Workshop Report: Summer 2020 Virtual CRISPR in the Classroom

As innovations and developments in genome editing technologies using CRISPR-Cas systems progress, the need to disseminate relevant knowledge and build skills among the next generation of young scientists in undergraduate classrooms is vital. Our efforts to enable undergraduate educators to bring CRISPR into their classrooms through in-person workshop training began in 2017 and went virtual during summer of 2020 under COVID-19 lockdown. In this report, we describe the proceedings of the virtual workshop and the feedback we received from the participants. An overwhelming majority of attendees reported that the virtual workshop facilitated gains in learning about CRISPR biology and experimental design. The plans shared by attendees to incorporate both virtual and hands-on CRISPR resources into their courses highlights the impact of this virtual CRISPR in the Classroom Workshop on educator confidence, and the likelihood of attendees to add CRISPR biology to their curriculum after participating in such a workshop.

Primary image: A summary diagram of a virtual workshop on bringing CRISPR biology into the classroom.  The molecular rendering created with Illustrate software features Cas9 (gray) in complex with guide RNA (red) and target DNA (blue) (PDB ID: 4OO8, (1, 2)).

随着基于CRISPR-Cas系统的基因编辑技术不断创新与发展，向下一代年轻科学家普及相关知识、培养技能在本科课堂教育中显得尤为关键。自2017年起，我们致力于通过线下工作坊培训的方式，让本科教育者将CRISPR技术引入课堂。2020年夏季，在COVID-19疫情封锁期间，这一培训模式转变为线上形式。在本报告中，我们详细阐述了线上工作坊的流程及参与者的反馈。绝大多数参与者表示，线上工作坊有效促进了他们对CRISPR生物学和实验设计的理解。参与者们计划将虚拟与实际操作相结合的CRISPR资源融入课程，这一举措凸显了“CRISPR走进课堂”线上工作坊对教育者信心的影响，以及参与者在参加此类工作坊后将其纳入课程的可能性。

主要图片：将CRISPR生物学引入课堂的虚拟工作坊总结图。使用Illustrate软件创建的分子渲染图展示了Cas9（灰色）与引导RNA（红色）及目标DNA（蓝色）的复合结构（PDB ID：4OO8，(1, 2))。