Team:UBonn HBRS/HP/Silver
Human Practices
Science Slam
The objective of a Science Slam is for researchers and scientists to present current scientific topics to a non-expert audience in an entertaining way and a short time capacity. The winner is then chosen by the audience. This year our team was once again privileged with the opportunity to collaborate with the Caesar Institute and organize the event, which was a definite success with around 200 attendees. In addition to various and interesting topics, the audience also was introduced to iGEM and our current project.
Survey
This year we decided to conduct a survey, which included a part about Synthetic Biology in general and another part about Caries. We shared the survey on several social media platforms and during our City- Info Booth, therefore insuring a large pool of participants. We started by asking whether the participants knew what Synthetic Biology is. 55 % answered no. We then added a small, easy to understand description, so that they would be informed and asked the remaining 45 % who answered with yes to briefly explain the concept in their own words. Around 78 % of the people thought that a new method of caries prevention is needed. One of the more important questions we had in the survey was whether the public would be willing to use our final product (which would have been created with the help of synthetic biology) after they have had a brief explanation as to what synthetic biology and GMOs are. A surprising 95 % said yes!
Science March
On the 14th of April 2018, our iGEM team joined a March for Science in Cologne. It was a great opportunity for us to listen to some distinguished speakers. We also met other iGEM teams there, who had come all the way from Düsseldorf, Bielefeld and Aachen and we spent some time together.
