Hack Biodesign: An Integrative STEAM Education Platform for Biology, Engineering, and Design

We present Hack Biodesign, a week-long STEAM education integrating biology, engineering and design for middle/high school students. The program consists of three modules: biodigital, synthetic biology and biomimicry. Each module started with inspirational talks, followed by hands-on laboratory session/fieldwork, and finished with design challenges that encourage the students to ideate and prototype their ideas. The program was implemented on the middle/high school students in Thailand, who had little biology and engineering background. Despite their lack of comprehensive knowledge, the open-ended activities and positive reinforcement could encourage most students to actively engage and collaborate throughout the program. The outcomes of Hack Biodesign showed that we could stimulate the students to develop novel interdisciplinary projects. The students feedbacks also revealed the positive impacts of the workshop on the student learning experience.