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Revision as of 19:31, 7 October 2017
We wanted to show that it is possible to talk about biology, science in general and ethics with people from all ages and with different knowledge. We articulated our outreach strategy around three actions: discover, practice and discuss, to empower citizens or future citizens about their capability of thinking and acting on science. These three milestones are essential for us to give people a better understanding of the current challenges of science in the society.
The first question to be asked to popularise biology is “how to reach people?”
In order to make synthetic biology accessible to a wider audience, we had to adapt our speeches and supports to different people we have met. We had to find (workshops, card game...) to engage a young or non-scientific public in learning about different fields of biology.
One of the most important thing in science is scientific methods and experiments. In order to give a better understanding of the globality of the scientific work, we thought it was a good idea to make people do lab experiments. Moreover, practising often results in scientific and ethical questioning.
Our biggest challenge is to open up the debate about synthetic biology, by bringing forward major scientific breakthrough but also showing that there is a need to think about ethical and technical limits. We want to address some controversial topics with the public such as limits and potentials of synthetic biology, ethics in science, GMOs legislation…
As our project is about communication between microorganisms and it can be kind of scary for the general public, we wanted for our public engagement strategy to show how microbial diversity affects our world.
Click on one of the event we took part into see how we developed it in this aim.
We took part to “Exposciences” which is a scientific festival that took place on the 30th and 31th of May in Toulouse. This festival highlights youth projects by enabling them to present what they have done in relation with sciences, techniques and environnement. It is an occasion to share, to talk about and to encourage scientific initiatives. During this event we made children extract banana DNA thanks to simple ingredients that they can find in their kitchen. We also discussed with them about microorganisms thanks to paper fortune teller and this support led them to be curious on the microscopic world around them. As a mixed team, we tried during our interactions to encourage girls to participate as much as boys so that they gain confidence in themselves and in what they are capable of. This exposure was a good opportunity to get in touch with a public encline to hear more about our project, and to introduce our strategy for the first time. Furthermore this event was a good way for us to test our survey about cholera to measure the level of knowledge that the public has on this matter and to raise awareness concerning this disease.
We’ve been involved in schools classes, with children between the age of 7 and 11 years old in elementary schools.
The main goals of these interventions were the discovery of biology and research at school with two workshops: Microorganisms and their environment and growth of microorganisms on a Petri dish.
Our motivation was to share our passion and knowledge about biology and to raise curiosity of the pupils about microorganisms. We were also very interested in seeing what representation children have on microorganisms, helping them improving their knowledge about microorganisms and discussing about benefits and risks of microorganisms on our health.
We worked with Mrs. Matricon, Mrs Bach and Mrs. Durand, respectively teachers at “Lakanal” and “Patte d’Oie” schools in Toulouse.
The introduction step was led by the teacher one week before the intervention. It is dedicated to give a meaning to further teaching, to motivate the pupils, to rise their curiosity, to provoke their amazement and their desire to know.
4 types of introduction are possible (see the diagram).
For our pedagogical project, the observation and the technical challenges were appropriated. For instance, here are some scenarii to introduce microorganisms: why is it important to wash hands before eating? Why are we sick? How can we observe microorganisms?
The goal is to set up a transition between amazement and reflection in order to involve the pupils in an investigation and research procedure. A bunch of questions results from this step, so the teacher will organise, regroup and sometimes refute them to enable the emergence of a problem or a situation. The main questions were:
The representations are the ideal way to figure out the knowledge of the pupils thanks to their experience of the real world, their social and affective life. Those representations provide the first answer given by the pupils to investigation questions.
A representation is also a structure that contributes to integrate new learning. Those structures had to be transformed so that the pupils better appropriate/benefit from the world. According to Piaget those transformations are called “accommodation” (Depover, Christian et al.: Les modèles d'enseignement et d'apprentissage).
We analysed the representations to figure out how to overcome the possible difficulties and obstacles that could occur during the session.
This work is based on the work of three classes of two schools of CE2, CM1 and CM2 (equivalent to 3th to 5th US grade) for a total amount of 72 pupils. The pupils had to draw a microbe and answer 3 questions: Where can we find microbes? What do they do? How to see them?
We found two main conceptions of microorganisms:
It is interesting to see that some of those representations are close to microorganisms. However, a lot of pupils represent microorganisms with legs and sometimes eyes. Some pupils also drew a speech bubble to indicate that microbes are talking or thinking.
Zoomorphism is an obstacle to their understanding. It was thus important to clarify the morphological differences between microorganisms and animals (including insects) and their relative size (the lice are not microbes).
The concept of hygiene to protect oneself against microorganisms is well known by the pupils. Nevertheless it was necessary to insist on the presence of microorganisms regardless of hygiene, on their roles in the body (digestion, protection), on their essential action on the environment (degradation of organic substances) and their intervention in the production of bread, wine and dairy products (yoghurts, cheese,…).
It was important to give a precise order of magnitude concerning the microorganisms and the growing magnificence to set up on a microscope in order to observe the microorganisms. There was a need to present the Petri dishes we prepared for the session and also their use to observe the microorganisms in the environment of the pupils.
Those representations were compared to the representations built at the end of the pedagogical sequence.
We expanded from the representation work and from the pupils questioning to select a statement: Where microorganisms can be found? How can we do to show their presence? We provided to the pupils a “Little laboratory report” as a workbook for investigation and to keep a written record. It also introduced them the daily life of scientists with the need to write everything down.
We started by highlighting an important point: commonly, people talk about microorganisms using the word “microbes”, which is quite familiar and pejorative; it gives a dirty and unpleasant image of microorganisms. As we were in science class, we needed to use the word “micro-organisms” instead of the pejorative word “microbes”.
Click on one of the workshops to know more about it!
Before launching the experiment, it seemed necessary to us to do a documentation workshop. The goal was to provide elements for the representation of microorganisms: the size (working with maths concept like the scale and the enlargement factor), their visual aspects and their environment.
First, we introduced the micro-scale and zoom principle using mathematics, pictures and common objects like rulers and reams of paper.
Then, we presented some pictures of microorganisms annotated with their name and pictures of environments where microorganisms can live in (cheese, rivers, mud, yoghurt). The goal was to associate each microorganism with its corresponding environment. The pupils were very surprised to discover such a diversity and that microorganisms could be found in food or were useful to produce bread.
Finally, all pupils selected a microorganism and drew an observation drawing in the “lab report” according to the guidelines we gave them.
During the session, both empty and contaminated Petri dishes with yoghurt, fingers, leaves and river water were observed. The pupils drew an observation drawing of the boxes and also described what they saw in the box: the size, color and aspect of the microorganism present on the Petri dish.
We explained the difference between the pictures of a single microorganism and one of the visible stain (called a colony) on a Petri dishes. This notion was quite difficult for the pupils. We used the analogy of a town (the colony) seen from the space, and only one human, invisible from the space. They measured the diameter of a stain to have an approximation of how many microorganisms can be in it.
Afterwards the pupils imagined experiments to collect microorganisms. They were eager to contaminate their own dishes as planned, so we let them do that with whatever they wanted: unwashed and washed hands, nose, chocolate,... following these guidelines : not opening the Petri dish after the contamination and annotate it with the date and the name of the experimenter. The notion of negative control was also explained by using a Petri dish without microorganism.
When comparing freshly inoculated Petri dishes and others with clearly visible stains, the pupils understood that it takes time for microorganisms to grow. With the pupils, a protocol to measure the growth of the microorganism was set up. They had to take pictures or realize drawn observations in the lab book to describe the microorganisms growth.
For safety reasons, the Petri dishes were sealed with parafilm and an observation post was installed with the pupils. Two weeks later, the teacher gave us back the Petri dishes in order to eliminate the microorganisms properly with our autoclave.
Due to the french legislation about external intervention in classroom, we were not allowed to come back in the class once more. Both the analysis and the validation were performed in autonomy at school with the support of the teacher.
Two weeks after the intervention, the pupils send to us a report of their experiments. The results were satisfying as every plate contained microorganisms colonies except the negative control.
The consolidation was done by the teacher during the two weeks growing time. We were also involved during this time: because the pupils send us some new questions: for example, they wanted to know how we destroy Petri dishes, and why there was different colours on their dishes. We transmitted our answers to the teacher.
After the consolidation, the pupils did the same work as during the first session: they drew their representation of microorganisms and wrote a feedback (“what I have remembered”) about the pedagogical project.
The analysis of the pupils work 2 weeks after our intervention revealed a clear evolution of the representation and knowledge of the pupils. Those progress can be sorted as 3 levels.
The representation drawing present empty elliptic forms as the E. coli colony observed during the session. The pupils use very often the term microorganism instead of microbe. Here are some characteristics they remembered:
This level attests a first evolution from the zoomorphic conception of microorganism. Indeed, we can not see any mouth, teeth, eye or insects in the pupils representations. Nevertheless, the attributes “good” and “nasty” show that this evolution has to be consolidated.
Besides smooth elliptical shapes the drawings contained flagellum. The characteristics of the level 1 are present but the distinction between pathogen and non pathogen is clearly explicit. (pathogen : dangerous for the body) The pupils precised that microorganisms grow on Petri dish to be observed. The zoomorphic completely disappears at this level.
The drawings include elements of the cytoplasm (DNA, proteins) without being explicitly named. In addition of the characteristics of level 1 and 2, the pupils evoke the antiseptic power of some products: bleach and 90% ethanol solution. Those substances do not contain microorganism as they are able to kill them. The microbes as definite as “member of the microorganisms family”. The restored elements show that those pupils have junior high school level of knowledge about microorganisms.
A strong evolution in the representation of all pupils has been observed. Thus our action has had a positive impact on all pupils regardless of their prior knowledge about the subject. We have manifestly contributed to the construction of a non zoomorphic representation of microorganisms and to the discovery of a new world that was widely unknown. Their curiosity and their enthusiasm truly impressed us! As iGEMers, with those interventions, we understood how the concepts we used daily in our lab were seen by children. We learnt that during a scientific project or career, we have to stay close to children and education. Indeed, with their representations and their questionnements, we were able to stand back from our “researcher” point of vue and consider our scientific field differently.
The everyday work of scientists in their lab can be hard to picture for high schoolers because it can be quite different from what they normally do in class. Biotechnologies, synthetic biology and lab safety aren’t usually pointed out in a general science class of a French high schooler. Moreover, we wanted to show developing experimental strategies is an important part of the work of researchers, technicians and engineers, and is the foundation of every scientific reasoning. That’s why we intervened in a high school to do a practical exercise with them, in addition to introducing our project as an example of a synthetic biology application. As university and engineering school students, we also thought we could share our academic background with them and maybe inspire them to pursue a scientific career.
While doing several interventions in schools is in our opinion clearly a nice way for pupils to ‘learn by doing’, we thought is was also a good idea to bring scientific knowledge outside of the classroom. That’s why we came up with the idea of creating a strategy card game about biology. With this game, we are hoping to draw attention to the hidden world of microorganisms and make it visible elsewhere than on the bench of a scientist or inside a biology student’s notebook. Instead of making biology facts an opportunity to create a game, we really wanted to integrate ours in an educational approach and took the game as a nice way to talk about our field of study. Many games already exist on the subject (Strain, Gusty, Bacteria Combat, Healing Blade, …) but they are mainly about antibiotics resistance whereas we wanted to bring something new by presenting some biotechnology notions of DNA and plasmids.
The card game was indeed designed to get people to understand microbiology and synthetic biology by a playful approach. It is meant to be accessible to a large audience. We created this card game in collaboration with game design students to get an attractive product we can share with as many people as possible. They also gave us a unique point of view by being both insiders of the game conception and having no advanced education in science. We thus tested it gradually with the help of scientists and general public to improve the gameplay so that it can be both fun and scientifically accurate.
We are aware that our game can raise interrogations about the genetic engineering of living organisms, as the player acts as a bacteria colony attacking others and can grow in strength by integrating plasmids. The main goal of our card game is to provide basic knowledge and vocabulary about biology to a young or a general audience so that they can later form an opinion for themselves. We therefore hope that this way we would succeed in engaging a discussion about science in society, and unleash the player’s curiosity about microbiology.
The European Researcher’s Night is a major scientific event that gather researchers and general public in a convivial atmosphere. This is the opportunity for laboratories to communicate their work in a creative, and to share scientific and ethical values with the public. We especially want to thank the LISBP, our host laboratory for iGEM experiment, that helping us for the workshop design and animation during the event.
In 2017, the topic of the event was “Impossible”. In order to follow this thematic, we chose to focus our workshop on the incredible features of biodiversity, how to use it in synthetic biology, and what are legal limits on GMO use in France. To do this, we have designed a circuit of workshops to raise curiosity first, then, make people question themselves on synthetic biology capabilities and limits, thus make them practice scientific experiments, and in the end open a debate to go further.
During our several meetings with the french public and our experience as biologist, we’ve observed that in France, most of people are afraid of GMOs, and ignore why it have been created in the origin, what can be done in the field of medicine, environment or even nutrition, and more important, we’ve noted that people use to think scientists can do anything they want in their labs with GMOs manipulation. Indeed, french press is not kind with biotechnologies. For example, we’ve encounter a journalist from “France Inter”, a famous radio in France, to make a story about our iGEM project, and he asked us not to say “GMO” during the interview because he doesn’t want to create a polemic… It was really frustrating for us, just like our project was censored. We believe that we need to establish a dialogue between scientists and the range public.
Click on one of the workshops to know more about it!
As we want to talk about synthetic biology with the french public, we had to face this challenge: how to make people questioning themselves on synthetic biology and legislation?
Our investigation got us involved in creating a quiz game about biotechnologies, in the form of a card game. To be close of the European Researchers Night theme, “Impossible”, we’ve called this game “Possible or Impossible”, and the goal of the quiz is to guess if the affirmation on the top of the card is rather “Possible” or rather “Impossible” with an instinctive answer. We’ve classed our 35 cards into 3 topics : biodiversity in green, application in yellow, and legislation in blue. For example:
We realised that students of the scientific campus are not aware of iGEM-Toulouse projects, and in general of synthetic biology issues. So we organised exhibitions at INSA-Toulouse and Université Paul Sabatier library to highlight former iGEM-Toulouse project and potential of synthetic biology. In order to make iGEM project understandable for all scientist student (and not only for biologists), we redesigned posters of previous project E. calculus, SubtiTree, ApiColi, Paleotilis, and of our project Croc’n Cholera.
After working during several months on synthetic biology for our iGEM project, we needed to organize an event to present our work and the one achieved by the previous iGEM teams. We also wanted to have an exchange of opinions with people who possibly have different values and considerations than us. The intended public was mainly composed of the Paul Sabatier university and INSA Toulouse students, two of the schools we are intending.
The 20 minutes is a daily free generalist newspaper aimed at commuters who want quick and concise information, reaching a wide audience. We appeared in the regional section of the online version of it. Thus we were pleased to reach the local inhabitants to mobilize them and make them know about science initiatives in their living area.
Coté Toulouse is a weekly free paper aiming to deliver all the local information. Once again we were pleased to reach at the local inhabitants of Toulouse to show them what the students of their city are doing and to mobilize them around the project.
La dépêche du midi is a regional daily newspaper sold in approximately 150,000 copies everyday. Thus it reaches a wide public living in a large area. This publication was an opportunity to make this audience discover our project and to tickle their curiosity to learn more.
After being interviewed by local and regional newspaper we were thrilled that Le Journal du Dimanche published an article about our project. Indeed it is a weekly national newspaper reaching around 200,000 people. This article obviously gave our team a national exposure, along with synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. We hope that this article tickled the curiosity of many french people.
Aujourd’hui en France is a national weekly newspaper gathering almost 140,000 readers every day. It emphasis the interesting regional initiatives in France, giving them more exposure. We were thus delighted to be part of these noteworthy projects.
Our project was also presented in the online version of France info which is a french radio. Some members of the team were interviewed by the journalist and it was a good practice to present our project in a popularized way with our words.
iGEM UPS-INSA Toulouse 2017
Public Engagement & Education
Discover
Practice
Discuss
School Education
Card Game
European Researcher's Night
Seminar
High School Lab
Exposciences
Exhibitions on campus
Press
Exposciences
School Education
Rising curiosity
Emergence of questionnements
A first representation of micro-organisms
Visual representations
Conclusions about representations
Learning by doing
Workshop 1: Microorganisms and their environment
Questions to answer:
Skills:
A black box containing bioluminescent Vibrio harveyi: show an impressive capacity of living organisms
Questions to answer:
Skills:
Experimental results through weeks
A new representation of microbial diversity
How did the knowledge of the students evolve after the pedagogical sequence?
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Conclusion
High school lab
Card game
Researcher's night
How to make people questioning themselves on synthetic biology and legislation?
A circuit to make people learn and question themselves
Introduction on microbial diversity with our card game MicrobioWorld
A black box containing bioluminescent Vibrio harveyi: show an impressive capacity of living organisms
Observation of a every day life using microorganism: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Question yourself on GMO capabilities and legal limits with our quizz “Possible or Impossible”
Make people understand what is DNA with practical approach
Give an example of a gene function with an enzymatic dosage of β-galactosidase
Campus exhibitions
Conference
Press & Media
