Three countries, with vastly different education, science, and biotechnology infrastructures, are now bonded in a common goal—bringing hands-on biotech labs to underserved students. Comparing notes at a recent visit to a science education conference in Washington, DC, USA, leaders of the newest ABE sites, in Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, found much common ground, even amid notable differences in their regions.
“We all are very similar,” says Monica Georgina Cinco Basurto, director at the Fundación EDUCA México and ABE Mexico director. “For example, even though many of our teachers are science teachers, many of them don't know some of the topics that we teach in the ABE program. And, also, across the three programs, we all need to invest in explaining to them the meaning of the foundational biotech concepts.”
Amid this common backdrop, each program is taking a unique approach to serving teachers and students in a way that will bring biotech education to life in the Global South. In the first post of this three-part series, we introduce you to ABE Brazil.
Building Bridges in Brazil
In Brazil, one of the biggest challenges the ABE program faced out of the gate was that public schools there do not have proper spaces for conducting laboratory activities. So, instead of the traditional ABE setup of training teachers to bring ABE into their classrooms, ABE Brazil brings teachers and students to the Center for Biological and Health Sciences at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo.
From the university, they can reach high schools across São Paulo, which cater to especially vulnerable populations of students. “We knew from the beginning that most of our public schools don't even have a physical place that they could call a laboratory. Yet, there were many science teachers who wanted to do lab experiments with their students but who did not have exposure to molecular biology contents” says Camila Sacchelli Ramos, ABE site coordinator at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.
Working with the education group Sincroniza Educação, which serves as a bridge to local schools, the ABE Brazil team has been able to bring about 120 students to the university to conduct ABE labs, usually in a day-long workshop format. Before that practical workshop, the program offers teachers information about the curriculum so they can start conversations in the classroom about laboratory techniques and concepts.
“We do offer some equipment to them, but most of the time, even if the teachers have a classroom where they could run the procedures, they still prefer to bring these students to the university to provide them this experience,” says Eduardo Cortez, ABE site coordinator at Sincroniza Educação. “Visiting the university, we can talk to them about higher education programs. This is an opportunity for many students who do not think about continuing their education to learn about scholarships, ways of paying for the institution fees, and getting to know some programs that are available both in and outside of science.”
For Sacchelli Ramos, bringing more biology to Brazil is important not only for inspiring students to pursue science but for more specifically broadening the opportunities they have in biotechnology both within Brazil and internationally. As a professor with a PhD in biology, she runs the undergraduate biology program at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. While she completed most of her education in São Paulo, experiences she had studying abroad at the University of York (UK) changed her perceptions of what is possible for biotechnology education and industry in Brazil.
At York, Sacchelli Ramos saw, for example, how readily available DNA primers were for experiments compared to in Brazil. While Brazil has educational and professional opportunities in biotechnology, it is still a relatively nascent field, and she is excited to help expand what is available for the next generation. “For the students who come to the university for ABE and for the biology undergrad students, I tell them that they must think higher and they must go beyond their goals,” she says. “We have many job opportunities here, and if they get to know the world, we have a lot of opportunities outside as well.”
The 2023–24 school year was ABE Brazil’s first year, and now entering their second year, they have big plans for expansion. Their goal is to reach 200 students by mid-2025 and 500 students by mid-2026. Amidst their plans is the expansion of the ABE site to a new university campus, closer to cities west of São Paulo and where there will be a new medicine program, which they hope will help with attracting more teachers from that region.
They are also partnering with the local science museum, Catavento, to offer programming that will reach students, teachers, and the broader community. “One of the biggest segments of visitors to the museum is teachers, so our hope is to show them a little bit of what we are doing, as well as information about how to work with us,” Cortez says. Starting in November 2024, they will offer mini-ABE experiences to museum visitors on Saturdays, and starting in December, they will offer a workshop for visiting schools that will allow teachers to bring their students in for hands-on experiments. “We see this as an opportunity to talk to students and teachers and invite students to make their first contact with biotechnology, and then invite them to come over to the university to explore more,” he says.