Education & public engagement
Project presentation day
Every year in Tel-Hai College, life-sciences students between their second and third year are able to partake in research projects at different laboratories of their choosing during the semester break. At the end of their project and before they submit a short paper on their work, they present their projects to faculty and students.
Seeing as we are representing Tel-Hai College this year, we decided to present our project to the faculty. In addition to the scientific aspect of our project, we explained what iGEM is about in order to inspire students to participate it the competition next year. Because this was in front of many professors, teachers, and students, it was a great opportunity to receive feedback on our project.
Pint of Science
Genetic engineering has both direct and indirect consequences in our lives and it should be investigated with constant control, whether scientific or ethical. We wanted to examine what it meant and make sure that we are setting up a project that will help humanity and will not cause any destruction for us and our planet. To this end, we turned to Dr. Eli Pitcovski, an ethics lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology at Tel-Hai College, for feedback on our project. From our conversation it occurred to us that one of the problems is that the subject is not accessible to the general public. In order to raise awareness to the ethical, economic, social and environmental consequences of synthetic biology, we asked Dr. Pitcovski to speak at a local pub, in a ‘’Pint of Science’’ event.
Thankfully there was a great response from our community to be present, reach out, hear and learn about this important subject. It was a fascinating, exciting and impressive evening for all of us.
Israel Science Day
Israel Science Day is sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology with the aim of holding scientific events for the whole family across the country and thus bring science closer to the general population. Every year, the Ministry of Science and Technology celebrates Israel Science Day on the date of Albert Einstein's birthday. Our team decided to take part in this important day in order to socialize with the local population and to encourage them to partake in the wonderful world of science.
Our activities were divided into two parts. In the morning, we went to Alei Givaa School in Kiryat Shmona to conduct educational and fun activities to pupils on various scientific topics. In the evening, we set up a science fair at MIGAL where adults and children alike came to learn how to conduct scientific experiments with us. The School activities and the science fair included – cheek epithelial cell nuclei dye, bacteria in our palms, making a DNA model and lava lamps among else.
Our goal was to bring science closer to the general public and encourage science studies among young people. We noticed that many children were interested, asking questions, learning and enjoying this special day. It was a joyful, educational and creative day for all of us.
"Never regard your study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn the liberating beauty of the intellect for your own personal joy and for the profit of the community to which your later work will belong." - Albert Einstein.
Awareness event
During our visit to the Oncology Department of Ziv hospital in the neighboring city of Zefat, we met with patients and their families. We realized there was no open conversation between chemotherapy patients and the healthy community. To help mend this gap, we held an event to share the difficulties of chemotherapy and give the community a way to get involved and to help.
At the event there was food, live music and educational activities for children. We spoke to the attendees who wanted to donate their hair and to those who did not. We found that children had a harder time donating hair as they could not understand the importance of this gesture. It gave us a great platform to hold an open educational dialog about the needs of cancer patients undergoing treatments. We found that this event helped bring together both cancer patients and healthy people within the community.
European Scientists' Night
European Scientists' Night is an annual event, held since 2005. It is a scientific festival for the general public, which takes place in Israel and in the European Union. The evening is dedicated to promoting science among young people. This year, our group took part in an event held in Kiryat Shmona along with the MIGAL Research Center. We created activities from all different fields such as, extracting DNA from strawberries, examining epithelial cells and their nuclei by microscope and creating an "escape box" that contained questions to promote SDG.
The beauty of physics, chemistry and biology were displayed and performed in creative ways for people of all ages. It was an empowering and satisfying experience where we could teach and enrich new knowledge to the younger generation who came to the event and participated.
