Team:UIUC Illinois/Public Engagement
Science Cafe
Wednesday, September 4th, 2019
Our host lab IGB holds a monthly seminar series "Chambana Science Cafe" as an effort to spread information and stimulate curiosity within the community in a casual setting. Scientists can share with the public about their research and answer any questions. This year, our iGEM team got the unique opportunity to present a Science Cafe talk on our project this year. It was held at a local cafe and while sharing our project, we focused on removing negative connotations regarding synthetic biology. Genetic engineering is traditionally thought to have an injurious role within agriculture through its use in creating GMOs. However, our engineered bacteria seeks to benefit the environment by removing excess glyphosate. We emphasized the importance of synthetic biology and bioremediation in our modern world, where the amount of pollutants and plastics are constantly increasing.
Pollen Power
Friday, July 19th, 2019
To interact meaningfully with the community, we decided to meet with the children who were a part of the Pollen Power Summer Camp. Pollen Power is a week long summer camp hosted each year by the Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology to provide first-hand research experience to middle school girls. We chose to meet with the girls primarily to help expose the girls to the field of synthetic biology. Seeing that the field lacked women based on our interactions in the lab and with our advisors, we realized that the best way to motivate girls to get into synthetic biology was to provide exposure to the field early. We spent a large part of the meeting explaining the concept of synthetic biology, iGEM, and all the cool stuff that can be done in the field. We then played bingo to bond more with the girls and give them more insight into iGEM as well as our personal lives. The middle schoolers at the camp had a strong interest in science and were very inquisitive about our project and synthetic biology. By stimulating interest in the STEM field to such marginalized groups, we can improve diversity in our community in the future.
Game Day Genomics
Saturday, August 31st, 2019
This year we got the unique opportunity of interacting with the general public on gameday. For the first game of the season, we organized a tent to allow the general public to better engage with biology. As an activity to get young children interested, we helped them isolate cell lysate from strawberries using various household materials, and tied it to a string so that they could wear the eppendorf tube around their neck as a necklace. We also organized a biology-related photo booth to draw people in and educate them about various scientific figures, whose masks were part of the props in the booth. We believed that this would provide the public and specifically, younger children with more exposure to biology.
ASPB SynBio Blog
Wednesday, July 24th, 2019
Our team had the opportunity to discuss our project in the form of a blog post on Plantae, which is an online community for discussing novel findings in plant biology. With the help of IGB research fellow and iGEM project advisor Steven Burgess, we were able to raise awareness about our project. The ultimate goal of the post was to show how synthetic biology (SynBio) is related to the goal of our project. Additionally, we wanted to start a conversation regarding the controversies surrounding glyphosate. The site can be viewed here.
