.
