Education

After the previous year, we have learned a few things about how we could promote synthetic biology and which approaches would be the best. Firstly, we brainstormed several activities that would engage different communities. Secondly, we jot down the ones that would not only engage but would educate the usefulness of synthetic biology.
However, the criteria by which we chose our shortlist was the themes we wanted to emphasize and shine light on. These themes were women empowerment, women in STEM, providing more information about synthetic biology in Kazakh and Russian, and inclusivity. The reason we chose these themes was due to the fact that these themes are the challenges that Kazakhstani young scientists face. When developing and designing the public engagement activities, we carefully took into consideration these themes and always tried to integrate them into these activities.
Too often promotional activities are about presenting that seems too one-sided. We wanted to ensure that our activities will leave a long-lasting impression on our target groups consisting of high school students, general public awareness, and peer students at NU. Therefore, here is a list of activities we have done to involve our target groups:

1. NIS Case Championship to teach high school students how to approach and solve science cases
2. Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Seminar to introduce the different scientific research done at NU to international students including to The Hong Kong University and IIT Bombay students
3. University wide club fair stand with quizzes and challenges for freshmen students
4. Preparatory studies for the International Biology Olympiad at Nurorda and Republic Olympiad in Aktau
5. Introductory talk about iGEM for foundation year program and freshmen students
6. Biology Internships Abroad session for fellow biologists

#1 NIS Case Championship

Target group:high school students
Aim: to teach them how to approach and solve biological cases using synthetic biology

On June 27, our team was excited to conduct a Case Championship and talk about synthetic biology with the students of NIS Summer Camp. We were willing to demonstrate all the beauty of synthetic biology and research opportunities to the students in hopes to inspire them. Our team members made a presentation about iGEM showing how interesting synthetic biology can be and sharing their achievements from last year. Students were given the task to solve environmental cases with the means of synthetic biology using their imagination and ability to think out of the box! We conducted a short quiz after the presentations where students were tested on the knowledge they gained during our session and we were excited to see how attentive and passionate they were. On the “Questions and Answers” session our team members shared their experience studying at NU and pursuing an academic career in science. At the end of the day the most active students were awarded with NU branded hoodies, notebooks and iGEM stickers.

Reflection: the students were very impressed that we are doing such an extensive research project and they were very interested in pursuing a career in science

#2 AUA Seminar: how fast science is advancing in Asia?

Target group:international visiting students
Aim:to have a discussion about how fast scientific advancements are made

We were excited to host a Seminar talk for international students and participants of Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) from 13 different countries collaborating with other science clubs of Nazarbayev University, namely ACS (American Chemical Society International Student Chapter), SIAM (NU Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Student Chapter), and SPE Student Chapter at NU. Our team introduced iGEM, our project and main concepts of synthetic biology. As the only iGEM team in Central Asia, we consider the promotion of synthetic biology ideas as one of our missions. With the help of different academic science clubs of NU, we were able to show and dialogue on the different researches that are being done at NU. The students got to share their research they were conducting at their universities and we were able to find a common language. We were able to discuss the challenges and obstacles we need to overcome in the science community raising questions concerning the female representation in STEM, how more and more girls are choosing science careers, and what is our role as current researchers to pave the way for future generations.

Reflection: dialoguing with international research peers is a good way to establish some of the trends and common patterns in the research career

#3 University-wide Club Fair

Target group: peer students of all majors at NU
Aim: to promote our team and our previous achievements

Participation in the Club Fair at our university became a tradition for us and this year was not an exception. The Club Fair is a great opportunity to encourage the freshmen to participate in iGEM, present our project and increase awareness about synthetic biology. Our team prepared a quiz on synthetic biology concepts and methods that had three levels of difficulty. Students who participated in this interactive exercise demonstrated good knowledge and shared their interest to become a part of our iGEM family and even suggested their ideas for future projects. Our team members were glad to answer their questions and explain our project. Before the Club Fair, we were able to draw the attention of our students by starting a social media competition. They had to repost our post on their pages and the winners were announced after the Club Fair.

Reflection: even though this is one of the most simple events, the organization and preparation is crucial to draw the attention of all students

#4 Preparatory studies for the Biology Olympiads

Target group: olympiad winners
Aim: to help them prepare for the IBO and Republic Olympiad

Our team representative, Alyamdar, went to Aktau which is in the West of Kazakhstan to prepare some students for the Republic Olympiad. He was invited to go over the process with the students as he was the IBO winner during his high school years. While on his trip, Alyamdar came up with a unique technique to teach the students which involved solving problem sets that they have not seen before. This way it challenged their critical thinking and problem solving skills, which are the key skills that are needed for successful results. He also helped students of Nurorda High School to prepare for the IBO. Alyamdar gave a presentation about iGEM and he was able to capture the attention of top students with our project.

Reflection: techniques of teaching have to adopted depending on the learners

#5 iGEM Talks for Freshmen

Target group: freshmen and foundation year program students
Aim: to introduce to the iGEM competition, our project, and team

Designing this introductory talk for the Biology freshmen, we wanted to ensure that they would be willing to join the iGEM family and propose their future project ideas. We started off by explaining about the iGEM competition and further deepening their knowledge about synthetic biology and genetic engineering. When we started to briefly explain our project, the students were thrilled to find out that such research projects exist at NU where they have the opportunity not only gain laboratory skills but gain interpersonal, time management, and organizational skills. Our team is a lot more diverse than the teams of previous years, because we have Computer Science, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering majors represented and not only Biological Sciences. Therefore, the students were also attracted to be involved in a multidisciplinary research project. Many signed up to our email mailing list and now we have over 300 students in our list.

Reflection: students are more likely to join a team if they see that they can gain tangible and valuable skills

#6 Biologists Interning Abroad

Target group: all Biologists
Aim: to introduce to many opportunities of internships abroad

Many NU students have passed internships at international laboratories and they shared how they went through the application process, how they funded their internships, how to choose your research area and etc. These students who spoke about their experience overseas were iGEM Alumni and got into their chosen internship programs because they were part of the iGEM projects during their freshman or sophomore years. This way we also wanted to spread awareness of how important it is to have basic laboratory skills before international laboratories invite you as an intern.
Reflection: having competent scientists is a result of gaining experience at different laboratories.

Public Engagement

After some engaging activities, our team solely focused on spreading awareness about synthetic biology in general by entering several competitions, attending forums, working alongside journalists to publish press releases, and increasing the media presence for the overall community. Some of these activities include:

1. ABC Incubation Program which provided networking with many startup coaches and entrepreneurs
2. Climate Launchpad 2019 Global Grand Final in Amsterdam in November 14-15, 2019 as the National Winners from Kazakhstan
3. KazEnergy Forum: Green Energy startup representatives
4. International Renewable Energy Summit 2019 Participants
5. Media presence

#1 ABC Incubation Program

Target group: startup entrepreneurs and coaches, and investors
Aim: to introduce the project to the startup ecosystem through networking

By entering this program, we have made a variety of connections that exposed us to many opportunities such as forums, exhibitions, and grant applications. We were able to present in front different trainors, coaches, and investors. This way we were already spreading awareness about our project that in itself promoted the exciting applications of synthetic biology. The program also included talks with different professionals from the finance, accountring, legal, marketing, and sales fields who helped to improve our project from all of these perspectives.

Reflection: making connections in different fields is important to spread awareness of the project <>

#2 Climate Launchpad

Target group: green business entrepreneurs
Aim: to participate in the National Final and pitch in front of prominent judges

The competition’s main organiser is Climate-KIC, a European Union initiative regarding climate and innovations. The Kazakh National Final organisers are Astana Business Campus, NU Green Campus and Science Fund. Becoming the National Winner was a notable milestone in our project due to the fact that this is an opportunity to pitch in front of international judges in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Reflection: participating in different competitions is helpful to spread awareness in a mass scale

#3 KazEnergy Forum: Green Energy

Target group: International Energy Companies
Aim: to show our startup and get feedback from company representatives

23 - 29 of September, Astana held the main international event in the energy field - XI KAZENERGY Eurasian Forum. This event was organized by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and international organizations, such as IEA, Energy Charter, Roscongress Foundation, UNECE, IRENA, WEC, WPC, etc. were the event partners. The event is a platform for discussions and its participants had a great chance to get feedback, recommendations from international and local energy companies and politicians. We participated and got a chance to explain how with the use of synthetic biology we are going to influence energy field with our startup. This way we were represented in a platform that our project was an ideal complement. We were able to attend the panel discussions, seminars, and workshops. We got to meet different companies in the field of energy such as Tengizchevroil, KazMunayGas, NCOC and etc. Coincidently, these are the companies we collaborated with the previous year on our sulfur wastewater bioremediation project. We discussed raising questions about the energy resources and whether our project will be able to solve at least one portion of the energy resources needs.

Reflection: this forum helped us to learn the key trends in energy resources and we were able to exchange ideas with other professionals and speakers in this field

#4 International Renewable Energy Summit 2019

Target group: government representatives and founders of successful renewable energy companies
Aim: to question whether hydrogen fuel is considered as renewable energy

On September 25, International Renewable Energy Summit 2019 took place in Nur-Sultan. iT was a day when renewable energy experts from different countries, politicians, Nobel laureates, largest energy companies, public organizations and the media representatives gathered together to discuss perspectives of future energy from domestic scale to global. We became a part of such an important event that gave us a chance to promote our project to help to advance green energy. We also noticed the general trends in renewable energy and we realized that hydrogen fuel is not widely accepted in the energy industry. However, we were able to spread awareness about the possibilities of hydrogen fuel through our participation in this summit.

Reflection: hydrogen fuel industry is not widely accepted by the general public yet and there is a great potential for it to become the energy of the future.

#5 Media Presence

Target group: general public
Aim: to spread awareness through digital, press, TV, and radio media

Preparing press releases and working alongside NU Press Office to promote our project to national mass media helped us commercialize our project and attract investors. We have also met with journalists and got their opinion on how to market our project.

Published about our project:

Kazpravda Published on September 20, 2019
Astana Times Published on October 4, 2019
Science Fund Published on October 3, 2019
ULT Published on September 9, 2019
Optimizm.kz Published on October 5, 2019
Spoke on the Radio at Astana Radio (101.4 FM)
Climate Launchpad Published on September 30, 2019

Reflection: one of the marketing strategies is having a media presence; therefore, working with journalists is a must.

Team:NU Kazakhstan/Public Engagement