Team:NAWI Graz/Public Engagement
Movie Night
On March 21 we teamed up with "oikos - students for sustainable economics and management", who organized a series of movie screenings.
After a documentation that fittingly dealt with innovative approaches in the food industry, we had the chance to present our project to the audience, followed by Q&A session.
Lange Nacht der Forschung
"Lange Nacht der Forschung" (roughly translated to “long night of research”) is an Austrian event, where universities and other research facilities all over the country open their doors, welcome visitors and inform them about their latest projects, findings and technologies. On April 13, the iGEM team NAWI Graz participated in collaboration with "acib" (The Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology). We educated visitors - adults as well as children - about enzymes and their role in biotechnology. A small experiment using gummy bears and proteases was used for demonstration. We also seized the opportunity to inform the visitors about our iGEM project.
TU Graz StreeTech
At the "TU Graz StreeTech" event on June 16, student teams from the university of technology in Graz had the chance to engage with the public and present their projects. Each team - iGEM NAWI Graz among them - had a booth at the main square and interviews with team members as well as short films about the teams and their projects were shown at a screen in front of the town hall. All day we presented last year's and this year’s projects of iGEM NAWI Graz to the public. Through numerous conversations and a survey among visitors, we learned about their opinions regarding palm (kernel) oil and gain valuable feedback for our project.
BHAK Weiz
On June 26 we visited the BHAK Weiz, a local high school, where we held a lecture about genetic engineering and talked with the pupils about GMOs, biotechnology, the iGEM competition and our project. Additionally, we performed a class friendly experiment in which the pupils could extract DNA from strawberries. The pupils were visibly fascinated and also the teachers gave very positive feedback.
TU Graz Welcome Days
The “TU welcome days” on September 27 and 28 offered new students the possibility to get information about university life. On the first day, members of our iGEM team were there, equipped with some info material. Over the course of the day, we had the opportunity to talk to a number of students from different fields about the iGEM competition and maybe inspire them to participate in future teams.
Biomin
It was important for us to spread the word about iGEM, not only to our fellow students but also to businesses. That’s why on July 5 members of our team visited Biomin - a company that is developing animal feed additives. Research is an important focus of Biomin and they were very interested in our project when we held a presentation at the Biomin Research Center.
Mol-Bio Fest’l
Together with the student council of molecular biology and OLGA (Open Lab Graz Austria) we hosted the “Mol-Bio Fest’l”. Every year, students and professors of different fields come to this event in order to socialize, drink and have a good time. This year’s Mol-Bio Fest’l on May 30 was also a huge success and we were able to make iGEM known to a big and target-oriented audience.
Social Media
Additionally to all the above mentioned occasions, where we physically got in contact with people and shared information about our project, biotechnology and the iGEM competition, we also used Facebook and Instagram to reach an even bigger audience, as social media nowadays is an indispensable part of public engagement. Through our Facebook page we kept our followers updated on our work, we provided further information about palm oil and palm kernel oil and we informed them about the events where we were represented. We also made a quiz, where participants could test their knowledge about genetic engineering and win a DNA-shaped pen holder. We are glad that this work paid off, as we got more than 880 likes on our Facebook page.
News
“WOCHE Graz”, a local newspaper, took interest in our project and featured an article about our team on August 29 after having an interview with two of our team members, where they talked about the iGEM competition and the goal of our project.
We’ve also partnered up with “Studo” - an app for universities in Austria, Germany and Hungary that is used by more than 100,000 students. Studo kept their users informed about our iGEM project through their news section.
Codecheck not only helped us by creating our survey and promotng our project, but also educated the target group of conscious consumers with their app’ s newsfeed and webpage. On October 11 they presented the results of our survey.
