Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1493356
This article is part of the Research Topic Education in Synthetic Biology View all 6 articles

Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: Impact of Project-Based Synthetic Biology Program on High School Students' Science Identity and Competency

Provisionally accepted
Pamela Mims Pamela Mims 1*Lindsay Ellis Lee Lindsay Ellis Lee 1Natalie Kuldell Natalie Kuldell 2Chloe Franklin Chloe Franklin 2
  • 1 East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, United States
  • 2 Biobuilder Educational Foundation, Boston, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigates the impact of a project-based science education intervention, BioBuilderClub, on high school students' science identity, self-beliefs, and content knowledge in synthetic biology. Addressing the critical "leaky pipeline" issue in biotechnology education, this intervention focused on fostering scientific engagement and competency through hands-on, interdisciplinary projects. Using descriptive and correlational statistics (i.e., paired t-tests, residual change regression), we found that the project-based intervention resulted in significant improvements in students' self-perceived scientific engagement, competency, and content knowledge regardless of gender, locale, and first generation status. Across expert raters, we also found an improvement in the understanding of synthetic biology and students reported an increased interest in biotechnology and related fields. These findings underscore the potential of project-based learning to enhance STEM retention by building strong science identities, particularly among underrepresented groups. Future research should explore the long-term impacts of such interventions and their integration into standard curricula to further bolster the biotechnology pipeline.

    Keywords: Project - based teaching, Synthetic Biology, stem education, STEM Career Awareness, Research

    Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mims, Lee, Kuldell and Franklin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pamela Mims, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.