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<h1>Human Practices: Education and Public Engagement Special Prize</h1>
 
<h1>Human Practices: Education and Public Engagement Special Prize</h1>
  
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<p>Innovative educational tools and public engagement activities have the ability to discuss the science behind synthetic biology, spark new scientific curiosity and establish a public dialogue about synthetic biology from voices and views outside the lab. </p>
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<p>In order to make our project more complete and integrated, we always have to know how the public citizens without professional background think about our project. To collect public opinions on solving practical environmental problems with genetically engineered bacteria, we designed a questionnaire and distributed it across the country. With more than 500 valid questionnaires, we found most respondents (57.48%) strongly supported to bring in a third-party organization for supervising and controlling, but also 66.22% of all respondents found it risky to put engineered bacteria even with well-designed hardware and equipment. We hope the survey can help us have a deeper understanding of public opinions and by analyzing and interpreting related results, we improved our project with a clear target. Results of some important results are listed as follows and the full file can be found here.</p>
  
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<p>On this page, your team should document your Education and Public Engagement work and activities. Describe your team’s efforts to include more people in shaping synthetic biology (such as creating or building upon innovative educational tools and/or public engagement activities to establish two-way dialogue with new communities, and/or engaging new groups in discussions about synthetic biology and public values). Describe your approach, why you chose it, and what was learned by everyone involved (including yourselves!).</p>
 
  
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<p>This work may relate to or overlap with the work you document on your Human Practices page. Whereas Integrated Human Practices relates to the process of refining your project purpose and design, this page may highlight significant efforts that go beyond your particular project focus and/or address a significant broader concern in iGEM.
 
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<p>By analyzing and interpreting the results, we identified the top3 concerns and top3 suggestions relatively. The top3 concerns are the risk of bio-leakage, the stability of monitoring equipment and the effect on ecological balance, and the top3 suggestions are paying more attention to biosafety, responding to public concerns properly, and learning from foreign successful experiences. From the results we got, we can see, thought synthetic biology is regarded as a growing field, the majority of citizens without professional background are still confused about its principles and mechanisms. Regarding the relationship between health and environment, nearly all respondents think the two aspects are related, which is consistent with the project background. The 66.22% of all respondents who think it risky to put engineered bacteria into environment actually present a common concern, which cannot be solved by solely improving the project, but we should also find ways to explain our designs in a more accessible way for the public to comprehend. As for the future development of bioremediation in China, most respondents think the prospect is quite positive, which also greatly encourages us to continue implementing synthetic biology for solving practical problems. From our perspective, the fast-developing technology is always a double-edge sword, which should be handled carefully to do more good to our society, and taking public opinions into consideration is a useful method for us to view our projects from different angles and keep improving.</p>
  
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<p>For more information, please see the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices">Human Practices Hub</a>. There you will find:</p>
 
 
 
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<li> an <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Introduction">introduction</a> to Human Practices at iGEM </li>
 
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<li>tips on <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/How_to_Succeed">how to succeed</a> including explanations of judging criteria and advice about how to conduct and document your Human Practices work</li>
 
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<li>descriptions of <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Examples">exemplary work</a> to inspire you</li>
 
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<li>links to helpful <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Resources">resources</a></li>
 
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<li>And more! </li>
 
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<p>If you nominate your team for the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Awards"></a>Best Education and Public Engagement Special Prize</a> by filling out the corresponding field in the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Judging_Form">judging form</a>, the judges will review this page to consider your team for that prize. The criteria are listed below. </p>
 
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<p>How have you developed new opportunities to include more people in shaping synthetic biology? Innovative educational tools and public engagement activities have the ability to establish a two-way dialogue with new communities by discussing public values and the science behind synthetic biology. Document your approach and what was learned by everyone involved to compete for this award.
 
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Revision as of 03:14, 17 October 2018

Human Practices: Education and Public Engagement Special Prize

In order to make our project more complete and integrated, we always have to know how the public citizens without professional background think about our project. To collect public opinions on solving practical environmental problems with genetically engineered bacteria, we designed a questionnaire and distributed it across the country. With more than 500 valid questionnaires, we found most respondents (57.48%) strongly supported to bring in a third-party organization for supervising and controlling, but also 66.22% of all respondents found it risky to put engineered bacteria even with well-designed hardware and equipment. We hope the survey can help us have a deeper understanding of public opinions and by analyzing and interpreting related results, we improved our project with a clear target. Results of some important results are listed as follows and the full file can be found here.

By analyzing and interpreting the results, we identified the top3 concerns and top3 suggestions relatively. The top3 concerns are the risk of bio-leakage, the stability of monitoring equipment and the effect on ecological balance, and the top3 suggestions are paying more attention to biosafety, responding to public concerns properly, and learning from foreign successful experiences. From the results we got, we can see, thought synthetic biology is regarded as a growing field, the majority of citizens without professional background are still confused about its principles and mechanisms. Regarding the relationship between health and environment, nearly all respondents think the two aspects are related, which is consistent with the project background. The 66.22% of all respondents who think it risky to put engineered bacteria into environment actually present a common concern, which cannot be solved by solely improving the project, but we should also find ways to explain our designs in a more accessible way for the public to comprehend. As for the future development of bioremediation in China, most respondents think the prospect is quite positive, which also greatly encourages us to continue implementing synthetic biology for solving practical problems. From our perspective, the fast-developing technology is always a double-edge sword, which should be handled carefully to do more good to our society, and taking public opinions into consideration is a useful method for us to view our projects from different angles and keep improving.