Team:FDR-HB Peru/Public Engagement
Education & Public Engagement
STEM Club for 5th Graders at Hiram Bingham
During our elementary school years, we have never explored science until we were in middle school. Therefore, we wanted to inform children about science and generate an impact on their interest towards it. We contacted our PYP coordinator who gave us the opportunity to start our own STEM club with 5th-grade students at Hiram Bingham School. Before starting the experiments, we taught the students about lab safety and some STEM club rules during an interactive lesson. We decided to make the lessons as dynamic as we could, so that students paid attention and understood the science behind each experiment we did. Students participated actively during the whole lesson.
On June 12th, we performed our first experiment: coloured flames. The children had so much fun and so did we! They were amazed about how the different colors on the flames appeared. In the next lesson, we explained the science behind the experiment and to maintain their attention, we decided to perform a demo of the experiment, students were able to connect the science behind the change of colour in the flames:
Chemicals are usually in a stable state. When heated, atoms move to an excited (or unstable) state. The energy must go somewhere so some of it is released in the form of light; the color of the light that is emitted by each chemical is different for each one.
On August 29th, we performed a second experiment: Elephant’s toothpaste. We modified the short experiment to give an opportunity to each student to participate, in that way, they were part of the fun process of science. We had different food colorings and they enjoyed mixing them and creating new colors. On September 26th, we performed a third experiment: Extracting Strawberries’ DNA. We had an impact on the students, they were interested in attending the STEM club because they enjoyed science. That was the whole purpose of the STEM club, to inform about science and how interesting and fun it can be!
Presentation to the FDR Board Members
This year we’ve focused a lot on spreading the word about iGEM and our project. Why? Due to the lack of time and resources we had last season. Every week we had to travel three times by bus from FDR to the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) and back, each trip taking about an hour and a half, because it was the only lab equipped with the technology we needed in order to learn lab skills and move forward with our project. This season we have been trying to implement a lab at FDR, but in order to do that, we needed the support of one of our schools which as when we decided to show FDR’s board members the impact our team has on others. We gave a very similar presentation to the one we gave at the Giant Jamboree 2018, which was kind of confusing for them but we had to show them the effort and time it took for us to learn all the little parts of a plasmid and the techniques used to modify a plasmid because we are certainly not just another high school club. After that presentation, we were able to receive a lot of support and encouragement from our teachers and administration.
FDR Club Fair
Our school holds an annual club fair where every club opens its own booth and inform other students about the club. We, as an iGEM team, also participate in the fair every year. This year, we showed off our posters, videos, and past wiki in order to encourage other students to join our team next season. The club fair allows our iGEM team to remain sustainable.
FDR Daily Bulletin
FDR has the daily bulletin where all the announcements are posted and the students check them every morning. iGEM has been posting some photos, videos, and our team’s achievements on the daily bulletin. This spreads awareness of iGEM in our school community, so now most of the students and teachers know about iGEM, our project, and our team.
TEDx Talk
This August two of our team members, Ana Lucia Campos from Hiram Bingham and Karina Vestergaard from FDR, had the privilege to do a TEDx talk at the Municipal Theater in Lima for the event TEDxTukuy@Youth. They gave a 12 minute presentation in Spanish to teenagers 14-18 years old with the hope that they would understand what synthetic biology is and why people at this age are involved in this revolution. Ana Lucia and Karina worked along side Bertha Zuñiga, a TEDxTukuy coach, for two months. Throughout this time, they wrote and rewrote their script, planned their presentation, memorized their lines, and practiced their talk every minute they had. Even though this process was extremely challenging, it was also rewarding because they had the opportunity to give the audience a “gift” and that “gift” was the feeling that if we, a freshman and senior in high school, can do what we do in the lab and impact so many lives, then they, people our age, can also excel in what their passionate about. We would like to thank TEDxTukuy for letting us be part of their event because now so many people in Peru are going to have the chance to know what we do and why we do it.
Social Media
Nowadays more and more people connect through social media, without it, communicating would be almost impossible. In order for Human Practices to be successful we also have to connect with our community online. For that reason this year we created a brand new Instagram account where we share our scientific endeavors with our school and fellow iGEM teams. Not only do we keep others updated with what we do but we also learn about other projects and what global issues are being tackled with the use of synthetic biology. Without social media we wouldn’t be able to fully communicate with other teams, and help each other out. It’s an important tool that has allowed us to reach further than just our own community.
This year we’ve decided to expand our social media presence by creating a brand new Instagram account. We’ve made sure to promote our page in the school bulletin so students and teachers of our school community are aware of what FDR’s iGEM team is working. Our stories are updated every Thursday when the whole team meets. Like other iGEM teams, our team is subdivided in different sections; Human Practices, SynBio and Hardware. For this we’ve designated special highlights on our Instagram page where we update information on what each team is working on.
Like Instagram, Twitter serves as a tool where we communicate our teams advances and achievements. We try to post the same information in our Instagram page and our Twitter page. This way if we can’t communicate with a team or vice versa through a certain media there is always an alternative to keep in touch.
Youtube
This year we’ve also started to make informational videos about iGEM. Although giving presentations is a good way to inform the school and community about what we’re doing sometimes that learning can also undergo via videos. So far we’ve made a video about iGEM in general, an overview of the competition and what the purpose is. As well as making another video about what synthetic biology is and how it’s revolutionizing the world. To ensure more people know about what we do two versions were made, both in english and spanish. They have been a great success as they’ve been posted on the bulletin board of our school and members of our school have come to congratulate us on them. They’ve become a great tool to send a message in simple terms so that more and more people have a greater understanding of not only what we do as a team but what iGEM is achieving globally.
Keynote Speaker - Global Issues Network
In April, a few of our members participated in the Global Issues Network (GIN) Conference hosted by FDR. GIN is an organization that dedicates itself to empower young people to collaborate locally, regionally, and globally in order to create project-based sustainable solutions for our shared global issues and every year they have a conference just like iGEM. This year their conference for North, Central, and South American schools was hosted by FDR. We were asked to talk to 400 students and teachers about iGEM and our project. This was done by both a presentation by FDR iGEM members for everyone attending the conference and another presentation by one of our mentors, Dr. Markham, solely for the GIN teachers. Our goal, much like with most of our human practices projects, was to teach others what synthetic biology, iGEM, and our project is and how it impacts our lives. We did these presentations because we know that there’s still a long way ahead of synthetic biologists when it comes to making the world aware of what we do and starting with younger people much just help spread the awareness faster.
FDR Earth Day Presentation
At FDR we devote a whole day to doing activities that celebrate Earth Day. We decided to be a part of this celebration by giving a 15 minute presentation about our impact as an iGEM team on the environment to more than 400 FDR high school students. A year ago, our FDR community had no idea what iGEM was or what our project was about, but now because of all these presentations and activities we’ve done at both FDR and HB everyone knows us as the iGEM team that’s always in the lab and running around the school talking to people about synthetic biology.
STEM Middle School Program at FDR
After we passed down the Habla Roosevelt project to the Science National Honor Society, we worked on launching an after school program for middle schoolers. Our goal is to promote their passion for science and to teach them specifically about synthetic biology. We have a supervising teacher but all the lessons are made by us and lead by us. Because of this program, middle school students will not only expand their knowledge in science but also get to know iGEM so that they can join the team when they move up to high school. This program will help the middle schoolers to get a sense of high school science and pursue their passion in science.
