SynBio101: Summer Camp was a week-long summer short course aimed at teaching highschool students fundamental concepts in developmental and synthetic biology in a small class setting with close instructor-student mentorship. Throughout the week students attend interactive lectures, hands-on lab sections, and professional development workshops. As everything shifted when SARS-CoV-2 spread out and caused the renown pandemic, this year, SynBio101 was celebrated virtually.

The objectives for the SynBio101: Summer Camp were

• Increased understanding of concepts of general biology
• Explain what is synthetic biology and demonstrate the differents ways Synthetic Biology can be use
• Stimulate their curiosity by giving them the tools to create a new prototype and present it
• Giving them the opportunity to integrated their knowledge into our developing project

Preparations and logistics

An application process was conducted in which over 120 high school students presented their interest in the camp and their future aspirations. The original plan was to host 50 students, but since there were no physical limitations like last year due to it being virtual, we were able to host 80 students. This way, we were able to reach and impact more students from different backgrounds and parts of the Island.

As part of the objectives, we wanted to make the experiences as interactive as possible, packages were given that included the materials necessary for various hands-on activities. To deliver these, the iGEM RUM-UPRM team members met with the students in municipalities across the Island taking in consideration safety measures due to the pandemic.

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