Team:Imperial College/scicomm


Communication Strategies Guide

What is science communication and why do we do it?

Science communication in short is the exchange of scientific information with others who tend not to be experts in the field of science being communicated. Synthetic biology as a field is interdisciplinary in nature and synthetic biologists have varying degrees of experience and knowledge in any discipline. Personally, we found this apparent when discussing our project with electrochemists who had less experience with synthetic biology. Therefore, effective communication is essential for advances in synthetic biology. Additionally, as a subject that is highly linked to industry, communication with industry leaders is essential in translating synthetic biology to the real world. In general, science communication is important for a few reasons:


Increasing scientific literacy and curiosity among the public

Science communication makes science more transparent and accessible to the public, making it easier to visualize and support the impact science will have on people's daily lives, increasing scientific literacy and curiosity. This encourages young people (such as ourselves) into science in the future as well as making the public more likely to support scientific progress.

Influence policy and ethical decisions regarding science

With the support of the public, lawmakers are more inclined to fund science, or change policies to make science easier to conduct. Increased public scientific literacy means more science-based policy decisions as well as informed decisions on science policy.

Influence individual decision making

Increased scientific literacy means that the public will be less fearful and more eager to adopt new technology as well as incorporate science in the decisions that they make in their daily lives. Lastly it makes people less likely to believe in pseudoscience or misinform/misrepresent science which is very important in the age of fake news and misinformation.

What is the Communication Strategies Guide?

We've designed a 4-stage protocol for science communication optimized for iGEM. Much like the engineering design framework synthetic biologists follow when designing new technology, it is cyclical and iterative in nature. Our approach is also modular, reflecting the modularity of synthetic biology. To demonstrate its ease of use, we have created a customizable science communication guide following the framework.

How did Imperial implement this protocol?


Science Museum Surveys: We traveled to the Science Museum as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to get feedback on how much people know about biotechnology and the implications of our project. We performed these surveys over a 3 week period. We originally designed paper surveys and spoke to people directly. We found this approach cumbersome and inefficient. To improve, we decided that all future surveys will use electronic media (iPads, etc.). Additionally, our initial survey designs testing knowledge were yes/no questions asking whether participants were aware of the meaning of a specific term in biotechnology. These initial survey questions were not only long in length (30+ questions), they were uninformative on how much the participants actually knew about biotechnology. We decided on asking fewer, but harder and more open-ended multiple choice questions. This complete overhaul in survey design came as many participants questioned us on both the method of delivery of the survey as well as the content of the surveys.
Art-Exhibition: After determining that level of knowledge has no impact on opinions on GMOs, we recognized that it was important that aspects other than explaining how biotechnological systems work are well explained. Hence, we decided not to focus on outreach that involved explaining the function of our system but rather explaining our system as a function of society and our world. Hence, we commissioned artists who shared a common understanding with us that patterning is a fundamental part of life and can arise as an emergent property from human society. The hope is that viewers of the art exhibition will view life as we know it as a result of patterns our system could potential reproduce. By characterizing our audiences better through the use of surveys, we are able to design communications that better resonate with our audiences.
Socio-ethics discussion: As previously mentioned, our primary goal with outreach is to explain our system in context of society. Our project, and much of synthetic biology in general, is all about the idea of being able to control life. Widespread use of synthetic biology will likely hinge upon public perception of the nature of this control. Hence the need to receive public feedback on both the level of control we as a society want to have over life as well as the level of control over the potential applications of synthetic biology systems. By hosting a socio-ethics discussion, we are able to gather public concerns from different cultural, economic and social backgrounds and thus gain a more nuanced perspective on the sociological effects of technological innovation. The conclusions we drew from the socio-ethics discussion will be paramount to shaping future outreach.

Changelog


Version 1.0: Sci-comm guide implemented (June 30th)
Version 1.1: Based on feedback from KUAS-Korea iGEM, we've added examples, visual detail and made a pdf downloadable version of the whole guide. We have also made minor edits to parts pertaining to industry as well as correcting minor grammatical and spelling mistakes. (August 31st)

Sources