Tokyo Tech's School of Life Science and Technology hosted the 14th BioCon, or bio-creativity contest for high school students, and the 15th Bio-Creativity Design Contest 2022 online on January 22.
The BioCon is a competition where high schoolers from around Japan develop learning materials regarding life and the natural world for elementary and middle school students. Each team is supported by teaching assistants from Tokyo Tech. The Bio-Creativity Design Contest is the culmination of the Advanced Bio-Creative Design course for 2nd- and 3rd-year Tokyo Tech students. Heavily focused on group work, this course encourages students to develop and design a bio-related creation that addresses some current societal issue.
These two contests have been held jointly since 2020. After the high school and university teams present their creations, judges first evaluate the BioCon participants. After this, the judges evaluate both the university teams and the best high school teams joining the Bio-Creativity Design Contest.
This year, eleven teams from eight high schools and four teams from Tokyo Tech participated.
Teams and presentations
Each of the following teams gave a 12-minute presentation which included a short Q&A session. When presenting their teaching materials, many teams gave particular attention to the fact that participating elementary and middle school students were online and could not physically access any of the materials.
- Team Fossil, Seishin Gakuen High School
Coelacanth love
- Multimeter, Sagamihara Secondary School
Improving the intestinal environment and health
- Ichi Fukujin, School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Tech
Musical instrument to experience brain activity
- Teeth!, Toin Gakuen
The structure of teeth in familiar animals
- Passione, Atsugi Senior High School
The Pepsi fighters
- Inverted reality, School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Tech
Make things visible: From the optical perspective of visual organs
- "Fun"gus girls, Seisen Senior High School
The Lego battle of the bacterial human body
- Migratory, Sagamihara Secondary School
Traveling birds: Watari dream
- punny, Seishin Gakuen High School
Let's protect the earth! Planetary boundaries
- Deadly psocid extermination capturer, School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Tech
Psocids
- Neutralization, Azabu University High School
Learning the world of pH from everyday things
- Shinjuku cancer prevention project, Tokyo Metropolitan Shinjuku High School
The form of cancer — Things you didn't know
- Homo gakugeis, Tokyo Gakugei University Senior High School
Models of genes and breeding
- Team rocket, Azabu University High School
Vegetable rocket: Feeling enzymes with our eyes
- Haruto Suzuki, School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Tech
Water pollution
