Education
& Public Engagement
Overview
Educating & Engaging the community
Remaking Nature Guest Lecture
Guest Lecture
UNSW Synthetic Biology Symposium
CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE USING SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
UNSW Biotechnology Society Careers Night
Guest Presentation
Global Business Plan Template
A Commercialisation Guideline
Science Pitching Workshop
Working on our Science Communication
Team-Building & Structuring Guide
An Agile Approach to Team Management
Protein Modelling Guide
A Beginners Guide to Modelling
Synthetic Biology Australasia Annual Conference
Guest Presentation
Children's Engagement Tool
A Children's Book
EDUCATION & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY
Answering
Overview
Educating & Engaging the Community
Our Education and Public Engagement strategy was created as a platform to educate and engage the community in Synthetic Biology. Through considering all stakeholders feedback and input we were able to formulate an Education and Public Engagement strategy that provided the necessary tools for individuals to participate and engage with Synthetic Biology. The team consulted a variety of individuals and groups to ensure that the teams’ consideration, engagement, and integration feedback loop was incorporated into the strategy ensuring mutual learning and engagement. Through considering past teams work we provided a tool that explored all context surrounding engagement with Synthetic Biology in Australia and Internationally. Allowing us to continually build and accelerate participation in Synthetic Biology.
Remaking Nature: The Politics of Biotechnology
Guest Lecture
iGEM members Mel and Edward presenting as guest lecturers
We lectured ARTS3243 Remaking Nature: The Politics of Biotechnology discussing the current Synthetic Biology landscape opening a channel for non-scientist to voice their concerns and questions about Synthetic Biology and how individuals without a science background can engage and be involved in this growing area. As a result, we realised that there were no easily accessible tools or platforms to learn, answer and discuss Synthetic Biology for individuals with little to no science background. This was concerning as a study by the Australian government suggested 40% of those asked, “In your opinion, how important is science education to the Australian economy?”1 answered that science was absolutely essential for the future economy. This demonstrates the need for improved science understanding as well as, a need for mechanisms to engage all age groups with Synthetic Biology.
Science Literacy Report1
Synthetic Biology Symposium
Creating a sustainable future using Synthetic Biology
Guest Panel at UNSW iGEM Symposium. Mr. George Peppou, A/Professor Mathew Kearnes, Dr. Owen Edwards, and Dr. Madeline Mitchell
To solve the problem of the community's engagement with Synthetic Biology discovered by our consultation with ARTS3243 Remaking Nature: The Politics of Biotechnology the we decided to hold the Australian Synthetic Biology Symposium. This event saw members of the community consisting of students, professionals, iGEM teams and passionate individuals from a diverse background discussing Synthetic Biology in an open forum. The question and answer style panel with guest’s; Dr Madeline Mitchel (CSIRO), George Peppou (VOW and Cicada Innovations), Dr Owen Edwards (CSIRO) and Associate Professor Mathew Kearnes (UNSW) allowed all attendees to participate and be involved in the conversation on Synthetic Biology. During this event we realised that we had started the conversation about Synthetic Biology however, there was still some ambiguity as to how the community can get involved in shaping research, ethics as well as, the overall discussion.
UNSW Biotechnology Society Careers Night
Guest Presentation
Edward and Melissa presenting at the Biotechnology Society Careers Night
We presented at the UNSW Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences Society careers evening providing insight to undergraduates about career opportunities in Synthetic Biology. This presentation considered the social context within Synthetic Biology exploring the different potential career paths within Synthetic Biology that were available to individuals with different backgrounds such as law, business, arts and engineering.
Through consulting Dominic Glover as well as, Tip Piumsomboon from Blackbird ventures we discover there was a lack of publicly available tools. This included laboratory facilities, business planning guides and general advice for individuals who want to commercialise their ideas outside of Venture Capital and Accelerator firms which are highly competitive to get involved with. This was leading to a lack of start-ups and innovation with the number of start-ups declining from 1,675 in 2017 to 1,465 in 20182. This is alarming as start-ups are important for innovation within Australia, with biotechnology start-ups being instrumental in new advances in this field. This can be seen with Biotechnology, Medtech and Healthtech being the 5th most strongly related industries for start-ups with 11% of all business’ being start-ups3.
Amount of Start-Ups in Australia per year2
Global Business Plan Template
A Commercialisation Guideline
Online Video Chat with Aalto-Helsinki, UBC, Ku Leuven, and NCKU to discuss what makes a global business plan
We created a business scaffold which provides a guideline for individuals to commercialise their idea. This guide allows individuals to plan out the stages involved in turning their idea into a commercial product running through the necessary components such as; SWOT analysis, MVP and market analysis which ensure commercial viability. This effectively shows the user how their idea within Synthetic Biology can be shown to investors removing science communication issues bringing the science and business communities closer together. This is important as “Australian start-ups raised more than $3.5 billion in 2017-18”2. Eight iGEM teams in the 2019 competition have used our business plan scaffold to create their own business plans demonstrating its versatile nature. Furthermore, we realised, scientists are having issues communicating their ideas. This concern was initially addressed by our panellist George Peppou at the symposium, “The most important skill for graduates is selling your idea. The most successful science companies often don't have the most impressive science however, have shown to customers that this is something they need”.
The most important skill for graduates is selling your idea. The most successful science companies often don't have the most impressive science however, have shown to customers that this is something they need.
George Peppou, VOW
Science Pitching Workshop
In collaboration with the UNSW Biotechnology Society & UNSW Founders
Attendees engaging with the workshop
To address the concern of science communication, the science pitching workshop was created in conjunction with UNSW Founders. The workshop was a 2-hour workshop which culminated in each team presenting a 1.5-2 minute pitch based on the project presented by the 2018 iGEM team (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)4. This event allowed scientists to concisely present their ideas to investors developing communication skills necessary for innovation within the Australian landscape. This was an important event that in conjunction with the business plan allowed start-ups to raise capital which is the second biggest concern3 for founders within 12 months of creating a business.
Biggest Problems Facing Start-Up Founders3
We identified there was no clear methodology for forming and structuring a team for a business, project or group in both a professional as well as, an academic setting. This was a requirement for the pitching evening forming teams of 3. Furthermore, this is a problem limits innovation explored in Harvard business review article that suggests “when you unleash employees’ potential, you set your company up for success”5.
Team building and Structuring guide
An Agile Approach to Team Management
We worked with Notion (a notetaking and collaboration application) and UNSW founders (an accelerator firm) to create a guide for incorporating agile practices in their team-building methodology. The guide demonstrates how to incorporate agile principles in assigning tasks, tracking members work and monitoring goals changing these when applicable. Agile practices are important for creating resilient and innovative companies as seen by Tosh Berman, who suggested, “The biggest piece of advice I can give is to be more agile in your approach to dealing with adversity”6.
Protein Modelling Guide
A Beginners Guide to Modelling.
A consistent concern that arose whilst talking to scientists as well as, fellow iGEM teams was the use of modelling in Synthetic Biology. Most individuals found this aspect of synthetic biology daunting to the extent that it acted as a barrier to independent learning. In response, we decided to create a guide for the community that walked them through how to create a protein model.
The Web's Most-Searched Synbio Question
Video
We identified that after creating an open forum and medium for individuals there were still issues in accessing information on Synthetic Biology, especially for young people. This was demonstrated as an issue with the proportion of final year high school students taking biology falling by 32% between 1992 and 20097. In response, we created a video which deconstructed Synthetic Biology. We called upon the public to ask the team any question they had about Synthetic Biology. We then tabulated these questions, researched these areas and provided a simplistic response. We looked at different video formats that had successfully engaged the public. Through searching on YouTube we found the “answer the webs most searched questions” 8 series created by ‘Wired’. This series regularly engages millions of young people with the ‘Stranger things' edition reaching over 38 million people. We, therefore, decided to make a video following this format with the aim of being fun, interesting and engaging, as well as reaching as many people as possible.
The video acts as an educational tool that has been created for the public by the public to raise awareness, knowledge and engagement with Synthetic Biology. It is available on our Wiki along with all our resources.
Synthetic Biology Australiasia
Our team presented our project as well as our tools at the Synthetic Biology Australiasia conference talking to world-class teachers in this field. The conference provides a forum for international and Australian academics and industry researchers to present the latest research findings as well as broadcast emerging technologies and directions in synthetic biology. The diverse range of attendees allowed us to explore the opinions of how our Education and Public Engagement strategy will serve as a tool for different contexts through Australian as well as, international communities.
The feedback that we received was that whilst the content was highly accessible, we needed:
a tactile experience or alternative method to engage students
University of Technology Sydney Biodesign
Sebastian and Edward presenting at the international SBA conference
Children's Engagement Tool
A children's book
To broaden our public engagement and educate children we produced a comic for children teaching them about Synthetic Biology drawing inspiration from the Montpellier iGEM 2018 team. This comic provided a simplistic and engaging medium for children to learn and be involved in Synthetic Biology. The comic in conjunction with our ‘Answer the webs most searched Synthetic Biology questions Video’ aims to improve youth participation in science with the youth playing a crucial role in science policy reform. This is explored in the study by Sarah Dickson-Hoyle et al with 22% of the Global Landscapes Forum conference delegates expressing interest in youth taking on leadership roles in science9.. The comic along with our other resources are easily available on our wiki.
UNSW Children's comic
Education & Public Engagement Summary
How well did we work to promote mutual learning and engagement?
Through engaging the public and incorporating their opinions we incorporated the consideration, engagement and integration feedback loop into education and public engagement. This ensured we constantly listened and consulted the community, building tools that could help them engage with science. Upon reaching out to the community we did further researched to understand the scale of the problem. We ensured that we had fixed the problem by integrating feedback into our solutions. This can be seen with how each event and consultation influenced future parts of our Education and Public Engagement strategy.
Does our work serve as an inspiring example to others?
We hope that by providing engaging, adaptable and easily accessible tools that individuals can be inspired to be continually involved in Synthetic Biology throughout different stages of their life, degree or career. Below is a table that demonstrates which tools can be used depending on individuals experience with Synthetic Biology. Additionally, it should be noted that five 2019 iGEM teams used our business plan scaffold to construct their own business plan, forming the foundations of their entrepreneurship award.
| Stage | Tool |
|---|---|
| Early | Children's Book |
| SynBio Video | |
| Synthetic Biology Symposium | |
| Mid | Remaking Nature Guest Lecture |
| Biotech Society Careers Night | |
| Business Plan Template | |
| Late | Synthetic Biology Australiasia Conference |
| Pitching Workshop |
Is it documented in a way that others can build upon?
The business plan template, science pitching workshop and notion guide can be used by future iGEM teams to commercialise their idea, present their idea and build their team respectively. Through building on past, iGEM teams work with the pitching workshop and the Children’s tool we demonstrated how adaptable these resources providing an example to future teams on how to adapt parts of our Education and Public Engagement strategy.
Was it thoughtfully implemented?
Did they explain the context, rationale, and prior work?
Through incorporating the consideration, engagement, and integration feedback loop into Education and Public Engagement strategy context, rational and prior work were considered. As a result of this consideration, tools were created to make science engagement more accessible. Through, consulting a myriad of perspectives backed up in statistical significance the Education and Public Engagement strategy effectively implemented these considerations. Effectively, creating a strategy that has educational tools for all people independent of race, educational status, geography or age. Additionally, past teams Education and Public Engagement were considered and built on to acknowledge and integrate prior work.
Did they both understand and respect the rights, beliefs, and/or cultures of the communities they engaged?
Through, consulting a wide variety of individuals from different backgrounds the rights, beliefs and cultures of the communities that were a part of the Education and Public Engagement strategy were considered, understood and respected. By holding events which were open to all people as well as, providing tools that are accessible to all we were able to respect the rights, beliefs and cultures of all communities who engage with our Education and Public Engagement tools.
Did the team convince you that their activities would enable more people to shape, contribute to, and/or participate in Synthetic Biology?
We enabled all people to understand, contribute and engage with Synthetic Biology through our Education and Public Engagement strategy. Through considering a variety of stakeholders and the underlying problems associated with current engagement with Synthetic Biology we created a strategy that is easily assessable to all facilitating learning and enabling the community to be involved with Synthetic Biology. We created tools that simplify Synthetic Biology as well as issues surrounding engagement of this area not only involving the community in Synthetic Biology, however, ensuring that the community is continually involved demonstrating currently what each stakeholder can do to be involved as well as, what they can do in the future creating a multi-stage strategy.
| Audience | Medium |
|---|---|
| Higher Education | Synthetic Biology Symposium |
| Synthetic Biology Australiasian Conference | |
| Remaking Nature Guest Lecture | |
| Pitching Workshop | |
| Youth | Biotech Society Careers Night |
| SynBio Video | |
| Pitching Workshop | |
| Children | SynBio Video |
| Children's Book |
References
- Wyatt, N. (2019). Science Literacy Report. [online] Available at: https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-sector-analysis/reports-and-publications/science-literacy-report [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- McCauley, A. (2019). Startup Aus. [online] Sua-gateway-files.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com. Available at: https://sua-gateway-files.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Crossroads_V.pdf [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- Hurps, M. (2019). Startup Muster Annual Report. [online] Available at: https://www.startupmuster.com/reports/Startup-Muster-2018-Report.pdf?key=5c65583ae8627912a014e55dd6243d2adbf66610e61a3fa9d09a7da2d23e2a63 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- 2018.igem.org. (2019). Team:EPFL - 2018.igem.org. [online] Available at: https://2018.igem.org/Team:EPFL [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- Goyette, K. (2019). 5 Things Leaders Do That Stifle Innovation. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/10/5-things-leaders-do-that-stifle-innovation [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- Weiner, C. (2019). Tosh Berman: “The biggest piece of advice I can give to prevent burnout is to be more agile in your approach to dealing with adversity” - Thrive Global. [online] Thrive Global. Available at: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tosh-berman-the-biggest-piece-of-advice-i-can-give-to-prevent-burnout-is-to-be-more-agile-in-your-approach-to-dealing-with-adversity/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- Chubb, I. (2019). Inspiring Australia's Scientific Culture | Australia's Chief Scientist. [online] Chiefscientist.gov.au. Available at: https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2012/03/inspiring-australias-scientific-culture/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- YouTube. (2019). Stranger Things Cast Answer the Web's Most Searched Questions. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvMYEfF_hQ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].
- Dickson-Hoyle, S., Kovacevic, M., Cherbonnier, M. and Nicholas, K. (2018). Towards meaningful youth participation in science-policy processes: acase study of the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Elem Sci Anth, [online] 6(1), p.67. Available at: https://www.elementascience.org/articles/10.1525/elementa.327/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].