Team:TUDelft/Public EngagementTest
As a team we are inspired by the potential the microbial world holds, we wanted to share our fascination for this microbial biodiversity. That is why our goal this year was to introduce the general public to the hidden world of microbes. During our Foldscope Event, we taught participants how to fold their own origami microscope and how to use these microscopes to access the excitement of scientific exploration. To further engage the general public in our project we organized Global Meeting Point, an open ended discussion with a local church community, where we received feedback on how people from outside the field of synthetic biology look upon our project and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) in general. We participated and organized many more educational events where we discussed the impact of our project with a lot of different people, from little kids to students to experts in the field of synthetic biology.
Foldscope Event
On earth, we can find more than a trillion different bacterial species (1). We as a team are fascinated by this microbial diversity, and we wanted to share our fascination for this world. We thought that microscopes would be the perfect tool to introduce people to the hidden world of microbes. We found these foldable microscopes by Foldscope, a company who promotes scientific exploration by breaking price barriers. By using these Foldscopes we organized a workshop in Delft, the place where the first microscope was invented by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s. This workshop took place on Antonie van Leeuwenhoek day, the 7th of September. On this day he put microbes on the map by reporting his findings to the Dutch Royal Society (2). The money we raised during this event was used to buy more of these foldable microscopes, which we send to Mumbai in India, in collaboration with Foldscope.
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The workshop started with a talk by Michele Laureni (Post-Doc in Environmental Biotechnology), who introduced everyone to the world of microbes. Ad Bergkamp (Member of the Dutch Microscopy Society (3)) then explained how microscopes are the perfect tools to access this world of microbes. Since Foldscopes are considered to be cheap and easy to use, they lower the bar to access science.
“Foldscope was created with a vision to solve the accessibility problem in science. What began as a simple idea has now grown into a company that provides powerful low-cost tools to communities around the world in an effort to help advance education, health, and opportunity. Our mission is simply to expand access to science and break down the price barrier between people & the curiosity and excitement of scientific exploration.” -Foldscope
The workshop was filled with fun and amazing activities. After helping people fold their foldscopes, people could prepare their own samples, which had been collected for them from all over Delft. By guiding the participants on how to prepare these samples for in their microscopes, we gave them the opportunity to start exploring the wonders of nature.
During the event participants were able to take pictures of their own made samples, with their own phones, while they were looking through their self assembled microscopes. We walked people through what they visualised with these microscopes by use of a panel discussion. This panel consisted of Ad BergKamp and Erik de Hulster (Research Technician). With 65 participants our event sold out!
Because we wanted to encourage interest in science across all social and economic backgrounds, and give more people this hands on experience, we bought more of these origami microscopes with the proceeds raised from this event. They were shipped to Raigadh Zilla Parishad School and Shree Ganesh Vidya Mandir High School in Mumbai, India. With these microscopes, more workshops were organized by Foldscope at these urban schools. We hope that these tiny actions can inspire more people to the hidden world of microbes.
Global Meeting Point
On August 22nd we organized Global Meeting Point together with the International Student Chaplaincy in Delft. The goal of Global Meeting Point is to bring people from different cultural and religious backgrounds together to discuss a range of cultural, historical, social and environmental subjects.
During the event we explained what synthetic biology is and how we used it to create our project. After our introductory presentation we had an open ended discussion about GMO’s in general but also more specifically about the impact our platform can have on the world.
From the discussions we learned that people are reluctant to release GMO’s. Mostly, because they can never anticipate the long term effects these bacteria might have on the ecosystem or people’s health. Another concern was how we would be able to contain our platform if it were to be used in a real world application.
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This event helped us to shape our use case scenario (link to iHP-Use case scenario). Due to this conversation we implemented physical containment of our platform to a bioreactor in our use case scenario. This physical containment will make sure that our system is not to accidentally influence parts of nature for which it was not designed. Furthermore, we also implemented these design criteria to the safety of our design (Link to iHP-Safe by Design).
Global Meeting Point gave us the opportunity to learn the opinion of a range of people about the use of synthetic biology. We achieved a better understanding of why people might be reluctant to use genetically modified organisms. But in the end we were very content that we could convince some people that bacteria can also be very useful. Click here for a blog post about this event.
Children's Lecture
As a team we wanted to learn the opinion of the general public about the topic of synthetic biology. Children can give a refreshing insight. To get their opinion about synthetic biology, we got in touch with Museum jeugduniversiteit, an organisation that organizes guest lectures for children within the age range of 8-12 years. This was the perfect platform to introduce kids to the topic of microbes and synthetic biology, and get their input regarding the topics.
On the 15th of September we went to the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden, where a special lecture was given by us to children. In the presentation we addressed the topic of biology in general; the smallest unit of life; what synthetic biology is and its application. The presentation was further elaborated by one of our co-presenter Marijn van den Brink (Bachelor student Life Science and Technology), who thought the topic of how to build a synthetic cell. To make the lecture more interactive, we incorporated an interactive quiz to get a better insight in the knowledge level of our audience. This quiz was also used as a tool to start a small debate. With this debate we obtained more insight the children's opinions about these subjects. The information gathered is combined with the rest of the organised discussion moments, in order to have a wide spectra of general public’s opinion.
From the debate with the children we learned that, safety of genetically modified organisms was a huge concern. The topics of the debate where: how to prevent the escape of engineered organisms, how to work save as a human being with these bacteria, and the ethical concern about what we can create using synthetic biology. We addressed these concerns in the safety of our design (Link to iHP-Safe by Design).
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Education & Engagement
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Throughout our project we have shared our story on biotechnologie.nl. With these stories, we aimed to inspire the public about the potential of synthetic biology and educated the public about our project.
To reach people about our project and what iGEM is we wrote a blog post in Eurofins Genomics. Click here to read the article: Blog Eurofins Genomics.
At the Dutch Biotechnology Conference we presented our project for the very first time! At this event we interacted with the experts in the Life Science and Technology field.
The eXplore eXtracurricular event encourages students from the TU Delft to participate in activities during their studies. Here we presented what iGEM is and what it stands for.
We presented our project to students of the Applied Sciences Faculty at the TU Delft. To inspire students to think about synthetic biology we informed them about iGEM and the potential it holds.
We presented at the Family Day of the Nanobiology study program. Nanobiology students can take their friends and family to this day to show them what Nanobiology is all about. To contribute to this fun and informative day, we showed the participants some of the amazing iGEM projects of past iGEM TU Delft teams, to showcase the potential of synthetic biology and nanobiology. Here we had the opportunity to inspire students to be part of a future iGEM team.
The OWee is an introduction week for new students at the TU Delft. During this event we had our own stand, here we had the opportunity to talk about what iGEM is and what it represents. Here we explained synthetic biology to interested students and we informed them about our project. Furthermore, we also talked about our other activities beyond the lab, such as the Foldscope Event and the Global Meeting Point. It was a beautiful day and hopefully we have made some students enthusiastic about synthetic biology!
We attended the Bioday organised by the TU Delft on the 2nd of July. At this event we will come to share and hear about new and exciting science, socialize with researchers from all faculties and present our own project in poster format.
At the very start of our iGEM journey, we represented iGEM at the TU Delft open day for new students. We aimed to inspire high school students to think about synthetic biology as a field of study.