Team:Alma/Human Practices
Human Practices Overview
From Inspiration to Integration
From our initial project idea and inspiration, we were very excited by the potential of our project. However, there were a lot of questions we had about how to maximize its impact – like many iGEM teams, we sought expert feedback.
However, we did not limit our quest for feedback and an integrated design to the science behind our project. We sought and got advice on marketing, communication, educational outreach, and other aspects of the project. We then tried to incorporate this into our final efforts.
Examples of this included a discussion with Dr. Jennifer Vranish, an Alma College professor of Integrated Health and Physiology, regarding the potential side effects and treatment schedule that would be inherit in different designs. From this, we were able to establish a clear set of goals and an alternative design to our project. Another example was our discussion with Jeremy Hendges, the director of the Michigan government office of Talent and Economic Development (TED). From this we gained valuable insight into the importance of bringing a STEM career awareness to primary school students and got advice on how to educate others regarding iGEM and synthetic biology.
Please visit the companion page for more details regarding how we integrated the insights we gained into our project.
Pictured from left to right: Madison Hibbs, Emily Woods, Kaleb Ramon, David Viguilla, Mr. Jeremy Hendges, Alex Martinez, Ben Slavin, Brianna Ricker, Nathan Haut, Chloe Bower.
Critical Thinking and Active Engagement
At Alma, we are trained to think critically and given a liberal arts education with a wide breath of knowledge. We tried to apply this perspective and approach to our iGEM human practices this year.
This includes careful consideration of the way in which we communicate our project – right down to nuances in the design of our graphics and logos. We gave talks, designed introductory synthetic biology exercises for science camps (and helped run those camps – educational outreach to high school students) and laboratory activities for high school classrooms.
Please visit the companion pages for more details regarding how we thought about educational outreach and graphic design.