Team:Toronto/Engagement
Engagement
Our community outreach consisted of three major projects over the course of the summer.
Podcast
We created a podcast series for those unfamiliar with synthetic biology in hopes of helping the public engage with the field in a meaningful way. In order to accomplish this we focused each episode on a different field and how it intersects with synthetic biology. The fields we chose were business, the arts, bioengineering and ethics. In doing this we hoped to create an easy accessible platform for any member of the public to understand and enjoy.
Icon-a-thon
Earlier in the year we recognized a lack of icons for synthetic biology . In hopes of increasing the icon repository we decided to hold an event for scientists and artists to collaborate. We invited those who identified as either or both to come together and work on creating clear and aesthetically appealing icons. The Icon-a-thon resulted in numerous exciting new designs and three icons were later chosen as the winners.
The Genetic Code Workshop
Our high school workshop aimed to help future scientists and programmers gain more experience in bioinformatics and synthetic biology. The first half of the day was a bioinformatics workshop where the students learned the basics of coding. During the second half of the day we incorporated aspects of our project to help the students gain some understanding of synthetic biology. This involved a genetic circuit logic game where they could learn some of the basics of the science. We also had two case study rotations where students had the opportunity to discuss important issues in gene drives and human gene editing.
