Team:Tec-Chihuahua/Public Engagement

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Overview

It is truly impressive to think that around nine months ago this adventure called iGEM began; and that when the team formed none of us had any idea what Synthetic Biology really was. Now, after so much effort and growth, we are still impressed with the number of its applications and its considerable impact on society and all that it involves. Still, when we reflected upon everything we have learned, we realized it is not enough, or fair, that only 18 university students and the experts in the area who helped us, count with the privilege of this knowledge.

This is why one of the most important goals for our team was to have a meaningful impact on our communities knowledge and opportunities. We aimed to inspire people to participate, contribute, and grow. With this in mind, we took on the task of developing a work plan in the Public Engagement area. On this page you will be able to learn about what the team did along the competition to spread education on the topic and take a step forward to approach our community to Synthetic Biology.

This work plan is based on the goal of bringing Synthetic Biology to as many people as possible through different approaches:

Education Model

This approach consists of giving a series of workshops and presentations to children, teenagers and adults in educational institutions, from elementary schools to graduate degrees. The main goal was to inspire them not only to pursuing a future related to science, but also to continue growing academically and personally. In addition to this, we decided to create a manual to help future iGEM teams to reach students from different education levels and expand their impact. With the creation of this manual we developed a collaboration with Team BUAP.

Conferences

This approach consisted of giving talks in different events where students, professors, experts in the field of agriculture, state authorities, and people not-related to science assisted. What we aimed for was for the attendees to have a clearer idea about what Synthetic Biology really is and why is it so important in education and society’s development.

United Nations Models

This approach consisted of bringing the topic of Synthetic Biology to three UN models where it can evolve into an open dialogue about its applications and implications. What we were looking for was that both students and professors with no major scientific background could soak themselves of information about this topic, and to apply it in their area, as well as being able to properly discuss topics with biological factors and their impact on our world.

More, more & more

Other series of approaches consisted on attending a convention of another crop affected by V. dahliae where lots of people from the agricultural business gathered. We also made an appearance on a television channel and wrote an editorial article for a magazine. In both of these cases we sought the proper diffusion of Synthetic Biology alongside our project. Finally, a student group was created in order to impact our own school and spread our work with other students, professors and faculty.

Education


Researching about education in Mexico we realized that only 18.6% of the population has the privilege of attending a university and concluding their professional education.1 This is an impressively low figure that demonstrates a major problem in our society and the situation that Mexican students go through.

This made us realize that we, as university students and participants of the iGEM competition, are more than privileged to have the means and support to do this. So, just as we have been very fortunate to learn about Synthetic Biology throughout our project, we feel a strong need to give back what we have learned to other students in our community. We are aware that this will not solve the Mexican education model, but at least we wish to inspire students to pursue a professional education. We also look forward to contributing to the social mortgage we have as students of our institution.

Another problem we detected is the lack of scientific dissemination in rural areas, which unfortunately are lagging behind, not only because of their geographical location but also for cultural issues. In these areas, aside from problems due to the lack of efficient means of communication, there are ethnic groups, with a considerable population, who do not speak spanish. This situation encouraged us even more to approach the areas of Guachochi and Nuevo Casas Grandes in our own State. We believe that sharing with these students our work and introducing them to science and a branch of it such as Synthetic Biology, was important for promoting access to quality information and the inclusion of these groups.

Besides this, we wanted to take advantage of the fact that children at an early age have an amazing capacity for learning, assimilating new ideas, as well as an unbeatable creativity, a much needed quality in today’s world. As for adolescents and young adults, we are intimately aware of the situation they are going through, with so many questions about their future, so little information about the numerous options, and many important decisions to make. This allowed and encouraged us to apply our vision at all educational levels, from primary school to graduate degrees.

We wish to add that while designing the workshops, the type of language was carefully selected, since it is very different to work with small children, teenagers, or professional adults.

Elementary School

Goals:

  • Spread what synthetic biology is and its applications
  • Let kids know about how synthetic biology and entrepreneurship can be related
  • Give kids new tools that can be helpful in their future
  • Encourage teamwork and respect
  • Develop children's imagination

Event Description:

This summer we had the incredible opportunity to give a synthetic biology introductory workshop to several groups of children from public elementary schools in our city. The Escuela Primaria Federal Mariano Valenzuela Ceballo and Escuela Primaria Luis Pasteur were kind enough to allow us to work with a total of 140 of their students.

The workshop was divided into two main sections. The first one consisted of an introduction to science and Synthetic Biology. Our goal was to explain how science is important to develop high impact projects for our community and how synthetic biology can be a useful element to get there. We also talked about what entrepreneurship is and how can it be related to Synthetic Biology. Working with children posed a bit of a challenge, since we had to design the workshop and our explanations in such a way that was simple and understandable for them but also fun and got our point across. To achieve this, we explained the concepts with a game using blocks, where we told them how some animals and plants have superpowers (the blocks), and that by sharing it with another animal or plant, they could acquire that superpower and therefore develop the same abilities. We also shared some simple but attractive examples, like the fluorescent rabbit and fruits that change colors and flavors. In order to get them to understand the concept of entrepreneurship, we told them that is was about how a group of people shared an idea that could evolve into a company that gave them money, but that for this to work everyone should respect everyone’s ideas, since they were a single team.

The second part consisted of a small entrepreneurship dynamic where the kids had to develop their own project idea using science and synthetic biology to solve a problem they considered important and try and sell it to us. Finally, they presented their ideas, listing the problem they wanted to solve, their proposed solution, and even the expected price and customers. We were amazed by the kids’ imagination and good understanding of the activity. Our judgement criteria to choose the winners were how well did they understand the principles of synthetic biology, that they could explain to us why was the problem they were solving important, that they knew who they could sell it to, and an approximate price.

Some of the winning ideas were

  • A turtle that kept in its shell all the species in danger of extinction.
  • Fruits that could grow in just one day.
  • An air purifier that worked with actual leaves from trees.
  • A medicine that combined the properties of both jellyfish and lizards.
  • A type of leech that could suck the disease out from people.


The winners received from us lots of candy and a diploma signed by our school’s student groups’ manager (attached below).

At the end of the workshop we talked with the teachers that accompanied us, and they commented that activities like the one we did are very motivating for the kids because they explore their creative abilities and learn new things with unusual dynamics.

When we were saying goodbye, some of the kids were really happy because they had so much fun and enjoyed the experience. They wouldn’t let us go without a hug and a thank you accompanied by a smile.

Takeaway:

At the end of the workshop we talked with the teachers that accompanied us, and they commented that activities like the one we did are very motivating for the kids because they explore their creative abilities and learn new things with unusual dynamics.

It is not unknown that working with children poses a bit of a challenge, and, honestly, we did not know what to expect. However, at the end of the day we were amazed by the kids’ imagination and good understanding of the activity. Many of them were impressed by the potential of science, especially because they learned their “crazy” ideas could be achieved. Right now we have no doubt they will be great scientists someday.

Middle & High School

Goals:

  • Help middle and high school students define what they want to focus on in their near future, especially in their professional education
  • Promote careers in STEM
  • Let students know what synthetic biology is and its applications
  • Let students know what iGEM is and how they can be part of it
  • Share our project

Event Description:

During this Fall term, we had the opportunity to visit two middle schools (Academia Juárez and Secundaria Estatal 3044) and one high school (Esfer Salesianos), where we gave the presentation “Por qué debería estudiar ciencias biológicas?” (“Why should I study Biological sciences?”), where we reached a total of 361 people.

This event consisted of a presentation by some of our team members, which was divided into two parts. During the first one we talked about was is science as a whole, next we deepened into biology and its many branches and the advantages of pursuing a career in biological sciences. Here we were especially interested to hear what the students had to say, we wanted to know their opinions on science and what interested them from it.

For the second part, we delved into topics a bit more advances, like what is Synthetic Biology and what applications does it have. Here we focused on giving examples more advanced than those on the primary schools. Therefore we talked about golden rice and the plague specific pesticides.

After discussing about Synthetic BIology is, we talked about our project and how we plan to develop a product available for our state’s market and that also has a positive impact in our community. We also mentioned the iGEM competition, explaining what it is about, what it aims for and how a new team can be built every year.

To close our presentation we gave them a list of universities and majors focused on biological sciences both in the state and the country. Aside from this, we gave them some information about associations that offer scholarships for professional level education. Besides focusing our talk to the vocational ambit, we emphasized how the main goal of science is to solve real world issues.

While we were talking to the groups of teenagers, we realized they were more than interested and had so many questions about science. That is how an expected 30 minute long talk became an hour long one. Most of them inquired about what scientists do and what are the benefits of working in the science field, and we couldn’t be happier to explain.

It’s worth mentioning our experience in a particular high school, the Academia Juarez. To take our presentation to this school we had to travel to Nuevo Casas Grandes where we wanted to help these young students who were far from the states main cities. This was an especially challenging situation, since their educational model is very different from ours. They work with a more american system, which meant we had to exit our comfort zone to effectively share our experiences and get our point across.

Takeaway:

We still remember when we were almost out of high school, about to enter university and take the first step into our professional development. To be very honest, we were far from sure about what we were doing. We had so many questions about what major to seek, what possibilities existed for us, and what could we do. It was a special pleasure to help people probably in that same situation we went through.

Nowadays, it’s easier to learn about new things online, but nevertheless, we believe the impact it’s different when someone stands in front of you and talks about their own experience.

We left all three presentations feeling exhilarated by their genuine interest. For us, the most important part we gave them was listening to their doubts and concerns, and plant in them the importance and transcendence of science. Weeks after we received texts from some of them making even more questions about biology courses. This was so exciting for us because it meant our presentation was useful to some degree.

For giving this talk, we received a certificate that confirms our participation, it is signed by the school Principal and it has our presentation date.

University

Goals:

  • Let students know what Synthetic Biology is and how they can relate it to their degree
  • Promoting science among students from diverse cultures
  • Provide students with options for their graduate education

Event Description:

We visited the “Universidad Tecnológica de la Tarahumara (UTT)” located in Guachochi (part of the Sierra Tarahumara) and the Universidad Politécnica de Chihuahua, where we presented the talk “¿Cómo aplicar Biología SIntética en mi área profesional?” (“How to apply Synthetic Biology in your professional area?”). Among the 75 people we reached were students from the following majors: Sustainable and Protected Agriculture, Environmental Technology and Sustainable Forest Management.

First we introduced Synthetic Biology, what it is and what applications its has on their different areas. In order to do this in the best possible way, we looked for specific projects with impact on their areas of interest, some of them were: biosensors, transgenic seeds, synthetic fertilizers, issues like ecotoxicity, metallic ions pollution, the energy crisis and the greenhouse effect. We focused each example about how Synthetic Biology is proposing alternative solutions.

We also talked about how their major can implement Synthetic Biology to develop novel ideas, how it is being used to help our environment, and some general information about the iGEM competition and some iGEM projects with further development in the field.

Then we mentioned some organizations that promote science and offer scholarships for graduate courses in different universities known for excelling in scientific research. At the end we had a chance to talk about the project we are working on this year.

Aside from talking about the topics we wanted to cover we were interested in hearing their ideas for projects related to their field, and all the questions they had in mind.

It was a very gratifying experience in all aspects. It’s worth mentioning that something that really stuck with us was the visit to the UTT because they had null knowledge about this discipline, given its rural location.

Takeaway:

At the end, the students and faculty members that attended were very interested in the competition and asked us several questions. After inquiring about the requirements and initial processes, they said they would consider joining the competition as a new team next year.

We were so excited to hear they are interested in forming a new team for the competition. With their involvement in the environmental field, we know they could do something impactful for the environment, which is an important area of the competition.

In addition to this, we had the opportunity to talk with the university’s rector Carlos Chávez and contact him with Dr. Alberto Aguilar (Director of the Faculty of Engineering in our campus). This was carried out with the objective of creating a major relationship between the universities both socially and academically. The UTT is relatively new and many people have no knowledge of its existence. We are more than happy to contribute to its growth as an institution.

For giving the workshop "How to apply Biology in your Professional Area?", we received a certificate from the UTT, signed by the university's rector and with their official stamp.

Master's & PhD

Goals:

  • Introduce students to uncommon job opportunities
  • Promote Synthetic Biology and its applications
  • Share our project with students with more education and experience than us
  • Hear what graduate students thought about our project and if possible receive feedback on our progress

Event Description:

In September we gave a presentation titled “El alcance de la Biología Sintética” (“The Scope of Synthetic Biology”), at the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH), our State University. The attendees of this brief conference were 35 graduate students in Science in Biotechnology, Food Technology and Chemistry. We began our conference with an introduction to Synthetic Biology and the advantages it poses. Then we gave some examples, more advanced than those from our previous presentations, which included: biofuels, industrial enzymes, antibodies and vaccines production, plants improvement, pesticides and production of biological based chemicals.

We were enthusiastic when sharing what is iGEM and emphasized that it has a special category for graduate students. Then we talked about our project, where we explained the problem we are focused on, our proposed solution, our methodology, our expected results and the importance of other areas, like Human Practices and Entrepreneurship.

This time we had yet another welcome surprise. Our initial expectation was that the presentation would take most of our time in the university, but we received a lot of questions, feedback and advice, especially about how to make our work more integral. Among the advice they insisted upon were: consider the crystallization technique for our product’s delivery, develop a full cost analysis to fully dimension our product’s impact on the market, improve our presentation of the problem to reinforce our project’s impact, and deepen our research on the interaction among the peptides and the cotton plant.

At the end, we were happy for the feedback but also for the open interest, some were even inquiring about iGEM and how they could be part of the competition.

Takeaway:

Sometimes we tend to confine ourselves into what we already know and follow the path based solely on our own knowledge. Nonetheless, it can lead to losing opportunities. Synthetic Biology is a recent branch of science that allows us to go way beyond our current knowledge.

We were really excited to help students take into consideration Synthetic Biology as an option for their current or future research. Just as much, we were thankful for all the comments they had for us, since they opened our eyes to several areas of opportunity in our project.

What we liked the most was since they are older and more experienced students, presenting to them was challenging. We believe that this experience somehow helped us prepare for our final presentation in Boston

.

For giving the presentation "The Scope of Synthetic Biology" for graduate UACH students, we were kindly granted a certificate from the Chemical Sciences Faculty, with the director's and the state's Secretary of Research and Postgraduate Studies.

Education Conclusion

There is no doubt this was the series of activities our team enjoyed the most. We had the absolute pleasure of meeting lots of remarkable people, for which we had to prepare ourselves in different ways, since we delved into different cultures, languages, ages and social sectors. The results we obtained were better than we could imagine, everyone was kind enough to share their time with us and show genuine interest in what we had to say. We firmly believe we could impact and inspire, at least a little bit, all of those people. But even more impressive is just how much we learned from the whole experience. Our initial mindset led us to believe our audiences were going to learn so much, but what actually happened was that we were the ones that had more to learn from them. The amazing thing was that we didn’t learn only about science, but also about how to relate, interact and respect others and their ideas. Another highly important thing that surprised us was just how much potential our state’s students have in them to develop any project they think of.

We are incredibly grateful to all the people who made this activity possible.

Manual


All that we learned during these visits inspired us to invest an extra effort into developing a manual where we explain in detail how did we approach students from different education levels. Our goal is to make this manual public, so that future iGEM teams can use it as a reference and source of advice on how to do this. The idea was born from how we heard about many of the other teams choose to approach schools in their nearby community because it’s an accessible and feasible audience. Nonetheless, not all teams have this chance and tools to approach various educational levels, like we had the fortune to. This is why we created a manual titled “How to reach students from different education levels?”.

Conferences


This year we decided we would reach beyond the academic youth. We wanted to include in our plans not only students from different levels, but also their most essential and personal tool, their professors. We, as students, are aware that professors are a huge support in a student’s journey to develop both professional and personal skills.

For this approach, we focused on students and professors outside the classroom, since our goal was to include those with a particular interest in science and those who participate in events promoting it.

That is the main reason we wanted to participate in different events of this sort and work with different NGOs dedicated to spreading science, where science lovers, students, their teachers and other authorities are involved.

AMEAS

Goals:

  • Explain what is Synthetic Biology and inform about how it impacts agriculture.
  • Talk about the advantages of working with Synthetic Biology
  • Explain our project
  • Get feedback from experts in the field

Event Description:

We had the incredible opportunity of participating in the First International Congress of Agricultural Education where we gave a 20 minute presentation titled “Inhibición el hongo Verticillium dahliae por Biología Sintética” (“Inhibition of the fungus Verticillium dahliae through Synthetic Biology”). This event was organized by the Asociación Mexicana de Educación Agrícola Superior (Mexican Association of Higher Agricultural Education) (AMEAS) on June 19th and 20th Around 130 people from different parts of Mexico and Colombia attended, including professors and students from the agricultural area, agronomists, State authorities, and other people not related to agriculture but with a focus on education.

Our talk began with an introduction to Synthetic Biology and how different disciplines converge for its development. In order to explain it more clearly, we talked about one of its most important components, genetic engineering.

To introduce our project, the first thing we mentioned was how we were participating in the iGEM competition and what it’s focused on. Then we talked about the past editions we’ve participated in, to finally explain the problem we had detected this year and the solution we were developing. For us it was very important to highlight the importance of the problem and our methodology, since having experts as part of the audience allowed us to extract extremely useful information for our work.

At the end of our presentation we answered some questions from experts, and also received substantial feedback. The recommendations went from giving us tips on our wording choices, all the way to offering us laboratory contacts that could help us improve the development of our project.

Takeaway:

After our presentation we had the fortune of meeting some experts in our field of interest. They provided us with valuable information about an event in which we later participated, the World Convention of Pepper. We also had an especially inspiring conversation with Dr. Addy Anchondo, who told us about the Tarahumara university students and the confrontations they suffered. This motivated us to travel to Guachochi to talk with the UTT students.

From what we could detect with this event, many of the professors knew the general concept of what Synthetic Biology is, but they did not have such a clear precedent of the applications that are currently being developed. Therefore, we were very pleased to share with them what we had learned. We hope we could make an impact in their perspective of Synthetic Biology and perhaps in the way they practice it in the near future with their students.

For presenting about Verticillium dahliae's inhibition through synthetic biology at the Congress, the organizing institutions (AMEAS and UACH) gave us a diploma. It was signed by the president of the organizing committee and the president of AMEAS.

Beautiful Patterns

Goals:

  • Inspire young girls to pursue STEM field careers
  • Let young girls and professors know what is Synthetic Biology and its applications
  • Talk about our project’s essential factors

Event Description:

On May 31st, we were granted the opportunity to give a brief conference to 130 people about synthetic biology on the “Beautiful Patterns” program. This is a program created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with the Technological Institute and Superior Studies of Monterrey (ITESM) with the purpose of promoting the development of computer science skills in high school girls. STEM fields are one of today’s world more promising careers and Beautiful Patterns wants to inspire young girls by introducing them to this and pushing them to reach their full potential doing whatever they choose. This is achieved through one-week of immersive workshops taught by female engineering students, both from ITESM and MIT.

To open our presentation we began with a quote by Marie Curie, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood”, because we wanted to start with an example of a remarkable female scientists, who undoubtedly has been an inspiration to many others.

We explained what synthetic biology is, and how it has made a huge contribution in many areas of our lives in the past decades. To elucidate this, as well as the amazing potential synthetic biology has, it was shown its different applications in various fields, since making biosensors all the way up to being a useful tool for space exploration. Simultaneously, we talked about iGEM, its vision for synthetic biology, as well as our role in this year’s competition. We mentioned our project briefly, the problem we were trying to solve, and examples of outstanding projects from last year’s competition.

To close the presentation, we shared our contact information in case that someone was interested in learning more about the topics we covered. A few days later, a teenage girl sent us a message asking about the project and expressing her interest in the matter.

Takeaway:

This experience left us energized. It gave us the opportunity to share something we are passionate about to a group of people who are going through the same experience we went not so far ago. We got to talk to such an enthusiast group of girls full of potential to try and spark their interest and develop themselves in an area they are much needed; but actually getting a direct response to this was more than motivating for us.

We got to talk more personally with the girl who contacted us, where we could solve her many questions, and introduce her a bit further into Synthetic Biology, iGEM, and our project.

Science Clubs

Goals:

  • Contribute to STEM education and collaborative network
  • Let students know what is Synthetic Biology and its applications
  • Share our project with students and professors interested in science

Event Description:

On August 1st we had the absolute pleasure to participate in Chihuahua’s Science Club’s Symposium with a presentation titled “Inhibición del hongo Verticillium dahliae por Biología Sintética” (“Inhibition of the fungus Verticillium dahliae through Synthetic Biology”), in front of over 100 people.

Science Clubs International is a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by Dr. Rogelio Hernández López and Dr. Raúl Hernández Sánchez. Its mission is to “spark a social transformation by expanding access to high quality STEM education and collaborative networks”.2 Their main approach to achieving this is through a program called “Clubes de Ciencias”. In this program, high school and college students participate in intensive summer workshops designed and taught by young scientists specialized in the area and from prestigious institutions all over the world. Some of the institutions that cooperate with Science Clubs are: Harvard, UCSF, Caltech, MIT, ASU, Stanford, University of Chicago, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain), Tecnatom (Spain), SENNOVA (Colombia), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), UNAM (Mexico), and ITESM (Mexico, our university).

The program is present in 7 countries from Latin America and Europe. Mexico has been working with this organization since the first edition, looking to expand student’s access to high end scientific education in an international level. Chihuahua, our city, has been participating since 2017 with more than 100 participants every year.

For this summer’s edition we participated in its main event, the Symposium, where all the researching professors who were part of the Clubs shared their current work. We presented about how the team has been working with Synthetic Biology to inhibit the growth of Verticillium dahliae for the iGEM Competition. Throughout our presentation we explained what synthetic biology is, some of its current applications, its future potential, and how we are using it to develop our project.

Regarding our team and project we began with our previous achievements and the problem we detected, and built up to the solution we were proposing, the methodology we were following, the activities we had created for Integrated Human Practices and Public Engagement, the documents developed for Entrepreneurship, and even our proposal for Mathematical Model. On this occasion, we decided to save a space for the areas more recently developed since we had advanced a whole lot since our last public talk; but our main reason was that we wanted our audience to be aware that a project such as iGEM involves way more than just lab work. Our aim was to emphasize that there are other areas essential for the project’s success, and most importantly, that they are multidisciplinary, meaning anyone can participate.

The audience included students from high school to college, research faculty, the club’s organizers, and even the Science Clubs Mexico cofounder Dr. Raul Hernandez Sanchez. Their deep curiosity led them to asking us many exciting questions like “how did you find the problem?” and “how did you approach the producers?”.

Takeaway:

It is an incredible experience being part of this kind of events. We believe that people who are interested in science should have a place where they can develop and strengthen their abilities and interests, just as people new to science should have a place where they can delve deeper into the matter.

Being part of this and gaining a new perspective about biological science was rewarding because you never know where you can find the next iGEMer. Also, speaking in front of PhDs from renowned universities was not an easy task, but the result was impressive because at the end we ended up feeling confident and encouraged; and we realized we should feel that way, since we have always been talking about the subject we love the most: science.

Conferences Conclusion

Participating in these events encouraged us to keep sharing our experience with science lovers. We appreciated how the interaction was different, since it’s not the same being in a classroom listening to someone talk, to being in an event you attended on your own for pure pleasure.

Sharing these events with people who are passionate about the same topics that you is a priceless experience, since far from you explaining something to them, the one who actually learns the most is yourself.

We are endlessly grateful with M.S. Saúl Luján, PhD. Khallil Carreño and the ITESM organizers, who gave us the opportunity to participate in these events.

UN Models


Looking to involve more young people with no background within the scientific field, our team decided to collaborate with 3 different United Nations models. To accomplish this we joined NGOs and helped organize 3 events where a committee's main discussion topic was Synthetic Biology. As an iGEM team and mexican citizens, we believe it’s of great importance that not only scientists are involved in controversial matters with a technological basis, especially those that affect society significantly. We also believe it’s important that they take a stand about what is going on nowadays, because at the end of the day everyone is affected by these decisions.

TecChMUN

Goals:

  • Raise awareness among high school youth about current world issues, including topics in Synthetic Biology
  • Encourage students to be an agent of change in their community
  • Promote the debate of scientific topics

Event Description:

During the summer we had the chance of meeting the team of TecChMun to collaborate with them in the organization of their event, which took place on October 17, 18 and 19, and involved more than 200 people.

This event consisted of a United Nations model that is held every year in the Tec de Monterrey campus Chihuahua High School. The model’s dynamic is based on a series of debates that simulate international organizations such as the UN or the WHO. Likewise, national gubernamental organizations like the Chamber of Deputies and Senate are also simulated.

Participants are mostly students who must take a stand regarding certain topics according to the country, party, or charge they represent. After several debate sessions all the members of a committee must reach a decision about the topic discussed.

For this edition we were in charge of organizing some of the discussion topics. Since our main goal was for there to be an open debate about Synthetic Biology, we chose to implement a topic for the World’s Health Organization committee. This topic was “Synthetic Biology in food”, specifically focused on the use and development of transgenics.

To complement this topic we also gave a small conference, where we introduced them to Synthetic Biology and some of their applications, including transgenics. To illustrate this we used a diagram of what is genetic engineering and used golden rice as an example. Finally, to reinforce this information, we shared with them a brief description of our project, from choosing the problem to our expected results. This was with the intention of easing the purpose of studying and discussing this topic.

Takeaway:

According with the opinions we received from some of the participants, the event left them very interested with the current debated topics related to Synthetic Biology. At first, none of them knew what Synthetic Biology was about, which turned the research phase into a stimulating challenge. They had to learn something completely different to what they’re used to, but as they said “that only made it more interesting and fueled the motivation”.

We also realized how their perspective widened about a highly relevant topic. For us, as Biotechnology students, is easy, to a certain degree, talking about these issues and even analyzing them in the lab. However, there are still many countries that remain closed toward these new technologies, or that doesn’t count with the necessary regulations to apply them.

The truth is that this activity was particularly exciting for us, since it was the one where the participants learned the most. For teenagers to be talking about and analyzing these topics at their young age, motivated us to continue collaborating with them and involve even more people.

For collaborating in this year's edition of TecChMun, we were given a confirmation letter from the sub secretary of the academic section of the organizing committee, to support our involvement. It emphasized on our development of one of the discussion topics for the OMS committee, and the introductory presentation to the subject we gave for them.

MUNMX

Goals:

  • Raise awareness among high school youth about current world issues, including topics in Synthetic Biology
  • Encourage students to be an agent of change in their community
  • Promote the debate of scientific topics

Event Description:

During this fall term we had the chance of collaborating with MUNMX in their event, which took place on October 11 and 12 in Saltillo, Coahuila, and where around 205 people participated.

The event consisted of a United Nations model that involved Mexico’s whole northern region with students from the different Tecnologico de Monterrey High Schools. Given that it’s an interstatal event, the hosting campus changes each year, and this 2019 was Saltillo’s turn.

The program is not a regular UN model. It selects each campus top students to debate different current and impactful topics. The participants must take a stand regarding the hypothetical problematic discussed, once again depending on the nation they represent. By the end of the model they must write a resolution where all the participants agree on the international approach to the problematic.

For this edition we were given the chance of organizing some of the discussion topics. We proposed Synthetic biology as the main discussion topic for the World Health Organization committee. The focus of the topic was the future applications that could be developed, as well as the currently existing options. Our goal with this debate was that participants delved into the world of Synthetic Biology so they could understand the benefits and setbacks of working with this specific branch of science. Additionally, we wanted them to perceive how it’s related to the real world and its nations.

To complement our collaboration we remained in touch with the committee’s organizers throughout the whole term to share with them an introduction about the topic. In it we described what is Synthetic Biology, as well as different applications, including biopesticides.

Takeaway:

What was most exciting for us from this event was that teenagers from different states from all around the country participated. This means that we had a broader geographical reach. Something of great importance is the high possibility that, once all of them returned home, they shared their experience and freshly gained knowledge.

For us, as university students, it is enormously motivating to see young people interested in the problem that our world faces. It’s great to see that their curiosity goes beyond and they take part in these events where they get to discuss topics outside of their comfort zone.

CUUMUN

Goals:

  • Raise awareness among high school youth about current world issues, including topics in Synthetic Biology
  • Encourage students to be an agent of change in their community
  • Promote the debate of scientific topics

Event Description:

Throughout June, we had the pleasure of meeting several members of the organization “Actuemos Hoy A.C” (“Let’s Act Today”), who shared with us their work plan, which involved a UN model. For this event they expected college students from institutions from all over our state to participate. At the end, the model involved around 145 delegates from different universities.

“Actuemos Hoy A.C” is an NGO whose principal objective was to promote young adults involvement into world wide issues. They aspire to have a direct impact on public politics with their work. Just as strongly, they aspire to be an idea lab that promotes reflexion among the community of Chihuahua.

This year we had the opportunity of collaborating with them in the UN model. Just as in the other models described previously, we helped in the organization of the discussion topics. We were looking for these college students to learn about what we’ve researched for the past nine months. With this in mind, we proposed the following discussion topics: gene therapy, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the anti-vaccination movement.

To strengthen our collaboration we stayed in touch with the committee throughout the whole term. During our meetings we got to talk with them about what Synthetic Biology is and some applications (mentioning our project as an example). We also provided them with a document of information about the three proposed discussion topics to ease the delegates’ initial research about the topic.

Takeaway:

It fills us with satisfaction that people unfamiliarized with scientific and impactful topics, such as these, dedicate a small effort to research and inform themselves about them. It is also exciting for us to know that they, as future graduates, will be aware of the social issues that arise with scientific advances, and will share this awareness with future generations.

For collaborating with Actuemos Hoy A.C. to develop the UN model CUUMUN, we received a confirmation letter stating our participation in the following discussion topics for the OMS committee: Epigenetic Therapy, Transgenic Foods, and The Importance of Vaccines. This letter was signed by the Actuemos Hoy A.C. General Coordinator and the model's General Secretary.

In order to ease those in charge of the committee and the delegates, we created an introductory document to the discussion topics we designed. This document included a brief description of the iGEM Competition, then an introduction to Synthetic Biology and finally information about each of the topics. Here we attach the original document sent to the committee, as well as its translation further down.

UN Models Conclusion

We thoroughly enjoyed this activity, since it was very motivating to see how these young people involved themselves with science, and how they discovered things maybe they didn’t even imagine. It is even more gratifying to know that all of this effort came from their own will, for the pleasure of learning something new, understanding it and analyzing it.

Another part of the experience we enjoyed was that not only did they committed to the understanding of the technical concepts, but they also had to understand how countries all over the world are living these situations and what they think about them. To take a nation’s stand is highly complicated since you have to learn and comprehend its beliefs and culture.

This activity was one of the team’s favorites because, aside from promoting scientific dissemination, it promoted something much more important and that most of the time is overlooked: personal growth.

More, More & More

Trying to expand our goal of involving the greatest amount of people, involved and uninvolved with science, the team created this section. The section is comprised of four different activities with the objective of giving a twist to the conventional approach of the diffusion of Synthetic Biology. Something very important for us was that our work could reach people with no access to the previously described events. We tried our best to make sure this was accomplished.

The activities included are the following: a TV interview for Channel 28, attending the World Pepper Convention, an editorial article published in “de Riego” magazine, and the creation of a student group in our institution.

Channel 28 ABC NEWS 2-3

Goals:

  • Let the community know what Synthetic Biology is and what are its applications
  • Reach a greater number of people in our community
  • Share our project and its importance

Event Description:

ABC NEWS 2-3, a television network operating in our state, was kind enough to offer us the opportunity to be interviewed and talk about our project. The network broadcasts in Cuauhtémoc, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas. Its audience ranges from 10,000 to 100,000 daily viewers.

In July, a reporter from ABC NEWS visited our lab, where the interview took place. We presented our team and talked about our project and its development. During the interview we explained the situation cotton crops are facing regarding Verticillium wilt. To illustrate this we described the disease’s action mechanism and the economic repercussions it creates, both worldwide and in our state. We also shared how our project is contributing to Synthetic Biology’s development. Finally we explained how our project was developed to participate in iGEM, what the competition is about and how Tec-Chihuahua has been part of it for 5 years. We chose to mention the work realized on previous years, so that people could see that Synthetic Biology is not limited to agriculture, but it is expanding into all areas possible.

This interview was broadcasted on TV and online (the link to the interview is attached below), where people could get to know our work and the big problem that we are trying to solve.

Takeaway:

I was gratifying for us to share our project with so many citizens in Chihuahua. First of all because we found out that even our own people don’t know that their state is the greatest cotton producer in Mexico nor just how important this crop is. So, through interview we hoped people gained awareness about this big problematic. Even if most of the audience is not directly affected by Vertcillium wilt, there are lots of people who are, and they should know how the disease works, and all the technological advances used to try and solve it. Overall, cotton is a huge economic sector for our state, country and even the world, so everyone should have access to this kind of information.

International Chilli Convention

Goals:

  • Get contacts related to the agriculture area
  • Let people that assisted know about our project and how it would impact in the agriculture sector

Event Description:

On July 4th, we had the opportunity to attend the 16th World Chili Convention held in the city of Chihuahua, the principal producer of chili in Mexico and the second one internationally. We were especially excited to attend this convention because chilli crops are among the most affected by Verticillium dahliae, the fungus we are trying to fight.

The Secretariat of Rural Development (Secretaria de Desarrollo Rural), the government agency in charge of promoting and supporting the agricultural, fishing and agroindustrial development of the country, was kind enough to invite us, after we told them about our project. The event included a lot of people involved in the chili industry, such as producers, buyers, technicians, scientists and business people, as well as government authorities like the State Governor and several members from the Chamber of Deputies.

We assisted to different lectures about root biostimulation, innocuity, microbiology, and parasitology in crops, where we obtained valuable information about how different fungi, including Verticillium dahliae, affect the development of chili.

In the commercial area we could approach some of the agrochemical manufacturers that happen to work with fungi like ours. Here we also talked with producers of chilli and its seeds, who confirmed wilt caused by V. dahliae is extremely common in different crops. Through some of these conversations, we obtained information and contacts from agronomists whose tomato crops has suffered from this disease in the state of San Luis Potosí here in Mexico.

A national agricultural editorial called “de Riego” had a stand in the convention, and we had the chance to talk to their General Director about our project. He was particularly interested in it, and after talking with him for a while he offered us a space on their bimonthly magazine to publish an article about our work.

Takeaway:

This convention was an unexpected turning point for our project. We had the fortune of leaving with multiple contacts, who helped us throughout the rest of our project’s journey. But more importantly, meeting so many relevant people in their area, hearing their perspectives, and taking into account all of their insights, helped us mold our project to fit the most important considerations they had to offer.

De Riego Magazine Article

Goals:

  • Spread Synthetic Biology and its applications in agricultural products
  • Share our project with the agricultural sector

Event Description:

“De Riego” is an editorial founded in 2002, whose main objective is the diffusion of technology developed for agricultural production and for irrigation, nutrition, and protection techniques for different crops. It also publishes strategies and advice from current scientific papers that seek to aid in incident management and agronomic accident control.

We had the pleasure of meeting the magazine’s General Director at the World Chili Convention, where we immediately started a conversation about Synthetic Biology and its impact on agricultural issues. During this meeting the reason of our assistance came up and we told him about the product we were developing. Something that really sparked his interest was the problematic we were focused on, since, as he told us, his magazine has never published about Verticillium in cotton. By the end of our conversation he was so interested in our work that he offered us the chance of publishing an article about his on his magazine.

In August, we began to work on the creation of this article and by September it was accepted for its publication on December’s edition. The article addresses topics like: what is Synthetic Biology, how is it being applied in agriculture, the benefits of said application, and an explanation of our project as an example of this.

Takeaway:

It was of great importance for us to share with the agricultural community the benefits of Synthetic Biology applied to this sector. After all, they are the ones that should be up to date about the products and technologies developing in the market. Additionally, considering the future development of the project, they represent a huge part of our potential customers.

We are grateful to the editorial for giving us the opportunity of spreading a bit of the vast amount of things we’ve learned with this experience.

Student Group/LiFE

Goals:

  • Spread Synthetic Biology and its applications in agriculture products
  • Share our project with our student community
  • Promote interest in science in our student community
  • Share information about the iGEM competition and its worldwide scope
  • Raise funds for our activities

Event Description:

LiFE (Leadership and Student Training) is a formative model for student life that seeks to develop personal talent, leadership, and self-realization in the students. In LiFE, cultural, sports, and personal development activities are encouraged through the creation of student groups.

Every term, the Student Groups Fair takes place, where both student groups and student societies promote themselves and invite both high school and college students to join the community of LiFE. For the team was very important to create a student group because it is an effective way to gain major diffusion at our school. Additionally, being a student group allows you to create events inside and outside of the institution, which gave us the chance to assist to all of the other schools and develop fundraising activities. However, our main reason was that this allows us to get other students interested in iGEM, which is of utmost relevance for us, given multidisciplinarity in the team is essential.

At the Student Fair, we built a stand about our project "V-TION". In addition to this, we presented to the attending students, professors and staff, about the iGEM competition, previous years’ projects and what did our work involved this year. People showed interest in the team and asked many questions that we gladly answered, such as what our project was, when the competition takes place, how they could be part of our group, and when the call is made.

Takeaway:

As students we often keep our focus only of the academic part of our lives because it’s what we are used to. However, being part of extracurricular activities encourages us to get out of our comfort zone and open up our minds; positively impacting our personal development.

Participating in this Student Fair allowed us to help other young students to discover a bit more about themselves because, how could they know if they are interested in Synthetic Biology if they’ve never heard of it? Likewise, as a student group, it was a pleasure to support science diffusion within our institution.

More, More & More + Final Conclusion

We really enjoyed participating in these activities since they were really different from our other participations, these we more diverse and that is why we needed to develop new abilities like selling food and raffles. Also this practices opened us many opportunities like sharing our project with a huge amount of people who watched us from their homes, read us in a prestigious agricultural magazine, attending an important event and even consider future participants of our team 2020.

With these last activities and closing our Public Engagement area we want to highlight that:

The most important lesson we learned developing this project was that we’re truly fortunate to have this opportunity, and we wished more people could live this experience and see science in a more approachable way. Thus, we sought to engage with students from all levels, teachers, Governmental and non-governmental Organizations, agriculture experts, and producers to share the opportunities that synthetic biology could bring. We developed an education model specific for each academic level that includes a manual for iGEM teams to motivate and give them tools on how to approach students. Since our project is related to agriculture, we participated in the International Congress of Agricultural Education to spread our experience to those who would be benefited by this project. Our team helped organize three UN models, appeared on TV, and have a future article publication. Finally, we estimated that a total of 86,289 individuals were impacted by our activities.

References

  1. INEGI. (2015). Características educativas de la población. Retrieved from: https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/educacion/
  2. SCI. (2017). Science Clubs International. Retrieved from https://www.clubesdeciencia.org/

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