Synthetic biology as a tool to online teaching undergraduate level molecular biology.

During the Covid‐19 pandemic, all on‐campus activities were required to be adapted to a distance‐learning format, which was especially challenging for practical courses. Molecular biology is a mandatory course for biology undergraduates at Universidade Federal Fluminense. To overcome the impossibility of practical activities, we proposed problem‐solving synthetic biology assignments to review and consolidate the knowledge acquired in the molecular biology course. A survey indicated that the synthetic biology challenges were effective to promote students' active learning and worked as a proper substitute to the practical classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]