Two-Day Teachers’ Workshop in Biology

Date : 4-5 June 2020 | 8.30am – 5pm

Venue: Life Sciences Lab 3 (Block S1A Level 4), Department of Biological Sciences, NUS

To Register

Department of Biological Sciences of National University of Singapore is offering a 2-Day Teachers’ Workshop to biology/science teachers from schools in Singapore. This workshop aims to give teachers new insight on stem cell technology and applications, as well as expose them to a very popular and intuitive bioinformatics tool.

The workshop will include lectures and related hands-on laboratory sessions, conducted by highly experienced teaching staff and technical staff. The workshop content and structure will be as follows:

Workshop Synopsis

1. Teaching environmental sciences with R

R has become the most popular data analysis software. Being a free and flexible development environment makes it the tool of choice for researchers worldwide. Its flexibility makes it also ideal to be used as a course companion in sciences even for high school students. R has the capacity to spur the creativity of students while offering them the possibility to work with the most advanced data analysis tools. In this brief crash course, we will introduce teachers to R programming. We will also touch on the most common statistical techniques and advise on how to design environmental experiments and analyse data. These skills can be very useful to mentor small research projects among high school students, to illustrate difficult concepts in class, or even to spark curiosity on natural phenomena.

2. Stem cell technology and applications

Since prehistory times, human taste buds have continuously sought after and adapted to new food sources. We have assimilated a wide variety of animal and plant sources into our daily diets. The unfortunate truth is our food consumption demands have placed tremendous stress on our food sources, both wild and farmed. Wild food sources have declined precipitously. While our farms have taken over the task to feed our stomachs, they are also burdened with major issues, such as over-consumption, losses to pests and diseases, unsustainable and pollutive farming practices, to name a few. Turning to a diet that is predominantly based on plant sources might mitigate most of those major problems. Alternatively, we could take the opportunity to reimagine completely novel ways of food sources for our dining tables.

Cellular Agriculture in a broad sense could ignite this revolution in food production. Instead of cultivating live organisms for food, as practised in our traditional farms, we envisage that cells/tissues will replace live organisms in modern high-tech Cellular Agriculture farms. This workshop will introduce the key biological, cellular and chemical engineering advances that underpinned this new revolution in food production. We will further explore how with future advancements we could reduce our food production footprints to the minimal and return the traditional farmlands to Nature.

After attending this workshop, teachers can appreciate bioinformatics and stem cells better. These knowledge and skills can then be passed on to their own students, and inspire them to learn more about the latest advances in biology.

To be eligible, applicants must be:

• Full-time biology/science teachers
• Currently employed in a school in Singapore
• Teaching biology and/or advanced placement science for Sec 3 – JC 2.

The workshop is limited to 30-40 participants and provides an excellent opportunity for teachers to:

• gain knowledge on the latest topics and new developments in biological sciences
• learn laboratory techniques covering topics relevant to the biology curriculum.
• network with their colleagues from different schools and science disciplines.

Workshop Fee: $250/pax

Registration closing date: 15 April 2020

Complete and send registration form to

Steven Tan
Tel: 65162693

Email: steventan@nus.edu.sg