Human Practices/How to Succeed

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Human Practices How to Succeed

Tips for Teams

Before you pick up your first pipette you should think about Human Practices (HP). Successful iGEM projects are often inspired and improved by their HP efforts (see exemplary projects). But go beyond just promoting synthetic biology. The most impressive teams engage seriously with public policy, societal values, and perspectives beyond the synthetic biology community.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

  • Be creative! We love seeing new and innovative approaches that showcases what’s unique about your HP activities.
  • Do your research. If you're applying a method that has been used before (such as doing interviews), find out the best practices and recruit an expert to help you.
  • Communicate clearly what you have done and why. Simple, concise and organized reporting helps the judges and teams better understand and appreciate your efforts.
  • Be an example for others. Consider what you can do to help other teams reuse and adapt your work. How might your approach be used in different contexts?

Earning Medals with HP

All teams are expected to attempt some HP work. In addition, HP is a mandatory requirement for teams wishing to obtain a Silver medal and can be used to meet the Gold medal requirements. Be sure to go over the pages for evaluating criteria for medals and awards for more information. See the exemplary projects page for examples of previous teams’ successful HP work.

Silver

To qualify for a silver medal, teams must demonstrate how they have identified and investigated one or more Human Practices issue in the context of their project. Demonstrate to the judges that your have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is safe, responsible, and good for the world. You could accomplish this through engaging with your local, national and/or international communities, or through developing new creative approaches (see exemplary projects). Please note that conducting a survey will not necessarily fulfill this requirement. See “How to conduct a valid and legitimate survey”.

Please note that conducting a survey will not necessarily fulfill this requirement. See “How to conduct a valid and legitimate survey”.

Gold

To qualify for a gold medal, teams must complete two of the four requirements listed on the official medal criteria page. To qualify for gold using Human Practices work, teams must expand on their silver medal activities by demonstrating how the investigation of their HP issues has been integrated into the design and/or execution of their project. Just talking about your project with people outside your lab DOES NOT meet this requirement. Show us that your conversations with people outside the lab have influenced your project. We want to see how your iGEM project (lab design, parts selection/development, overall application, etc.) has evolved based on your Human Practices work. Think of the design/build/test/learn cycle of engineering.

Special Prizes

Teams can compete for two special prizes within HP: Best Integrated Human Practices and Best Education & Public Engagement. For more information on how to become eligible for these prizes visit the pages for evaluating criteria for medals and awards. Teams are evaluated for each prize separately using four criteria.

Best Integrated Human Practices

Best Education & Public Engagement

The Best Integrated Human Practices (HP) prize recognizes exceptional work based on the gold medal requirements for Human Practices (see above). To qualify for this award, you must demonstrate to the judges how your investigation of HP issues has been integrated into the design and/or execution of your project in a thoughtful and creative way.

The Best Education & Public Engagement (EPE) prize recognizes exceptional work based on an educational program and/or public engagement activity. For this prize, activities do not have to be directly related to your team's project (as is expected for the Integrated Human Practices prize and gold medal requirement), but may look at wider issues related to iGEM or synthetic biology. To qualify for this award, you must demonstrate to the judges that you did not just talk “at” your audience, but that you established a dialogue or conversation with them.

Criteria
  1. Was your work integrated into the project? We want to see how your project has evolved based on your Integrated Human Practices work.
  2. Does the work serve as an inspiring example to other teams?
  3. Is the work documented in a way that other teams can draw and build upon?
  4. Was the work thoughtful in its implementation? (did the team explain the context, rationale, prior work, etc.)
  1. Did the work establish a dialogue? Show the judges that a conversation was established; don’t just “talk at” your audience.
  2. Does the work serve as an inspiring example to other teams?
  3. Is the work documented in a way that other teams can build upon?
  4. Was the work thoughtful in its implementation? (did the team explain the context, rationale, prior work, etc.)

How to conduct a valid and legitimate survey

Surveys have become commonplace within iGEM HP work. Some have been good, while others have been not so good. While surveys can provide you with valuable information, they need to be designed, conducted, and analyzed properly in order for them to be legitimate and to count towards your HP evaluations. What makes a survey legitimate? Take a look at the resources below to learn how to conduct a scientific and legitimate survey: