Team:Saint Joseph/Public Engagement
Engaging with the public is an essential part of ensuring that a project, such as ours, is responsible. Experts we spoke to stressed the importance of dialogue and transparency, to ensure our project is ethical, and acceptable enough to the public to make its implementation possible. To build this dialogue, our outreach activities included attending the Big Bang Fair and Avonmouth Summerfest. At both, we trialled our Plasmid Hoopla Game, which we built to teach members of the public - particularly children and young adults - the basics of genetic engineering. We also presented at the BrisSynBio annual conference and took part in an hour-long radio interview on Bristol’s community radio station, BCfm. To consolidate all we had learned and provide a resource to inspire and assist future teams, we collaborated with social media experts to create a Media Guide, containing information about how to use social media effectively in order to engage with the public. Finally, we created a Pollution Bot, which users can tweet to find out about pollution levels in their area - helping to generate greater awareness of the problems posed by air pollution, and our project’s response to these.
Plasmid Hoopla Game
Early on in our iGEM journey this summer, we managed to secure a stall at the Big Bang Fair to showcase our project and talk about synthetic biology with local school children. We knew we wanted to incorporate a physically-interactive element into our stand to bridge the gap between PE and Science, and avoid overcrowding our space with technology and screens - thus the Plasmid ‘Hoopla’ Game idea was born!
With little to no budget, we used the resources available to us via our university to bring our idea to life and produced the first version of our game in the engineering workshop. Armed with the Plasmid Hoopla Game version 1 we headed to the fair where it was so well received by teachers and kids that we were invited to go to Ashton Park School to test our prototype further. This gave us the opportunity to get some written feedback on our game and see how it could work as a teaching tool alongside a biology lesson.
Taking the feedback on board, we made a few modifications to our game to make it complementary to the UK GCSE syllabus, such as the addition of the base pairs and ligase enzyme tools. Now, armed with version 2 of our game, we headed to the Avonmouth Summerfest to put it to the test with some of the residents there.
Following the success of our game as an educational tool for synthetic biology, a talking point to spark discussions about our project and an easily-producible visual aid for a science fair, we decided to make the game readily available to as many people/teams as possible. It was really important for us to be able to share the game with others for as little cost to them as possible - we therefore have developed a full set of assembly and play instructions so that any school/team/company/individual with access to a laser cutter and a few basic materials can make a plasmid game of their own.
If you would like to make your own Plasmid Hoopla game, please email us at bristoligem@gmail.com- we will send you the laser cutter (dxf) files so that you can cut out your own E. coli and plasmids parts.
Click here to download the instructions for making the Plasmid Hoopla Game (PDF)
Click here to download the instructions for playing the Plasmid Hoopla Game (PDF)
Big Bang Fair - Pod Designs
At the Big Bang Fair we asked children and adults to design pods to hold our bacteria. The pods needed to be secure, have a large surface area for maximum efficiency and look good! See their designs here.
Designing pods at the Big Bang Fair. The designs were then hung on trees for everyone to see (right).
Avonmouth Summerfest
Summerfest gave us the opportunity to talk to different demographics; community members that wouldn’t normally engage with the world of synthetic biology or scientific research in general. Many people that we spoke to were keen to talk about air pollution and felt that it was an issue that was being poorly addressed and that their voices were at times unheard, possibly due to Avonmouth being distant from the city centre, where there is more of a focus on tackling air pollution. Additionally, it was at Summerfest that the idea that we could work with local artists to have the pod design represent something from each community was suggested, an idea that we really like as it continues the interdisciplinary theme of iGEM. We also got feedback from the MP for Bristol North West, Darren Jones (pictured left) and Councillor Jo Sergeant.
Radio Interview
As part of our outreach programme and attempt to communicate our project to the public, we appeared on Bristol Community fm’s ‘Love and Science’. Our interview lasted an hour, in which we began by explaining our project and answering questions, after which we discussed a broad range of scientific news ranging from why leaves are different sizes to discovery of new species in the amazon jungle. The interview gave us the opportunity to discuss our project with members of the public outside of the scientific community whilst also reaching a relatively large audience, as well as propelling Jono and Nick to D-list celebrity status!
Listen to the interview here (04/09/2017 show).
Media Guide
In order to help other teams communicate their projects effectively, we created a Media Guide. It includes advice on using social media and getting the most out of interviews about your project. We consulted a number of social media experts, as well as Malcolm Love, the star of BCfm's "Love and Science" radio show. See the guide below, or download a copy here.
Pollution Bot
We created a Pollution Bot on Twitter, which users can tweet to find out about pollution levels in their area. Read more about it on our page here, or click here to tweet it.
BrisSynBio Conference
One of our most substantial beneficiaries, BrisSynBio, were kind enough to invite us to their annual Synthetic Biology conference held on the University of Bristol campus to hold a short talk and present a poster on our project. The conference consisted of talks and posters over a two day period with many notable speakers. This allowed us to gain valuable feedback about our project from accomplished synthetic biologists and gave us great practice for our jamboree presentation!
