PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

RNA Day

On August 1st, also called “RNA Day”, our team decided to help the University of Lethbridge Collegiate iGEM team at a booth set up at our local farmer’s market. This public engagement activity introduced the members of our community to iGEM, in addition to the work that both the collegiate and high school iGEM teams have accomplished. At our booth, we interacted with the community by providing different activities, such as synthetic biology based colouring sheets and toothpicks and marshmallows to make DNA. People at the farmers market were even able to conduct a DNA extraction experiment, which allowed them to venture into the types of activities that members of iGEM partake in.

Whoop Up Days

Our team had a booth at our local summer carnival, Whoop Up Days, to promote synthetic biology and iGEM. The booth allowed individuals to learn about iGEM and how to pipette. We were even able to raise over $100 in donations through selling stickers that we had designed ourselves. This booth was successful in bringing awareness to synthetic biology in addition to fundraising.

iGEM Music Recital

We held a music recital to showcase the musical abilities and talents of our team members, in addition to raising money to send more representatives to Boston. We were also able to engage with our community by giving a presentation on iGEM, our project and synthetic biology as a whole.

STEAM

As part of our public engagement, our team had the opportunity to integrate our project into "Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics", or STEAM, an after school program for elementary school students run by The Crossings Branch Library in our city of Lethbridge. At the beginning of the program, we taught the kids about iGEM; afterwards, we explored the topic of bacteria, proteins and DNA by doing two fun activities: DNA extractions and play-doh protein-expressing bacteria. Our goal was to teach these students about the wonder of synthetic biology, which has subsequently created interest in the community of youth for synthetic biology. This demonstrates the engagement of our team with the Lethbridge youth.

We found that the interlab study was a good way for us to learn the lab techniques that we used during the development of our own project. However, it seemed challenging to manipulate the bacteria by dilutions as specified in the methods, as our results seemed to vary.

aGEM AND OTHER CONFERENCES

Canmore aGEM

The first place where we publicly presented our project was at the aGEM in Canmore. Our project at that time was focused on desalination. However, after conversing and doing a few calculations with the judges, we soon realized that our system would be incompatible with salt removal. As a result, we decided to change the focus of our project to the capture and removal of metal ions in tailings instead. This pivot turned our potential users from places requiring potable water from seawater, to tailings and wastewater treatment plants. At Canmore, we received the award for “Best Opportunity Analysis”, as well as a prize of $1800.

North American iGEM Kickoff

Our team had the opportunity to go to Calgary for the North American iGEM Kickoff. We were able to present a basic outline of our project, as well as listen to the projects from collegiate teams. This allowed us to expand our knowledge and interest in synthetic biology. At the Kickoff event, we were able to improve our project from the judge’s feedback, as well as gain advice from other iGEM teams in North America who participated in the conference. For instance, we received contact information for different people as this would help us for the future integration of our project. From this helpful information we were able to improve our project over the summer for aGEM in September.

Calgary aGEM

After the North American iGEM Kickoff, our next stop was aGEM in Calgary. At aGEM, we presented our project to a panel of judges, along with other Alberta iGEM teams. At this event, we received valuable insight and gained more experience with answering questions; this helped us improve our system in the final stretch before the Jamboree. At aGEM, we received the award for “Best Modelling”, as well as $1000 for the work on our project.

Chinook Sypmosium

We had the opportunity to present at the University of Lethbridge’s Chinook Symposium, where high school, undergraduate, and graduate students present their research to scientific experts, as well as the public community. Our team had a poster set up at the Symposium that introduced the University as well as its members, to this year's high school iGEM project. We gained expert advice from the scientific community, and everyone was very interested at what our project had to offer. Furthermore, we were able to answer questions about our system, which introduced us to the types of questions our project may receive from a scientific expert. By participating in the Chinook Symposium our team was able to become prepared for the poster presentation we would experience in Boston.

BioTreks Paper

We wrote a scientific paper, called “Capture and Removal of Ions from Seawater",in a peer reviewed website to gain feedback on the design of our system. We received six medals on our BioTreks paper for the following achievements: Problem Solving, Conference Participation, Scientific Rigor, Innovation, Collaboration, and Visual Communications. Additionally, one of our team members, Michelle Wu, received a special recognition award for her excellent participation in the online conference that took place. BioTreks helped us extend our project as a result of the questions and comments posted on it by the public; for example, some areas of confusion were mentioned, which improved our scientific language in our presentations.