Team:Tec-Chihuahua/Engagement
Education and Public Engagement
iGEM Team Tec Chihuahua believes that regardless of the results we get and the goals we complete if they are not shared, they can be considered as never done. This is the basic goal of Education and Public Engagement, getting other people involved in the project one way or another. However, there are some previous steps that should be carried out before explaining our project and results to other people, most importantly, giving them a basic preamble of what Synthetic Biology really is. Therefore Team Tec Chihuahua participated intensely in 7 events/projects.
IV Foro Estatal de Apicultura
In our state, 250 honey producers are distributed in 10 regional associations. We count with more than 43,000 beehives. We produce approximately 600 tons of honey per year, of which 400 are exported mainly to Germany and the rest stays for local consume.
We live in a state where beekeepers need to be informed of what is happening in the outside world, they need to know how synthetic biology can influence their business and how can it benefit their economy. For us, it's very important to keep in touch with the people who are directly related to bees. Therefore, we went ahead with the task of making a bigger step and getting more informed citizens and conscious beekeepers.
That's why we participated in the “IV Foro Estatal de Apicultura” (4th State Beekeeping Forum in English), to discuss what is behind synthetic biology and to let people who are not related with the laboratory know that this new area of genetic engineering is not that far away.
This event took place from July 27 through July 29 in our state in the city of Delicias, a couple of hours away from our home. The “IV Foro Estatal de Apicultura” was organized by the Delicias' Beekeepers Association and the State's Government, which counted with the presence of state and federal authorities.
The Delicias' Beekeepers Association invited beekeepers from Chihuahua’s state, future beekeepers, the delegate of the Secretariat of State in charge of administering federal funds to rural development, general public that was interested in bees, and the iGEM team Tec-Chihuahua 2018.
Here we had the opportunity to introduce for the first time synthetic biology to local beekeepers and important members of government associations. We made some posters to explain attendees this science branch, from which a lot of people got interested and got close to try to learn more about it.
We discovered we woke up people's curiosity and decided to open their panorama by giving an example of synthetic biology application in bees so we presented our project. Thanks to this, everyone understood this new scientific approach and could give us their feedback. The public shared their opinions and their concerns about synthetic biology, but more than that, we solved peoples confusions and established conversation to spark new minds into synthetic biology.
“With synthetic biology, are you going to genetically modify the bees or the larvae?” this was the question that was asked the most. We noticed that beekeepers were really concerned about this method, which gave us a chance to explain detail by detail the difference between genetic engineering and synthetic biology.
We were able to impact positively more than 300 hundred people including beekeepers, concerned citizens, and respected government authorities. Also, we could inspire beekeepers to try biotechnological products on their apiaries after getting well informed on how they would work in their beehives.
We know not everything stays in the lab or just in words for theoretical explanations, that's why we decided to make some field work. On the last day of the forum, beekeepers invited us to attended to different local apiaries, where we learned everything bees had to teach us and received great knowledge every beekeeper shared with us.
Clubes de Ciencia México 2018
Clubes de Ciencia México (CdeCMx) is a non-profit organization that seeks to encourage Mexican students to pursue professional opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math. This initiative was firstly introduced at Harvard with the objective to create relationships between students and important researchers, besides spreading science to young people. Thanks to this, CdeCMx has designed an education model for these areas called Clubs. These Clubs target high school and undergraduate students with the objective of making them learn theoretical and practical aspects of these topics.
Each Club is developed by a team of young scientists from the most prestigious universities and research institutions in Mexico and the United States. Each summer, the organization carries out the week of CdeCMx in several cities in the country with the partnership of multiple institutions.
As well, each year, different researchers carry out a program for their Club so students can apply and attend to it. One of the best things this organization has to offer is that every Club is free thus everyone who is interested in science has the opportunity to attend.
This is a project that involves 9 different sites in Mexico. It has over 162 Clubs, 300 instructors and 2200 students within the country. In Chihuahua, our university, the “Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Chihuahua” was one of the sites in Mexico for this important event.
The campus hosted 120 undergraduate students from different institutions along the city who were advised by 12 professors that shared their knowledge and applied it to theoretical and practical lessons.
6 Clubs took place in our campus throughout the week; “Aprende a usar tu gimnasio cerebral usando nanopartículas” given by Sylvia Ortega from the University of Chicago and Linda Lucero from the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH), “Combatiendo el cáncer con plantas medicinales” given by Loria Hijar from UACH and Andrés Moya from the University of Chicago, “Material Science: it looks like magic, but it is real” given by Fernando Valenzuela from the Research Center for Advanced Materials (CIMAV) and Nicole Bakker from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “Del fotón al electrón: Tecnologías solares para todos” given by Jesús Valdiviezo form Duke University and Nora Sánchez from UACH, “Building low cost technology for social impact” given by Safinah Ali from MIT and Luis Orona from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), and last but not least “El mundo real de la biotecnología” given by Laura de Lorenzo from Kentucky University and Isui García from UACH.
For iGEM Tec Chihuahua 2018, as well as CdeCMx, is very important to wake up interests for science in students, so it spreads a little more every time. That's why we decided to support one of the Clubes given at our campus which was “El mundo real de la biotecnología”.
This Club taught students the key concepts in molecular biology and practical lab activities to use living organisms, such as bacteria, to modify a product or process for a specific user. The activities given in the Club were microbiology, prokaryotic cellular cultures, bacterial transformation, DNA purification, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and electrophoresis techniques.
We had the opportunity to help researchers and staff of the Club by preparing everything the students were going to need to make the scheduled activities mentioned above. We gave them material that, for lack of time, didn't arrive on time such as Petri dishes, culture media, competent cells, and GFP and RFP vectors. After their theoretical explanation, sometimes students took a look at how the team prepared everything for their activities.
On the last day, there was space scheduled in the closure called “Programs for an approach to science in Mexico”. Throughout the week we related with some of the instructors participating in these Clubs with whom we shared experiences about our projects. They showed interest for iGEM Tec Chihuahua 2018 and were amazed by the social impact the product would have for beekeepers, that's why we were invited to talk to students in the closure of the Club “Material Science: it looks like magic, but is real”. We presented who we were, what we were working on, and how synthetic biology has led us to our final project proposal. For us, this was a great opportunity because we wanted to wake up youth´s curiosity by introducing them to the synthetic biology field and also encourage them to participate in programs that offer an approach to science in Mexico.
XXVI International Apicola Update Congress 2019
After 25 years of development, the International Apicola Update Congress will be held for the first time in a northern entity of the country. In 2019, Chihuahua, our state, will host this important event thanks to its great contribution to the national honey production with great quality products.
The congress is organized and carried out annually by the National Association of Veterinary Doctors Specialists in Bees, A.C. (ANMVEA, A.C.). It is really important for beekeepers because here they have every tool they need at the back of their hands to solve beehives issues. Here, they have international beekeeping researchers whom they can ask every question they might have.
For our team, keeping in touch with experts is essential for the diffusion of synthetic biology and for receiving feedback of the project, that's why we contacted ANMVEA, A.C., the most important Mexican association. We showed them this year´s project and they completely loved it. They were amazed at our engagement and commitment to bees.
One day while we were discussing the project, they mentioned that they were very happy because we were working with bees, this due to the lack of research for beekeeping. The secretary of ANMVEA, A.C., MVZ Ernesto Tanus Sánchez, explained that this area needed a lot of research because beekeepers nowadays were 50+ years old and most of them were not related to science. They said that they needed young minds working to solve beekeeping problems and people who stayed updated with situations related to bees. ANMVEA, A.C. is concerned about the future of beekeeping. As well, they are aware of all the diseases and beekeeping issues that could be solved using new scientific techniques, such as synthetic biology.
As we mentioned before, almost no beekeeper is acquainted with synthetic biology or science in general.
That's why iGEM Tec Chihuahua is looking forward to introducing the synthetic biology topic to professionals in this field. As well, we want to invite and inspire international beekeeping experts to relate to this newly emerging field of synthetic biology. To achieve this, we received an invitation from this national association to the XXVI International Apicola Update Congress 2019 from ANMVEA, A.C. to present this new science branch and our project in next year´s congress.
With an event of such major, we want to spread knowledge and to dialog with people who may have doubts about the science. Therefore, we will be attending to the next year's invitation to the ExpoChihuahua Convention Center on May 22nd to generate knowledge and acceptance in people outside the lab.
We hope not only to spread knowledge but to get to know what people thinks about synthetic biology and the techniques it is using to try to contribute something good to the environment. We want to keep going with this project that’s why we look to keep engaging the community even when the Giant Jamboree has already taken place.
By assisting, we expect to learn more about bees and to implement everything international experts teach us to enhance our project and our social panorama with the rest of the community.
Bee Culture Magazine
They say that those who read live a thousand lives before they die, but imagine that by reading, the ones who live a thousand lives are not only humans but also honeybees. For our Human Practices, we want to raise awareness for bees and how we can help these remarkable organisms to fight for their lives.
iGEM Tec Chihuahua has proposed a solution to a real beekeeping problem using synthetic biology, but we also know that not everyone can understand how it works without knowing previously what this new science branch involves. Having said that, it is very important for us to let people know about synthetic biology and the benefits that it could bring to Apis mellifera and to life in general.
For this reason, we looked for a prestigious beekeeping magazine to make diffusion of synthetic biology in more countries. Due to this, we found that the Bee Culture was a very important magazine in the United States and other English-speaking countries. That’s why we decided to write an article and share it with the ones who are interested in the
beekeeping sector so they also could know that there exists a new way to redesign biological systems which could be channelled in favor of any living organism.
We firmly believe that synthetic biology needs to be spread, but not only in our community. We wanted to reach people strictly related with this field, so we wrote to the Bee Culture Magazine an article proposal, which they liked and will be published in November’s magazine edition.
Bee Culture is the American beekeeping magazine which has news and expert tips for beginning, sideline and commercial beekeepers. The scope of the magazine is given by the monthly subscriptions, which are available to all English-speaking countries. The magazine could be found in a printed edition, smartphones, tablets, and web edition.
Besides the article, we know that synthetic biology is a completely new topic for beekeepers, nevertheless we think that science should be part of everyone’s lives. That's why we put our contact at the end of the article, so iGEM Tec-Chihuahua 2018 could solve questions that could emerge in beekeepers or public in general.
Since our article will be published after the Giant Jamboree takes place, we asked Bee Culture’s editor, Kim Flottum, to write us a letter assuring our article in next’s edition. The letter will be shown below.
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