Team:Warwick/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
Public outreach and engagement is an integral part of iGEM. Education is the only way to stop fear of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. As part of our project we aimed to educate for the better of the science community, but also to bring Fatbergs to the public's attention. This year, public outreach has played a central role in our project of breaking down and preventing fatbergs, having been encouraged to do this by Dr. John Love. Our aim was to make this accessible, so that all ages, education levels and capabilities can understand what Fatbergs are and how to prevent them. After all, why resolve when you could prevent?
Biology 101
Our biology 101 guide was inspired during our ‘biology bootcamp’ by our members, Megan and Elfreda, who are studying English Literature and Biomedical Science, and wanted to equalise the platform for iGEM for people of any degree discipline.
The guide features information on cells, cloning and measuring techniques. The information was basic to those who studied biology but helped those in the team who had not been exposed to this knowledge before. After the document proved useful, we decided that we wanted to share it with others in the iGEM community.
We decided to illustrate and design the booklet Biology 101 as not everyone has the same education level, but this should not prevent them from joining iGEM – after all, it is an interdisciplinary competition which encourages education.
The booklet was printed and taken to the first UK iGEM meetup in Newcastle, where we distributed it among teams. It was met with a good reception and was later requested by further teams after exposure on social media and we hope it can be a resource for future teams!.
Leaflet Campaign
In order the advertise the correct disposal methods of cooking oil and what to put down the toilet, we decided to make leaflets which we could put up in university accommodation as often students living alone for the first time are cooking for the first time and thus tips and tricks would prove to be useful for this audience. We decided to take inspiration from the Thames Water campaign of ‘the 3 P’s’ -pee, poo and paper should go down the toilet, and cooking oil should not be poured down the drain, but binned instead. We also wanted to make this scheme understandable to children, and worked on making a fatberg character -Mr F. Atberg, as a campaign character. These leaflets have been distributed across Warwick University’s campus accommodation (housing over 6,000 students), University College London and Cambridge, reaching over 50,000 students.
British Science Festival
The British Science Festival spanned a week and was held at the University of Warwick this year. Held a stand the 14th of September, in order to educate children with their parents on the existence of fatbergs and how to prevention. The day was a huge success, with an estimated 8,000 visitors to campus over the day.
We used slime to provide a tactile experience for children to help them understand what a fatberg is. To explain viscosity and density to all ages, we also used orbeez. A play tunnel was advertised as a sewer, through which children were encouraged to crawl and pass arts and crafts representing what we can find inside the sewage system. A magnetic board was used for a game in which children had to sort things that were flushable and those that were not into columns and finally, we developed a fatberg quiz for children to utilise the knowledge they learnt from us to use.
School Visit
To reach out to children we visited a school where we ran a workshop with students in GCSE and A-level year (15 and 17 year olds) about studying STEM subjects at university, synthetic biology and fatbergs. A workshop was run to explain to the students about STEM and the emerging prospect of synthetic biology, debunking the myths in a fun and understandable manner. We also explained a bit more of what iGEM is, and how to get involved, and the experiments we have used, such as cloning techniques, the use of fluorescence proteins as markers, and assay methods.
Young Scientist Journal
For the Young Scientists Journal Conference on the 3rd of October 2019, our team had the honour to become one of the event’s main sponsors and we were able to exhibit our project . Young Scientists Journal is an international peer-reviewed science journal written, reviewed and produced by school students. This 7th edition of the conference featured students from Europe, Canada, USA, and South Korea!
Running through a whole day at Queen’s College, Cambridge University, we met young researchers from the age of 12 to 20 years old who were keen on knowing more about fatbergs. Hence, we were able to continue the outreach campaign “Don’t feed the fatbergs” that we started at the beginning of summer. We also spread out our campaign flyers in key locations of the campus
Warwick RAW Radio
On the 4th of October we appeared as guests on the University of Warwick’s radio show, RAW. Whilst on the show we discussed iGEM, synthetic biology and fatbergs. We highlighted the positive impact that synthetic biology can have on society and why developing ideas should not be feared. Moreover, we spoke directly about our project and discussed the dangers of disposing of items down the drain. This gave our campaign wide exposure, our efforts to tackle Fatbergs broadcasted on a national award-winning radio station.
Click here for our RAW radio podcast
Horror Movie Night
In order to reach new students at the University of Warwick, we hosted a horror movie and pizza night to discuss "monster" Fatbergs. The alternative approach of using an entertainment event was approved with the view to attract students that would not typically attend scientific talks. This way, we reached a wider audience and had a greater distribution of students across disciplines. The event began with a brief explanation on what Fatbergs are and how people can prevent them. The reasoning behind this was so that 'freshers', who would be cooking alone for the first time, could be informed and prepared. Having answered questions, we began playing the movie "IT", chosen for the plot's link to sewers. The event proved successful, with many attendees remaining at the end to ask questions about Fatbergs (as well as if Pennywise might be stuck in one).
Mentoring Nuffield Research Students
Over the course of our project, we mentored two students from a local sixth form. During this time we introduced iGEM, the basics of synthetic biology and our project to them. Hita Patel commented that “the research placement provided an invaluable insight into the development of scientific research and seeing the iGEM team grow and develop their research proved to me that science is forever expanding!”. Similarly, Aron Alagaraj concluded that “iGEM isn’t just focused on synthetic biology, it incorporates elements of chemistry, physics [and] engineering, which was reflected by the diversity of the team.”
As part of their placement they composed a report on fatbergs and our research which are both attached below. We wish them the best for the future and definitely enjoyed their contribution to our project!
