Team:NYU Abu Dhabi/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
Over the course of the last week of September, more than 110 students from seven different high schools from Abu Dhabi and Dubai visited for a workshop series organized and run by our team. The workshops were meant to introduce the students to principles of biology and engineering, as well as iGEM and the NYUAD team.
Our presentations, scripts, protocols, and code files are available for download here.
Epidemic Simulation
After registration and introductory presentations on iGEM, the history of NYUAD’s participation, and the theory behind this year’s device, we ran our first activity. The epidemic simulation was used to demonstrate the exponential rate at which contagious diseases can be transmitted from one another. This activity was inspired by the EdubioSkills Simulation of an Epidemic activity box.
The basic idea was that an unknown student in the group would hold a basic solution instead of the acidic solutions the rest of the group had. Through a series of interactions, the students exchange and thereby “contaminate” each others’ solutions, simulating a real life two-person interaction. The network of contamination could be traced over time thanks to the labelled samples taken after every interaction. Finally, the network of contamination was revealed using pH indicator solution; we were able to identify the source of the “epidemic” and the number of people contaminated after each interaction.
We invited the students to consider the real-life consequences of exponential rates of contamination due to these points of contact. It becomes crucial, therefore, to be able to detect infected individuals as soon as possible to protect the rest of the community. This is where point-of-care testing devices, such as Volatect, come in, to provide a quick and easy way to identify those who need treatment before the contagion gathers too much momentum.
Bacterial Transformation
The biology transformation workshop introduced the high school students to the principles of transformation, both theoretically and practically in the laboratory. We decided to focus on transformation because it is a fundamental concept and technique to synthetic biology research and a major tool for iGEM projects.
Before the hands-on work, the facilitators gave a presentation that explained the concept of DNA, regulation of gene expression (fluorescence protein (GFP) and antibiotic resistance), and transformation using heat shock method. In the lab, the students transformed E.Coli Dh5α with pGLO plasmid and plated on the LB agar plate with different antibiotics under the supervision of the iGEM facilitators. Since the transformation requires overnight incubation, the students observed the result of previously made plates under UV light. Thus, the students learned about the conditions required for successful bacterial growth and activation of pGLO gene inside the bacteria’s plasmid via colony formation and fluorescence.
At the end of the workshop, the students were able to draw correlation between the theory of transformation and the actual fieldwork scientists perform to determine successful transformations. This rendered to the students an overview of the research in biology wet lab and expanded their perspective on biological research.
Arduino Workshop
The Arduino workshop introduced the students to the basic principles behind electronic circuits as well as the role of engineering and computer science in bioengineering through a series of fun and engaging activities. Building off of the biology workshop, we started by explaining fluorescence and how electronics can be used to monitor a biological system. Through a series of guided activities, students built their own interactive LED circuits, capable of reading the environment’s light conditions through photoresistors and respond to changes by manipulating the conditional values, LED colors, and blinking rates.
It was essential to the success of the workshops that the students understand that even the most complicated devices are merely combinations and variations of the same components that are probably available for them to purchase. With the simplest of kits, the number of projects they can create is potentially endless. By also introducing the maker movement, its online presence, and the available online resources, we made sure we achieved the vision we had for the workshop: that students walk away more aware of the resources at their disposal and the potential they each possess for creating their own electronic project.
We expanded on this even further during our campus tours, which we planned around the maker spaces and design studios on our campus. Staff and faculty managers of these spaces showed the students around, explaining to them the processes and the tools used to create and design various projects.
iGEM High School Committee
We invited Jeff Hu, a former member of SDSZ China team (high school team) and a iGEM headquarter member who oversees high school committee, to give a presentation on his work with iGEM and his experience getting involved as a high school student. Currently, there are no high school iGEM teams from the United Arab Emirates. However, after Jeff’s motivating presentation, a few students expressed interest in starting iGEM in their own high schools, and we were more than happy to put them in touch with Jeff and offer to guide them during any part of their process.
We were so glad to introduce iGEM to the local high school students and inspire the participating students to consider starting the very first UAE iGEM high school team!
The ethical considerations of collecting saliva samples from travellers were a major source of concern throughout the development of our project. Even though we had confirmed from a POCT specialist (Mr. Jonathan Harris) that it is a justified collection method, we wondered about other people’s perspectives on the topic. Inspired by the UAE Youth Debate initiative launched by the Ministry of Youth, bringing together experts and young minds from the local community to discuss issues of extreme important to the nation, region, and the world, we decided to host a Biotechnology Debate on the 19th of October. Such an event would doubtlessly open our eyes to the local community’s perspective on such an important aspect of our project.
For the event, two teams, each comprised of 3 high school students from Al Hunain High School, were invited to debate the topic of “Does participating in commercial genetic testing overexpose our data?” with thoughtfully crafted arguments. We hoped to shine light on current biotechnology issues of potential relevance to the local youth community along with our aim to gain insight, as a research team, on the concerns of the local youth on topics within biotechnology. Three judges specializing in different fields, from experts in psychology to biology, were invited to decide on a winning team to provide multiple perspectives on the topic.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances with the transportation of the high schools students, the event had to be postponed to another date.
The NYUAD Student Activities Fest is the most important student life event on our campus. Happening once per semester, this is where the student body can learn more about all the interest groups based on campus. Our booth attracted a large number of students, intrigued by the prototypes and posters we had set up. We explained the iGEM competition, NYUAD’s participation history, and this year’s project. We invited them to join our mailing list if they were interested, and emphasized that joining the following year’s team is an opportunity that is open for students of any discipline and level of experience.
We have also established contact with the NYUAD Women in STEM (weSTEM) interest group who have agreed to publish a feature on their biweekly newsletter. We have also been in contact with the NYUAD student publication, The Gazelle, for a potential feature.
To further our outreach to the university community, we were kindly granted the chance to give presentations during lectures. Since our audience was guaranteed to have had more exposure to the biological concepts we were referring to, we delved deeper into the technical details and the design processes, which were relevant to the science and engineering students we were addressing. We reiterated the interdisciplinary nature of iGEM projects, inviting students to consider this an opportunity to be involved in the field of synthetic biology.
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