Team:BOKU-Vienna/Public Engagement
Public Engagement and Education
Here you can read about all the different events we hosted to teach as many people as possible about Synthetic Biology. We tried to reach people of different educational backgrounds and of different ages. Our focus was getting an integrating feedback to improve our teaching methods and to reach more people. We have learnt that different events attract different types of people and to be considered as as many as possible, various events and teaching materials were used/created.
To engage and motivate children (aged 10-14 years) – Vienna
Children's University 
Muthgassen Summerfestival
School presentation at Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg
The presentation at the school “Bernoulligymnasium”
UniVie Blog and Federal Ministry of Education, Science and
Research!
Alumni MeetUp – After iGEM Organization
Engaging people of different ages and educational backgrounds
at the European Researchers ́ Night
PubQuiz at Charli P’s
Presentation to scientific peers
Comic book
CropsMatter - Grow Scientific Progress
To engage and motivate children (aged 10-14 years) – Vienna Children's University
"Kinderuni" translated into English means “Children's University”. Here, children can listen to lectures
and participate in workshops, hold by scientists of different fields like astronomy, biology,
languages.
We participated this year to show them the possibilities of synthetic biology and how it can play a
vital role in tackling current problems.
Firstly, Ursula Kiesswetter, a technician of the Department of Biotechnology, hold a lecture on
gene-technology that
introduced the basics of biology and gene editing.
Afterwards we talked about synthetic biology and asked for their own ideas.
Asking questions was important to us to not only hold a presentation but to actively communicate with
the kids. One child told us about how changing the genes of plants can influence their yield and their
chance of survival. Another child told us that plants also can be made resistant to pathogens.
We elaborated on this, telling them how to use synthetic biology in terms of environmental
problems (climate change, pollutions) and in the health sector (producing medicine, nutrients,
developing diagnosis methods) by providing examples like CO2 fixation in bacteria or the production of
antibiotics in actinobacteria.
After this exchange we presented our project. Our goal was to describe it as simple as possible, while
making it interesting. Therefore, we created a comic to illustrate our project.
Afterwards, they had time to ask questions. Questions included were:
- How many people suffer from this disease?
- Will this project really be realized? (This kid was really fascinated with about the tools of synthetic biology, which made us very happy!)
- Does the gene of the color, which the bacterium will be producing, really come from a coral? (They were excited about adding genes from one organism into another!)
- What are the symptoms of the disease? (Beforehand, we only stated it was a skin disease to not scare the children. Still we answered this question with the remark that they should not be scared since there are no cases reported in Austria.)
After answering their questions, the children had the chance to do hands-on experiments including DNA-extraction from tomatoes and doing the job of a ribosome by producing coherent sentences from a bunch of bases that must have been paired with each other.! Attribution: idea and materials for this lab experiment and the game are from our lovely lab technician of the department of biotechnology, Ursula Kiesswetter!
After our workshop, a father told us we have gained a new fan (his son) and that his son was fascinated by our project, which made us very happy. From this experience we learned that comics are a great way to communicate complex matter in an easy-to-understand way. This was fundamental to create our next idea: our comic book "The Wonderful World of Synthetic Biology". Because we thought, if children can understand such complex topics with the help of a comic, people of all ages and educational backgrounds will understand it this way too. We also learned that lab experiments and games are a great way to increase interest in young people. We also conducted lab experiments with children at the European Researcher´s Night and played games with the pupils at school presentations.
Muthgassen Summerfestival
Every year at the end of the summer semester, BOKU students organize a summer party at the BOKU
Muthgasse. Hundreds of students take part in this festival - so it was an excellent start to present our
project to the public.
But how do we present ourselves and our project to reach as many people as possible? Food
and drinks were already provided, and so we thought that we could sweeten the afternoon for the
students. With homemade biscuits, muffins, and cakes and freshly made coffee, we were ready to present
our project. Many friends, acquaintances, colleges and interested people came by for a good cup of
coffee and a piece of cake to learn more about our project and iGEMt.
We stayed until late in the evening and gave first insights and information on how we would implement
our project, what is planned, and what would be in store for us. We were able to tell the people
that such a project was not only done with the laboratory work. Public relations work and informing
people who know little or nothing about this area, and even explaining what we are doing is a point that
should not be neglected.
We might even have been able to motivate some of them to join the BOKU iGEM team next year.
We were especially praised for our homemade cakes, biscuits and muffins.
School presentation at Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg
During our project we held presentations in schools and engaged in educational. We also wanted to put
focus on possible applications in Synthetic Biology and possible career
perspectives for scientists. This is why we visited the former schools of our team members
One of these schools was the HBFLA Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg. The Francisco Josephinum, or
FJ, focuses on agriculture, agricultural engineering, agriculture and digitalization, food
technology and biotechnology
We had the chance to present our project to two classes in the department of food technology and
biotechnology. DI Dr. Gudrun Nagl, the head of the department, allowed us to give two teaching
units to introduce the students to genetics, iGEM, and our iGEM Project “Mycolactone
Diagnostics”.
On Monday the 23rd of September, we made us on the way to Wieselburg. Forty-seven students, in the age
between 16 and 19, were waiting for us. We started the day with an introduction into genetics (genetics
101), covering everything from “What is DNA” to the emerging field of synthetic biology.
We answered the questions, what is DNA, how does it looks like, what can you do with it, how can you
manipulate
it, and how are proteins synthesized.
During our presentation about synthetic biology and iGEM, we gave them examples of current problems, and
told the students to come up with synthetic biology based solutions by themselves. These tasks are from
a collaboration with this year’s iGEM team from Washington.
They want to draw attention to the field of synthetic biology in schools, which, in our case,
was quite successful.
After that, we also had the opportunity to present our project, which was an excellent exercise for the
Giant Jamboree in Boston.
Our goal was to enlighten the students in the field of synthetic biology and keep the field
of synthetic biology and iGEM in mind.
One week after the lecture, we conducted a survey to collect feedback from the students. We evaluated
the surveys and performed data analysis.
The following statements could be scored from 1 to 5, whereas five was most likely and one least likely.
- Before coming here, did you know what synthetic biology is and does?
- Before coming here, how skeptical were you about synthetic biology?
- The introduction into genetics was...
- The synthetic biology game was...
- The description of the iGEM project on a “A Novel Approach to Diagnose Buruli Ulcer” was...
- What could have been better?
- Explanation of the Synbio Game
- The game was not easy to understand
- No more games
- More time, easier vocabulary (game)
- No games
- More time for the quiz/game – easier language in the quiz / game
- More about iGEM
- The game was to long
- More activity / explain the game better
- The Synbio game in between was way to heavy in information for that short amount of time
- More details of the Buruli ulcer / do the gam a little bit shorter
- More information about Buruli ulcer
- The aspects of self-development were too extensive
- Game: better explanation
- The game was very complicated / little bit more information about the project
- More information about the project and ho you can find a project like this
- More information about the iGEM project in general and your project
- That its not that complicated / sometimes hard to understand
- Not so much complicated words by the game / more information about the finding of the project
- Language in German
- More detailing on the actual disease
- More information about the project and how they got the solution
- The game
- More information about the illness
- The game was wasted time
- The biology game
- Short biology game questions
- More time for the group work
- What was good?
- Overall presentation
- PowerPoint
- It was presented very well
- Easy explanation of the topic
- It was presented very well
- The presentation was very well prepared
- Videos / Pictures
- Introduction into genetics
- The introduction
- Description with the video
- The explaining of genetics
- Information about the project and the disease
- PowerPoint
- The animation of the genetic part and the introduction
- The introduction into genetics for refreshing knowledge
- Power Point / questions
- Power Point
- Introduction of genetic
- Explanation of synthetic biology
- The animation about the genetic
- The genetic presentation
- The genetic presentation
- The genetic explanation
- Good presentation with nice animation
- Presentation
- Introduction into genetics
- Easy to follow presentation
- How likely is it that you will join such an event again? Why and Why not?
- It is interesting
- Because it was interesting
- Interesting
- informative, meaningful, insight into possible future working environment / research
- eventually, if there is an opportunity
- I’m very interested into genetics, biology
- Interesting
- Because it’s informative
- Seems interesting
- Interesting
- Interesting
- It was very interesting and I learned about an illness, which I wouldn’t been known if I didn’t attend this presentation
- It was very interesting
- Interesting
- Interesting, but sometimes hard to follow and understand
- Was interesting
- It is interesting
- Learned new things and facts
- It was interesting
- It was cool
- It was interesting
- Informative / interesting
- Because it was interesting
- Why not?
- It is not interesting
- Was nothing special
- Sometimes hard to follow
This shows us that the students could figure out what synthetic biology is, but do not precisely know what is.
> When students broaden their knowledge of biotechnology, they start losing their skepticism about applied genetics and the field of synthetic biology. We can compare this data with the statements after the presentation.
In Figure 3 we can see that we could significantly change the knowledge of the students about synthetic biology. .
In Figure 4 we can see that there was no substantial change in skepticism towards synthetic biology after the presentation.
With these statements, we wanted to evaluate how interesting the students found our lecture.
This shows us that our presentation was very interesting to the students. We did not consider the knowledge they have at their current stage. They did already know something about microbiology and chemistry, but some aspects we covered during our genetics lecture were still hard to understand. This is something we should consider for next presentations for students. But we also had parts, which were very easy to understand – a lot of animated processes.
After our presentation, we played a synthetic biology game, where the students formed groups of
5.
In Figure 6 and Figure 7 we can see that the game was not well received by the students. We did not prepare the game right and also did not check if it might be understandable for the students. The game and the cases were exciting, but it wasn’t well prepared for this day.
Here we asked the students, about their opinion on our project presentation.
In Figure 8 you can see that the presentation of the project was very interesting for the
students. They had some problems to grasp the project, but the majority could follow it. We can
also see that we were able to motivate a lot of students to learn more about the project, the
disease and iGEM.
We also asked the students for some additional feedback. For visualization we used a wordle
format
The game wasn’t the best part of the presentation. It was too complicated for the students and wasn’t explained very well from us. Also, the project and iGEM part could have been explained better.
The PowerPoint presentation itself was very good, and also the introduction into genetics was well prepared for the students.
For the Part “Why not” there were to less response, so we only can provide a list, because, there were too few answeres to provide a wordle.
Overall conclusion
The presentation about genetics and about the project was well prepared and well received by the students. The synthetic biology game wasn’t a success. Reasons, why the game wasn’t a success were the lack of time we had on this day and also the poor explanation. We thought that the game is self-explaining. With this information we could prepare us for the next presentation at the Bernoulligymnasium in Vienna.
The presentation at the school “Bernoulligymnasium”
Because we noticed, a certain age group was hardly present at the European Researchers´
Night, we scheduled a second visit at a school to reach out to more teenagers aged
15-18.
This time we looked for a school that isn´t heavily focused on natural sciences like the
Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg. Therefore, we chose to hold a presentation at the
Bernoulligymnasium, which lasted 2 hours and was grouped into an introduction into
genetics,
an introduction into Synthetic Biology, the synbio-game from iGEM Washington 2019 and an
introduction to iGEM as well as an explanation of our own project “Mycolactone
Diagnostics”.
The feedback we got from the school presentation at the Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg
was
incorporated into our next school presentation at the Bernoulligymnasium.
The synbio game created by the team iGEM Washington 2019:
The game was shortened to not exceed one page, since last time, the feedback we received
stated it was too long and to heavy on information for the given time. We mainly focused
on
them finding the pros and cons of different iGEM projects and to find their own solution
to
tackle that problem or brainstorm ideas on their own Synthetic Biology project.
Some pupils of the Francisco Josephinum also stated that we should have given them more
information on the game. Therefore, before handing out the game, we discussed what we
expect
them to do and wrote it on the chalkboard:
- Find pros and cons about the iGEM projects that are described on the handouts
- Find your own solution to tackle the same problem with the help of Synthetic Biology and/or brainstorm your own Synthetic Biology project
They had 20 minutes to discuss this in groups of 5 people.
-
This way, it was:
- More interesting (when comparing e.g. “5” meaning “very much” the percentage of “interesting” raised from 11% to 33%)
- Less hard to follow (when comparing e.g. “5” meaning “very much” the percentage of “hard to follow” dropped from 30% to 7%)
- Easier to understand (when comparing e.g. “5” meaning “very much” the percentage of “easy to understand” increased from 0% to 17%)
- More useful (when comparing e.g. “5” meaning “very much”, the percentage of “useful” increased from 6% to 20%)
- More informative (when comparing e.g. “5” meaning “very much” the percentage of “informative” increased from 15% to 47%)
It also helped to increase the value of the game, to better understand Synthetic Biology, and increased curiosity - “made me want to know more” - as you can see in the figures comparing the two presentations below:
All in all, the pupils were really motivated to find pros and cons to each iGEM project and to develop their own solution to problems with the help of Synthetic Biology. We still noticed that some descriptions were not easy to understand, since they ask questions to comprehend them better. Concerning the worksheet “Food shortages” in which iGEM teams found solutions to this problem, the pupils did not brainstorm an idea to tackle this with the help of Synthetic Biology but rather wanted solutions outside of the field like helping countries, where it is too hot or too cold, to grow food for example with building green houses. We noticed a general scepticism concerning changing the genes in humans but, above all, changing the genes in food. Therefore, we discussed that even the food you eat nowadays like potatoes have their genes altered when you compare them to their wildtype. But we bred them over the years to increase the potatoes plant´s yield.But we also talked a lot about ethical issues like editing genes of humans as well as dangers that could arise when e.g. genetically engineered bacteria are released into the environment.
Introduction to genetics:
The pupils were introduced to genetics for the first time. So, we always made sure
to
ask if they understood it and to ask them to summarize what we just explained to
them in
a few short sentences before a new topic was discussed. To actively communicate was
very
important to us because we all know how easy it is to doze off when not being able
to
participate in lectures.
We asked questions like “Have you seen these chemical structures before and can you
tell
me what they stand for?”, “What does A, T, G, C, U stand for?”, “Can you summarize
what
we have discussed?”. If they could not summarize it in their own words, we repeated
it.
The questions needing prior knowledge to answer showed us that only a few students
knew
more about biology than they were taught in school. One student e.g. even already
knew
what transcription and translation was.
This way, we noticed that the prior knowledge about genetics was low and that our
introduction to genetics was vital to teach them about Synthetic Biology.
We thought about introducing a game to teach genetics in an easier way but noticed
that
within 2 hours it was just not possible to do so.
Feedback:
Compared to the presentation at the Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg, the pupils of
the
Bernoulligymnasium found the introduction to genetics less interesting. A reason
could
be that pupils at the Francisco Josephinum actively chose to go to a school which
focuses on biotechnology, while pupils at the Bernoulligymnasium chose to only take
the
general compulsory biology classes. Thus, they find biology not as interesting as
those
choosing a school that focuses on such topics. We also could see this in the answers
they gave us as to why they would or would not attend such an event again. Some
pupils
stated, that biology is just not their thing. The pupils of the Bernoulligymnasium,
thus,
also found the introduction harder, compared to those at the Francisco
Josephinum.
However, “hard” and “easy to understand” compared to the pupils within the two
classes
of the Bernoulligymansium have quite comparable figures.
For comparison, Francisco Josephinum Wieselburg:
iGEM and project description
As our graphics show, most pupils found our project description interesting and easy to follow. We are very happy to say that most of them also think that our project is very useful. They asked us if there are any cases of Buruli Ulcer reported in Europe and how the disease is transmitted. Another question, we already heard at the Kinderuni (Children’s University Vienna), was if we would realize our project in the lab. At this point we could even already talk about our lab results and that we realized the project, although better aptamers for mycolactone (the toxin generated by the Buruli Ulcer causing agent) are needed.
Scepticism and Knowledge about Synthetic Biology:
The scepticism declined a bit overall and knowledge about Synthetic Biology increased.
What could have been better?
- Nothing
- Easier explanations, explanations delivered in portions
- Less Theory, more explanation
- Talking louder and more like you want to tell us about it
- Maybe try to speak not too fast
- It could have been more exciting
- Speak more slowly, explain difficult words
- Nothing
- More engagement
- More engagement
- Easier explanation
- Better explanation
- The cat pictures
What was good?
- Everything
- Everything (spoke loudly, taught us a lot)
- The pictures
- PowerPoint presentation
- Everything
- The exercises were interesting
- It wasn´t hard to understand
- The PowerPoint and speech
- Everything
- The speed of speaking, PowerPoint
- Friendly, PowerPoint
- Presentation, Game
- Presentation
Why would you attend such an event again?
- Because it was very interesting Because you can change the world It´s interesting It´s interesting Interesting It was cool Because it´s kinda interesting It was cool
Why would you not attend such an event again?
- Because I´m clinically retarded. And also, I prefer physics. It is school stuff. Biology is not my thing It´s not my thing ´Cause it´s trash and not essential. The presentation wasn´t bad, but I´m not interested in biology No time Not sure if it interests me
Conclusion
To teach theoretical knowledge in an engaging way is still quite the challenge.
Games
really make the difference here. For future iGEM teams we propose to, if there is
the
time for that, also create a game teaching about genetics or any other way to
motivate
them to interact even more.
All in all, we are glad we achieved to improve the game to fit into a 2 hours
lecture by
cutting it down to the first page of its handout. And we are happy that we could
also
reach out to pupils aged 15-18 by doing school presentations because this age group
was
certainly lacking attendance at the European Researchers´ Night, where we rented a
booth.
UniVie Blog and Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research!
Our team consists of 14 students from the University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences Vienna (BOKU Vienna) and from the University of Vienna.
But most of our team members are enrolled at BOKU. To get more attention for iGEM
at
the University of Vienna, we tried to get in contact with the department of
corporate
communications. We got the opportunity to write some posts for the blog of the
university (https://blog.univie.ac.at/). Our team members, from the University of
Vienna
, wrote their impressions and experiences of our iGem project and uploaded them on
the
blog. Our goal is to reach more students to join next year's iGEM BOKU-Vienna team.
The blog post wasn’t published in time to be linked to our wikipage before the wiki
freeze but you will be able to view it at https://blog.univie.ac.at/ by the end of
november.
Besides that, and our current social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter),
we tried to get in contact with the public and politicians to use their leverage on
social
media to advertise our project.
We wrote letters and emails to a lot of people. To name a few, we wrote to our
federal
president Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen, our federal chancellor Dr. Brigitte Bierlein
and
the federal minister of education, Dr. Iris Rauskala.
The office of minister Dr. Rauskala contacted us that there is a possibility to
write a
text for their social media channels. This text is going to consist of our project
Inspiration, work and our impressions of the giant jamboree in Boston.
Our goal is to spread awareness of iGEM in Vienna, and Austria in general, and the
experience they could gain by participating.
Alumni MeetUp – After iGEM Organization
What happens after iGEM? What's next?
A question we have not asked ourselves yet, until we came in
contact
with Nemanja Stijepovic.
Nemanja is the European Ambassador of After iGEM and approached us to plan and
organize
with us the first alumni meetup in Central Europe. For the organized event, all
former
iGEM members of the teams BOKU-Vienna and NAWI Graz were invited. Due to the rather
spontaneous appointment at short notice, the number of alumni guests was modest.
Nevertheless, we had a very informative afternoon. From Nemanja, we got a good idea
of
what to expect after iGEM. The goal is to connect the Alumni, share what they have
learned, and support other iGEM teams in the rollercoaster ride called iGEM
competition.
There are different programs that you can participate in as alumni, for example,
Ambassadors, committees, Communication platforms, to name a few.
We want to thank Nemanja again. It was a great afternoon, and we were able to find
out
what is possible after our project. We were also glad that we were also able
to
arrange input and feedback to iGEM about Nemanja.
Engaging people of different ages and educational backgrounds at the European Researchers´ Night
Science for all! – this is the slogan of the European Researchers´ Night. We thought
about where we could reach as many people as possible from different educational
backgrounds and ages, and the slogan of this event captured us. Therefore, we
reserved a
booth there.
The next step was to think about how to attract all these different kinds of people.
The
following lists the attractions and tools we used to engage as many people as
possible.
Lab experiments for children
Children could extract DNA from tomatoes (lab protocol from lab technician from the DBT, Ursula Kiesswetter) to let them see what we are made of, what exactly we are changing in Synthetic Biology projects and to motivate them to later work in a laboratory. Additionally, they could perform the “light” version of our diagnosis method by adding a sample of either patient S (HCl 0,05mol/L) or patient B (KOH 0,5 mol/L) to 1,5mL H2O with 0,1mL bromphenolblue. This way, they could experience our project rather than to just listen to us. This worked well. Many children visited us to ask if they could do experiments at our booth. While they worked on these experiments, we could talk about our project and with the help of our plush bacteria we could show them whose DNA was altered.
Lab gloves
Our team transformed lab gloves into elephants and fish and exhibited them at our booth. This, as well, attracted children to our booth asking if they also could build their own animals from lab gloves. This was a great conversation starter about lab safety and our project.
Plush bacteria
The already mentioned plush e.coli and our mascot, the crochet Dr.Coli, knitted by one of our team members (Meli), were kept on petri-dishes to catch the eyes of passers-by, which worked incredibly well. Children and adults alike visited us just to ask what the plush animals represented. This way we could establish a dialogue about our project, iGEM and synthetic biology in general. It was also very helpful to show them how we cultivate bacteria and whose genes we altered for our project.
Posters, postcards, flyers and PowerPoint presentation
Postcards (made during the collaboration with iGEM Düsseldorf) with bacteria on the
front explaining that they can be taught to solve problems, and on the back, a more
detailed yet easy to understand description of our own project and a promotion to
check
out the iGEM website for other cool projects, were exhibited at our information
desk.
This way, visitors could take a piece of their experience home to keep us in memory.
A project poster helped us to catch the eye of adults and was helpful to explain our
genetic device system to people interested in details.
A poster promoting our comic book helped spreading the word of our offer: a
free-to-download comic book describing Synthetic Biology projects. We are glad many
people were interested and that adults asked us if it was also suitable for them to
read. This way, we grew confident that our comic book will not only attract children
but
that adults would also be interested in it.
Flyers promoting grow scientific progress, the European Citizens´ Initiative for
responsible agricultural innovation in the EU, were also exhibited at our booth.
PowerPoint slides helped us to explain our project to people with little educational
background about Synthetic Biology. Illustrations showed them how our diagnosis
method
works and explained the disease Buruli Ulcer. We used them as well to promote our
comic
book by showing them illustrations featured in it.
All together they helped to increase knowledge about and promote Synthetic Biology,
iGEM, our comic book and our project.
Conclusion
Lab experiments, plush bacteria in petri-dishes, lab glove animals, anything out of the unusual does not only attract children but also adults. They are immensely helpful to catch the eye of passers-by and consequently, to engage them in a dialogue about our project and everything associated with it. Different people were drawn to our booth by different attractions. Yet combined, these attractions did not distinguish young from old or low educational background from high educational background. Because even though these factors may vary, curiosity lies within all of us.
PubQuiz at Charli P’s
There are many ways to bring scientific topics to a wide audience, be it via science
slams or well animated videos on Youtube. We decided to organize a pub quiz. Besides
a
cool glass of beer, it is easier to think about Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology.
Seven teams participated in the first edition of the iGEM Vienna 2019 Science Pub
Quiz
and had a lot of fun competing for the main prize: a hand-knitted E. coli bacterium,
a
bottle of wine and an award. After a short introduction to synthetic biology, iGEM
and
our project, questions on biology, biotechnology and genetics were answered by the
smart
participants. Afterwards, the answers were all provided with a little explanation.
After
two hours of quizzing, the proud winners “Mondays for MIBI” were awarded the first
ever
“iGEM Vienna Pub quiz champions” title. In addition to the quiz, a “Draw Your GEM”
special prize, inspired by iGEM ITB 2019, was awarded to “FC SUPPI” who invented a
bacterium capable of transforming environmental microplastics into tiny emoticons.
We want to say thank you to Charlie P’s for hosting us and for all participants for
making this a fair, informative and fun event sparking the interest and awareness
for
synbio.
After the Pub Quiz we asked the teams to give us a feedback, so we started a survey
to
get feedback from the participants. We evaluated them and listed the results below.
The following statements could be scored from 1 to 5, whereas five was most likely
and
one least likely.
In figure 1 can see, that most of our participants knew already something about synthetic biology is.
Most of our participants where students / colleagues with a biotechnological and biological background. as we can see in figure 2 we can consider, that the skepticism about synthetic biology not so high.
After the Pub Quiz, some of the participating teams have changed their initial assessment of their knowledge of synthetic biology.
A few participants have changed their skepticism towards synthetic biology.
With these statements, we wanted to know how the questions were
This shows us that our questions were fascinating for the participants, but sometimes hard to answer. We did not consider the knowledge they have at their current stage. But we could motivate them to get more information about this field. The difficulty of the questions was mixed, for some easy to understand for some hard to guess.
After our presentation, we answered the question and explained it a little bit.
Figures 6 and 7 how the participants rated the answers to the questions of the Pub Quiz. The statements show that most of the participants felt it was very useful and informative. However, some see that their understanding of synthetic biology has not changed.
Here we asked the participants, what they thought about our project presentation.
Abbildung 8 zeigt, wie die Präsentation des Projektes bei den Teilnehmer angenommen wurde. Das Bild zeigt, dass größtenteils das Projekt ein großes Interesse bei den Teilnehmern geweckt hat.
Due to the small number of questionnaires we have received, we can not assume a representative survey here. The evaluation and interpretation of the data was carried out by iGEM BOKU-Vienna.
Presentation to scientific peers
During our project, we had the opportunity to present our project to different
peers
and possible sponsors.
Our first public presentation was for Biomin, one of our current sponsors. It
was
our first experience in the project to talk to possible sponsors. We presented
our
first drafts and ideas, how we would work on our project and what might be
possible.
Afterwards we discussed if this method would be the easiest way or if we should
change something in our genetic model. Then we got a guided tour through the
Biomin
lab, where we learned something about the history of the company, and what they
are
currently working on.
We also presented our project and gave a lab tour to Promega, which kindly sponsored us and gave feedback to our project.
The next possibility where we had the chance to present our project was during a
MeetUp with other iGEM Teams in Erlangen. We could also present our project and
our
poster at the meetup organized by the iGEM team Erlangen. After presenting it to
the
team members of different teams, we talked about how to measure the fluorescent
proteins and if we could expect our system to work. Overall, the meet up was a
great
way to discuss the projects and issues associated with it and to interact with
like-minded people.
Colleagues from our department and our supervisors ask us to hold a presentation
during their lab meetings. We seized this opportunity and prepared another
presentation. Afterwards we had a lively discussion with our colleagues. There
were
a lot of feedback and stuff what we could think about. We want to note here some
points and some questions from this session.
- How much mycolactone do we need to get a signal? What is the lethal concentration for E. coli?
- How do we want to take sample from the patient? What kind of sample do we need for our test?
- How is the progress of the disease? What is about the treatment? At which stage of the disease progress should the patient be treated?
- How can the E. coli be inactivated, when there might be no autoclave available?
This was a really good feedback for us, because we didn’t kept stuff like this
in
mind. Afterwards we tried to figure the points which concentration of
mycolactone do
we need and how to inactivate the E coli without autoclave.
In September we made us on the way to Munich, where we were invited to a meetup
with
other iGEM Team, from the German-speaking realm at the Ludwig Maximilian
university.
There we met old friends from the meetup in Erlangen and made new friends from
the
iGEM Team Graz and Munich. There we had a very interesting weekend at the meet
up
and the possibility to compete with the other teams in a mini jamboree – to
present
our project and get feedback from our colleagues. We had the possibility to
defend
our project idea and answer questions about the disease and about our system.
Our Comic Book
for all ages and for all educational backgrounds
Created by team BOKU-Vienna 2019 in collaboration with 10 other iGEM teams
Because many people are sceptical of Synthetic Biology, we wanted to promote the potential of this
field.
Also, we wanted to reach out to as many people as possible and to teach Synthetic Biology to people of
different educational backgrounds and of different ages.
Our goal was to create a learning tool that isn´t too hard to understand for those knowing hardly or
nothing about Biology and Synthetic Biology, as well as easy to follow for every age group, but also
that it isn´t too easy to read for those taking biology classes at university.
Therefore, we came up with the idea of our Comic Book. To show as many science projects as
possible, we collaborated with 10 other iGEM teams from all over the world. Countries included are
for example Austria, France, Germany, USA, Greece, Belgium.
The projects included range from developing new and faster diagnosis methods to creating
bacteria, that can turn cigarette butts to electricity.
To reach our goal of making it not too easy but not too difficult to understand the comic book
consists of:
- Illustrations explaining the project to give an easily understandable overview of the principles of the project.
- A more detailed explanation in text form containing technical words for three reasons:
-
Firstly, so that people knowing much about Biology won´t get bored reading a way
too simple text.
- Secondly, for those with no or low educational background in biology, we included
a glossary at the same page to avoid having to always turn to the last page to look up a
technical term and to repeat specific words to increase the learning outcome.
-
Thirdly, we provided links to the website of each team for people who are curious
about heavier details and results of each project.
-
Firstly, so that people knowing much about Biology won´t get bored reading a way
too simple text.
In that way, a versatile book will be established, which shows the reader the many
possibilities that arise from synthetic biology and, thus, solutions to current
problems.
With this project we hope to give society an understanding of the positive side of
this research area.
At public events e.g. the Pub Quiz, European Researchers´ Night, we
eagerly promoted the Comic Book to spread the word.
To get feedback in order to improve the comic book, we handed out advanced
reader copies to beta-readers.
The feedback:
Data of our beta-readers (n=18):
Gender
• 35.29% of our beta-readers were male
• 64.71% were female
The highest degree of our beta-readers had to vary in order to see if the comic book is fitting every educational background:
• 5.88% have a compulsory school leaving certificate
• 11.76% finished an apprenticeship
• 47.06% have a school leaving certificate
• 23.53% have a bachelor-degree
• 11.76% have a master-degree
The age also had to vary:
• 20-25 years old: 46.67%
• 26-35 years old: 33.33%
• 36-50 years old: 6.67%
• Over 50 years old: 13.33%
66.67% of those who are enrolled at university, take biology-related classes.
Prior knowledge in Biology:
• Low: 17.65%
• Average: 41.18%
• Good: 41.18%
• Very Good: 0.00%
Prior knowledge in Synthetic Biology:
• Low: 58.82%
• Average: 23.53%
• Good: 17.65%
• Very Good: 0.00%
Their opinion on Synthetic Biology
Before reading:
• 57.14% did not know what Synthetic Biology is. Those who knew, think this field is interesting and promising for the future.
After reading:
• Those who did not know what Synthetic Biology is, showed an increase in their knowledge about and an increased interest in this field
• Those who already knew about Synthetic Biology showed an increase in knowledge about the different opportunities this field enables
Their opinion on the Comic Book
When asked if the comic book was educational:
• 100% answered yes
When asked if the comic book fits their age group:
• 76.47% answered yes
• 23.53% answered no
Reasons for answering “no” were that it was perceived as too simply explained and they wished a more detailed explanation.
However, we could see a relation in people studying biology and thus, finding it too simple and therefore not fitting for their age group.
So, we think, they answered this question keeping in mind how simple it was to understand for them due to their educational background
and not actually if it was designed for people younger than them.
When asked, what we, in no way, should change about the comic book, beta-readers answered:
• the illustrations
• the text
• the glossary
• the overall design of the comic book
• Everything
This means, that overall, the comic book was perceived well.
Did the glossary help you to understand the texts?
• 94.12% answered yes
• 5.88% answered no, stating that it was not helpful because it was not necessary, they already knew the technical terms
One beta-reader stated that he had difficulties understanding the text because it was written in English. We did think about releasing a german version
of the book but sadly, we ran out of time.
Opinion on the illustrations
Are the illustrations easy to understand?
• 94.12% answered yes
• 5.88% answered no
Are the illustrations helpful to understand the projects quicker and easier?
• 88.24% answered yes
• 11.76% answered no
Some opinions on why they were helpful:
• Yes, absolutely. A short picturing of a complex topic always retains better.
• I think, without prior biological knowledge you better understand it with illustrations
• You could get an idea of the topic much faster and the comics made the content much easier to understand
Some of the opinions of those voting for no:
• The comics explained the projects with way too little details
• They were not necessary to understand the projects
Some of the best illustrations, according to our beta-readers were:
• 29.41% voted for either Diane (team Pasteur Paris) or Vitrum (team UCSC) as best illustrations.
Conclusion
Overall, the beta-readers liked the illustrations. For some of them, having enough knowledge in biology, they did not contribute to understanding the projects, thus, they thought of them as unnecessary. Even though this might be the case for them, other readers from the same educational background still enjoyed looking at the illustrations.
Opinion on the cover design and title
We wanted to know if the cover design is intriguing and invites people to read it. Then we let the beta-readers decide which title they liked the most to make it our official title.
Does the cover fit the content?
• 94.44% answered yes
• 5.56% answered no
Is the cover appealing to you?
• 100.00% answered yes
Is the title interesting?
• 94.12% answered yes
• 5.88% answered no
Beta-readers were also given the chance to write their own ideas for titles and cover design but just one had another idea for a title: The wonderful world of Synthetic Biology, with the remark if we use a Dr.Coli title, readers might think, it is only about E.coli.
We thought this title was more fitting for the topic and comic book. So we decided to use it! A huge thank you to the beta-reader who came up with it!
Some last questions answered
What did you especially like about this comic book?
• The idea
• The introduction page of the teams
• Good abstracts and explanations
• Easy explanations by illustrations, easy to understand even it if it is in English
• The combination of comic and abstract is great. Very appealing and pleasant to read.
• Science explained to understand it easily
• In the shortest amount of time you will understand what and why the projects are worked on
• The simplicity
• Even for kids it´s easy to understand!
• Nice and fun overview
• The abstracts are very informative
The beta-readers agreed about finding the abstract informative and the comics a great tool to teach someone easily and quickly the basics of the project.
What did you not like about this comic book?
• No table of contents
• I liked everything!
• Comics were too simple
• Comics are written in English
• The illustrations
Do you think the projects are relevant?
• 0.00% answered irrelevant
• 50.00% answered relevant
• 50.00% answered very relevant
Would you recommend this comic book?
• 94.44% answered yes
• 5.56% answered no
Integrating the feedback - here are some of the changes we made:
- We included a table of contents.
- We noticed some of the beta-readers thought that the descriptions in some illustrations were hard to read because they were hand-written. By stating which team´s illustrations they meant, we could tell each team to send us back a polished version with a font that is easier to read and replaced the old illustrations with the corrected illustrations.
- Some beta-readers, especially those about to graduate in a biology-related degree, wished to read more about the details and results of the projects. Due to limited space in the comic book and especially because some beta-readers stated that the short coverage of each project was helpful, we did not cover this. But even before the beta-reading phase, we predicted the wish of integrating more details and therefore included links to the websites of each team, where the more curious readers could look at the results and the details of each project. To emphasize this opportunity, we included a page addressing this, since, apparently it was not obvious.
- Our beta-readers noticed some grammar- and typo-mistakes. Thus, one of our team members, who has worked at a quality assurance department, read over it again and also unified the whole design, which was also pointed out as improvable.
Opinions of our beta-readers:
• I have to express praise for your comic book – the design and the structure are great. Very well written.
I even understand most of it *.*. The font is pleasant to read. I like the different illustrations-
very creative and well done. The illustrations describe the project very well.
• Great idea!
• Science explained to understand it easily.
• In the shortest amount of time you will understand what and why the projects are worked on.
• Even for kids it is easy to understand!
• The combination of illustrations and abstracts are great. Very appealing and pleasant to read.
Conclusion:
To write a book about Synthetic Biology for everyone to enjoy is impossible. But we still tried to make it
as simple as possible while also trying to make it still exciting for readers, who are more educated in the
field of biology. This way, a few beta-readers found it either to hard or to simple but 100% of them
still found it informative and 94.44% would recommend it.
Therefore, we dare to say that this attempt was a success and we hope it will continue to excite more people
by reading about the possibilities arising from Synthetic Biology.
CropsMatter - Grow Scientific Progress
A member of our team has co-founded the European Citizens’ Initiative "Grow Scientific Progress - Crops
matter!“.
They ask for an update of the EU’s GMO legislation, especially with regards to genome editing
techniques. The initiative needs one million signatures across all EU countries.
Who else is wishing for more
science-based legislation which enables responsible innovation in the EU?
Sign and share as much as possible to
ask loudly and clearly for an update of the EU’s GMO legislation!
Check out their homepage to make a difference!
