Team:William and Mary/Public Engagement
Human Practices
Every member of the public, regardless of discipline, will be impacted by synthetic biology research. This year we invested in expanding the conversations around synthetic biology to targeted communities beyond STEM students. By presenting our project and bioengineering to new groups we were able to engage in more complex conversations surrounding the ethics, policy and implementation of our project. We received diverse feedback which ultimately helped shape the direction of our work. We have divided our outreach into three categories, Incorporating New Communities, A Statewide Standard, and Continuing the Conversation. We have also continued our work with our Outreach Database.
Incorporating New Communities
We identified 7 communities we wanted to bring into the conversation. We followed our Outreach Planning Guide and utilized the Outreach Database to build on past years successful programs. This ensured our programs were relevant for our target communities and put synthetic biology into a relatable context. Be sure to click through all 7 of our initiatives found here.
Major achievements:
- 7 distinct programs created, executed, and reflected upon
- 600+ Meaningful conversations with community members
- Integration of public input into this years project. See IHP