Difference between revisions of "Team:William and Mary/Engagement"

 
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{{Team:William_and_Mary/HEADER2}}
 
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<h2 style='padding-top: 40px; font-family: "Verlag-Book"; font-size: 50px;'>
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Education and Public Engagement
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<a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Consult_the_Community"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/6/6e/T--William_and_Mary--consult.jpeg" width="17%"/></a>
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<a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Build_Connections"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/d/da/T--William_and_Mary--connections.jpeg" width="17%"/></a>
learnsynbio
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<a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Sustainable_Impact"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/a/af/T--William_and_Mary--impact.jpeg" width="17%"/></a>
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<p class='large' style="color:#A9A9A9;">
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  Our main outreach initiative is a series of Synthetic Biology learning modules which we call LearnSynBio.org.
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<div style="padding-top: 70px;"></div>
  After the success of our 2015 educational outreach, we wanted to switch gears and target our outreach efforts
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</center>
  to a demographic which has not received as much attention for educational outreach.  
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="description">
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<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
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Most outreach seemed targeted either to young children, with the hopes of  introducing them to science in general,
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or to the general population, with the hopes of sparking a discussion about the ethical concerns and societal
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 15%; padding-right: 15%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' >The most important part of our outreach this year has been the focus on creating a sustainable impact, so for our outreach projects, we devised strategies to extend our direct education and public engagement activities to make our impact on our community long-lasting and sustainable. We grouped these Human Practices projects into the following categories: <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Consult_the_Community"><u>Consult the Community</u></a>, <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Build_Connections"><u>Building Connections</u></a>, <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Sustainable_Impact"><u>Sustainable Impact</u></a>, and <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/OutreachDatabase"><u>the Outreach Database</u></a>.</div>
implications of synthetic biology. But we found comparatively little that reached out to high school students
+
 
who are on the cusp of deciding potential career paths in a way that introduced them to synthetic biology as an
+
<div style='padding-top: 50px;'></div>
actual scientific field. These students seemed like an ideal audience for our outreach efforts.
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</p>
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<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
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Since many of the core concepts within synthetic biology are fairly simple to understand with only limited background
+
 
knowledge, we set out to create educational materials targeted explicitly towards these high school students in order
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 120px; padding-bottom: 10px;font-size: 25px' ><b>Consult the Community</b></div>
to introduce them to the field of synthetic biology as a potential, and perhaps exciting, career option.
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<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
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<div style='padding-top: 30px;'></div>
LearnSynBio consists of four modules of instructional videos and supplemental materials (worksheets) which are meant
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' >We talked to experts and leaders in our community to find ways we could integrate our goal of establishing a dialogue about synthetic biology with the goals of members of our community. These activities represent a collaborative “co-design” of strategies and materials that met the needs of all involved, making projects not only more effective in the short term, but more sustainable in the long term.</div>
to introduce high school students with basic biology and math background to the ideas in Synthetic Biology. LearnSynBio
+
 
is organized into four modules: an Introduction to Basic Biology Concepts, an Introduction to Experimental Techniques
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<div style='padding-top: 25px;'></div>
used in Synthetic Biology, an Introduction to Genetic Circuit Theory and Mathematical Modeling, and a module on the
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Ethics and Implications of Synthetic Biology.
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<div style='padding-left: 12%; padding-right: 12%'>
</p>
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<ol>
<p style="text-align: center; padding-top: 30px; padding-bottom: 30px;">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/5/5e/T--William_and_Mary--LSBDemo.png" width="600px">
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</p>
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<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We consulted the School of Education on how to work with teachers, update our synthetic biology activities booklet, and plan education events for students.</div></li>
In order to develop our materials effectively, we spoke with our former high school biology teachers to ask them what
+
 
features they would like to see present in LearnSynBio in order to best facilitate its incorporation into the classroom.
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
They emphasized the relatively short, discrete nature of the videos (preferring several videos in a module to one long
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We met with the head of the science department from a nearby high school to talk to her about what kinds of resources she wanted for her students and teachers. After, she helped us organize a teacher focus group to find out how we could address our outreach goals and effectively help local teachers.</div></li>
video), and really emphasized the importance of supplemental materials like worksheets which reinforce and complement
+
 
the material presented in the videos, and we incorporated these suggestions into the design of LearnSynBio.
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
</p>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We consulted with Virginia State Senator Monty Mason about how to reach educators in our area, and he connected us with the STEM coordinator for a nearby school district that includes about 29,000 students.</div></li>
<p style="text-align: center; padding-top: 30px; padding-bottom: 30px;">
+
 
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/a/a7/T--William_and_Mary--Worksheet.png" width="600px">
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
</p>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We met with the STEM coordinator and she told us how to structure our outreach in a way that helps fulfill state-mandated learning requirements. She also gave us feedback on what resources would be helpful for schools in her district.</div></li>
<p class='large' style="text-align: center !important;">
+
 
<a href='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/f/fa/T--William_and_Mary--Worksheet.pdf'>
+
 
for a PDF of more examples of learnsynbio exercises, click here.
+
</ol>
</a>
+
</div>
</p>
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</div>
<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
+
 
Because LearnSynBio is hosted on an independent domain, it is easily accessible anywhere by anyone and can easily
+
<div style='padding-top: 60px;'></div>
be maintained and updated with feedback from teachers who use it. This allows our outreach efforts to continue even
+
 
in places and times where we cannot be physically present!
+
 
</p>
+
 
<p class='large' style="padding-left: 40px; text-indent: 50px; padding-bottom: 50px;">
+
 
Finally, we are taking measures to get LearnSynBio incorporated into actual classrooms: We have established a
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 120px; padding-bottom: 10px;font-size: 25px' ><b>Building Connections</b></div>
collaboration with the high school team Broad Run iGEM (see Collaborations page) to incorporate our modules into
+
<div style='background: #808080; margin: 2px 120px 40px 120px; height:1px;></div>
their advanced science classes and after-school science clubs. Additionally, we are working with some of our former
+
 
high school teachers to introduce LearnSynBio to VAST, the Virginia Association of Science Teachers, for incorporation
+
<div style='padding-top: 30px;'></div>
in classrooms all around the state. Lastly, it is our hope that the presentation of LearnSynBio at the Jamboree
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' > Based on our consultation with our community, we implemented various outreach activities to work directly with students. Additionally, we had activities for people from our college and the scientific community to help raise awareness of synthetic biology and start dialogues.</div>
will encourage the spread of LearnSynBio to schools all around the world!
+
 
</p>
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<div style='padding-top: 25px;'></div>
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<p class='h2WM' style='padding-left:70px;'>
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BwB
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</p>
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<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;"><b>Working with students:</b> we hosted students from a local STEM summer camp in our lab, presented about synthetic biology at a career fair for middle school students, and taught about 75 Girl Scouts about synthetic biology. </div></li>
</div>
+
 
</div>
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
<div class="col-md-7 col-md-offset-1" style='padding-top: 0px;'>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;"><b>Working with our university community:</b> We organized a Bioengineering Speaker Series to connect students and professors interested in synthetic biology research. We helped students in the Biology Club get started on synthetic biology research projects. We hosted legislators and others responsible for funding synthetic biology research in Virginia public universities in our lab. Going forward, we are creating a student organization for students who want to be part of our outreach efforts with the local school system.</div></li>
<div class="description add-animation-stopped animation-1">
+
 
<p class='large' style="color:#A9A9A9;">
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
In addition to LearnSynBio, we also completed several public outreach events. We were awarded a grant from Building
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;"><b>Working with the scientific community:</b> We presented our research and the field of synthetic biology at a local community lab. We also presented our research at a conference for women in the bioscience field.</div></li>
with Biology to host public outreach events over the course of the iGEM 2016 season.
+
 
</p>
+
 
</div>
+
 
</div>
+
 
+
</ol>
<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
+
</div></div>
We held a science workshop
+
 
targeted at at local children and their parents which allowed them to get some hands-on experience with the exciting
+
<div style='padding-top: 60px;'></div>
world of modern biology. We had more than 70 people in attendance and together we extracted DNA from strawberries,
+
 
learned about synthetic biology and the benefit of standard biological parts, and discussed our questions and concerns
+
 
with GMO food.  
+
 
</p>
+
 
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 120px; padding-bottom: 10px;font-size: 25px' ><b>Sustainable Impact</b></div>
<div class="container" style='padding-top: 30px; padding-bottom: 50px;'>
+
<div style='background: #808080; margin: 2px 120px 40px 120px; height:1px;></div>
  <div class="row">
+
 
  <div class="col-md-10 col-md-offset-1">
+
<div style='padding-top: 30px;'></div>
  <div class="row">
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' >The most important part of our outreach this year has been a focus on creating a sustainable impact. Part of ensuring our projects were sustainable was making sure that teachers and stakeholders influenced the paths of our projects. By working to meet their needs, we helped establish a long-term connection that will continue past the length of the 2017 project. Our outreach efforts will continue in the following way:</div>
  <div class="col-md-4">
+
 
  <div class="card add-animation-stopped animation-1">
+
<div style='padding-top: 25px;'></div>
  <img alt="..." src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/e/e5/T--William_and_Mary--Outreach1.jpeg" />
+
<div style='padding-left: 12%; padding-right: 12%'>
  </div>
+
<ol>
  </div>
+
 
  <div class="col-md-4">
+
 
  <div class="card add-animation-stopped animation-2">
+
 
  <img alt="..." src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/f/f3/T--William_and_Mary--Outreach2.jpg"/>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We updated and distributed our synthetic biology activities booklets to teachers, and have posted it publicly on our wiki. </div></li>
  </div>
+
 
  </div>
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
  <div class="col-md-4">
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We have helped our teacher community partners get their students involved in a long-term synthetic biology research project organized by the Biology Club at William & Mary.</div></li>
  <div class="card add-animation-stopped animation-3">
+
 
  <img alt="..." src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/6/66/T--William_and_Mary--Outreach4.jpg"/>
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
  </div>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We created a searchable and user-friendly outreach database with past iGEM outreach projects that can be used to find a vast array of educational activities.</div></li>
  </div>
+
 
  </div>
+
<div style='padding-top: 20px;'></div>
  </div>
+
<li><div style="text-indent: 5px;line-height: 26px;">We are in the process of establishing a recognized student organization that will help build long-lasting infrastructure at our school for synthetic biology and STEM outreach.</div></li>
  </div>
+
 
</div>
+
 
<p class='large' style="padding-left:40px; text-indent: 50px;">
+
</ol>
We also held a forum on the topic of Genome Editing targeted at the general public. At the forum, we briefly discussed
+
</div></div>
the implications of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool and explored various ways that it could be applied to real
+
 
world problems. Among the topics discussed were: stabilizing the Honeybee population by increasing expression of  
+
<div style='padding-top: 40px;'></div>
‘hygiene’ genes, engineering yeast for efficient biofuel production, and using CRISPR to decrease human susceptibility
+
 
to HIV infection. We had over 30 participants for the forum and we received great feedback from our attendees!
+
 
</p>
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 120px; padding-bottom: 10px;font-size: 25px' ><b>Outreach Database</b></div>
<p style="text-align: center; padding-top: 30px;">
+
<div style='background: #808080; margin: 2px 120px 40px 120px; height:1px;></div>
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/parts/c/c3/T--William_and_Mary--Forum.jpg" width="600px">
+
 
</p>
+
<div style='padding-top: 30px;'></div>
</div>
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' >We aim to expand the infrastructure of sharing and building on past projects in the human practices aspect of iGEM. iGEM has already established such an infrastructure for the scientific research portion of teams’ work to ensure that scientific research is rigorously characterized, accessible, and centralized on the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. We want to help bring some of these same concepts to the Human Practices aspect of iGEM - that is, a strong culture of documentation of activities and their outcomes, and a standard way of characterizing them to facilitate sharing of what has worked and what has presented challenges. We have created a comprehensive database that includes outreach projects done by gold-medal teams in the past two years. The approximately 1,500 entries are in a standardized format that makes it easy to assess and compare projects. Additionally, each entry contains descriptive tags, enabling users to search for specific project categories. We would like to help establish this database as a central part of iGEM. By seeing what has worked well, teams do not need to “re-invent the wheel” and can instead focus on adding improvements. On the other hand, if something did not work well, another team can avoid repeating the mistakes. We feel this will help that iGEM is a continuous force for innovation and progress in outreach. </div>
</div>
+
 
</div>
+
<div style='padding-top: 15px;'></div>
</div>
+
 
<!--
+
<div style = 'padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%;font-size: px; text-indent: 25px;line-height: 26px;' > <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:William_and_Mary/Database" style="text-decoration: underline">Click here to access our Outreach Database!</a></div>
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Latest revision as of 03:18, 15 December 2017


The most important part of our outreach this year has been the focus on creating a sustainable impact, so for our outreach projects, we devised strategies to extend our direct education and public engagement activities to make our impact on our community long-lasting and sustainable. We grouped these Human Practices projects into the following categories: Consult the Community, Building Connections, Sustainable Impact, and the Outreach Database.
Consult the Community
We talked to experts and leaders in our community to find ways we could integrate our goal of establishing a dialogue about synthetic biology with the goals of members of our community. These activities represent a collaborative “co-design” of strategies and materials that met the needs of all involved, making projects not only more effective in the short term, but more sustainable in the long term.
  1. We consulted the School of Education on how to work with teachers, update our synthetic biology activities booklet, and plan education events for students.
  2. We met with the head of the science department from a nearby high school to talk to her about what kinds of resources she wanted for her students and teachers. After, she helped us organize a teacher focus group to find out how we could address our outreach goals and effectively help local teachers.
  3. We consulted with Virginia State Senator Monty Mason about how to reach educators in our area, and he connected us with the STEM coordinator for a nearby school district that includes about 29,000 students.
  4. We met with the STEM coordinator and she told us how to structure our outreach in a way that helps fulfill state-mandated learning requirements. She also gave us feedback on what resources would be helpful for schools in her district.
Building Connections
Based on our consultation with our community, we implemented various outreach activities to work directly with students. Additionally, we had activities for people from our college and the scientific community to help raise awareness of synthetic biology and start dialogues.
  1. Working with students: we hosted students from a local STEM summer camp in our lab, presented about synthetic biology at a career fair for middle school students, and taught about 75 Girl Scouts about synthetic biology.
  2. Working with our university community: We organized a Bioengineering Speaker Series to connect students and professors interested in synthetic biology research. We helped students in the Biology Club get started on synthetic biology research projects. We hosted legislators and others responsible for funding synthetic biology research in Virginia public universities in our lab. Going forward, we are creating a student organization for students who want to be part of our outreach efforts with the local school system.
  3. Working with the scientific community: We presented our research and the field of synthetic biology at a local community lab. We also presented our research at a conference for women in the bioscience field.
Sustainable Impact
The most important part of our outreach this year has been a focus on creating a sustainable impact. Part of ensuring our projects were sustainable was making sure that teachers and stakeholders influenced the paths of our projects. By working to meet their needs, we helped establish a long-term connection that will continue past the length of the 2017 project. Our outreach efforts will continue in the following way:
  1. We updated and distributed our synthetic biology activities booklets to teachers, and have posted it publicly on our wiki.
  2. We have helped our teacher community partners get their students involved in a long-term synthetic biology research project organized by the Biology Club at William & Mary.
  3. We created a searchable and user-friendly outreach database with past iGEM outreach projects that can be used to find a vast array of educational activities.
  4. We are in the process of establishing a recognized student organization that will help build long-lasting infrastructure at our school for synthetic biology and STEM outreach.
Outreach Database
We aim to expand the infrastructure of sharing and building on past projects in the human practices aspect of iGEM. iGEM has already established such an infrastructure for the scientific research portion of teams’ work to ensure that scientific research is rigorously characterized, accessible, and centralized on the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. We want to help bring some of these same concepts to the Human Practices aspect of iGEM - that is, a strong culture of documentation of activities and their outcomes, and a standard way of characterizing them to facilitate sharing of what has worked and what has presented challenges. We have created a comprehensive database that includes outreach projects done by gold-medal teams in the past two years. The approximately 1,500 entries are in a standardized format that makes it easy to assess and compare projects. Additionally, each entry contains descriptive tags, enabling users to search for specific project categories. We would like to help establish this database as a central part of iGEM. By seeing what has worked well, teams do not need to “re-invent the wheel” and can instead focus on adding improvements. On the other hand, if something did not work well, another team can avoid repeating the mistakes. We feel this will help that iGEM is a continuous force for innovation and progress in outreach.
Click here to access our Outreach Database!