Team:UBonn HBRS/HP/Silver
Human Practices
Contents
Science Slam
The objective of a Science Slam is for researchers and scientists to present current scientific topics to a non-expert audience in an entertaining way and a short time capacity. The winner is then chosen by the audience. This year our team was once again privileged with the opportunity to collaborate with the Caesar Institute and organize the event, which was a definite success with around 200 attendees. In addition to various and interesting topics, the audience also was introduced to iGEM and our current project.
Survey
This year we decided to conduct a survey, which included a part about Synthetic Biology in general and another part about Caries. We shared the survey on several social media platforms and during our City- Info Booth, therefore insuring a large pool of participants. We started by asking whether the participants knew what Synthetic Biology is. 55 % answered no. We then added a small, easy to understand description, so that they would be informed and asked the remaining 45 % who answered with yes to briefly explain the concept in their own words. Around 78 % of the people thought that a new method of caries prevention is needed. One of the more important questions we had in the survey was whether the public would be willing to use our final product (which would have been created with the help of synthetic biology) after they have had a brief explanation as to what synthetic biology and GMOs are. A surprising 95 % said yes!
School visits
One of iGEM's main objectives is to spread awareness about Synthetic Biology and generally educate more people about science. Which is why we paid a visit to one of our team member's old high school and did a simple presentation on the basics of Synthetic Biology. Both the teacher and the kids enjoyed this visit and especially the experiment we did at the end, where we extracted the DNA out of a tomato. We hope to have been able to showcase how exciting science and biology could be and get the future generations more enthused about joining this field.
City Booth
This year we have managed to organize an Info-City Booth on two separate occasions. It was a great way to introduce the public to the topic of Synthetic Biology, get them intrigued as well as answer their questions. Not only that, but it was also a great chance for us to get more people to take our survey, thus having a variable pool of participants. Although not everyone we encountered was thrilled by the idea of GMOs in general, we still managed to convince many of them that they had nothing to be afraid of and that Synthetic Biology its products are an advancement in Science which should be embraced. All in all, we found it to be a great success and would like to continue with this initiative in the coming years.
Fast Forward Science
Fast Forward Science is a competition, where people submit science related videos and a jury decides on a winner. See it on YouTube
Science March
On the 22 nd of April 2017, our iGEM team joined a March for Science in Bonn. It was a great opportunity for us to listen to some distinguished speakers. We also met another iGEM team there, who had come all the way from Düsseldorf/Cologne and we spent a pleasant day together.
