Team:iTesla-SoundBio/Human Practices

Throughout the season, we've been reaching out to local students in the community to teach them about the importance of synthetic biology and its application to daily life. We've also been letting people know how to get involved in the wonderful world of synthetic biology.

Fundraising

Our team fundraised on the Fundly page and Experiment.com pages, raising over $3,700 in total. We also gave away souvenirs such as key chains as a friendly thank you to our donors of their impactful and generous contributions. During the process, we wanted to reach a wider audience, so we made a poster with a QR code to our (see figure below.

Meeting a Young Scientist

One of our group members, Joshua Argote-Medrano, used his trip to Bolivia as an opportunity to get young people interested in synthetic biology. Joshua gave several talks about our team, SoundBio Lab's role as a DIY biohacker space, and the intricacies of the iGEM competition. These talks were given at Centro Boliviano Americano (CBA), a national English-learning school in Bolivia, His presentations were both in English and Spanish, allowing to a reach a wide audience. He also spoke to secondary school children from El Colegio Secundario San Agustin in central city Cochabamba, Bolivia, about multiple STEM fields to promote team-working skills and raise awareness about a rapidly expanding field. He worked closely with Dr. Gonzalo Argote Garcia, Ph.D, to organize the event.




Community

In addition to serving international communities, iTesla-SoundBio also served its local community (Redmond, WA). At the Redmond City Library, we held an event highlighting our project and iGEM as a whole through interactive activities such as DNA extractions, pipetting practice, and learning about biohazard safety awareness .




Videos

iTesla-SoundBio has a YouTube channel and an affiliated channel called The Genetics Lab. Here, iT-SB constructed multiple videos about their project and the everyday life as a lab member