Difference between revisions of "Team:Bristol/HP/Silver"
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| − | Our outreach activities | + | Our outreach activities include attending the Big Bang Fair and Avonmouth Summerfest, where we trialled our Plasmid Hoopla Game, attending the BrisSynBio annual conference and a radio interview on BCfm. We have also created a Media Guide, to help others use social media effectively in order to engage with the public, and a Pollution Bot, which users can tweet to find out about pollution levels in their area. |
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| − | Following the success of our game as an educational tool for synthetic biology | + | Following the success of our game as an educational tool for synthetic biology, a talking point to spark discussions about our project and an easily-producible visual aid for a science fair, we decided to make the game readily available to as many people/teams as possible. It was really important for us to be able to share the game with others for as little cost to them as possible - we therefore have developed a full set of assembly and play instructions so that any school/team/company/individual with access to a laser cutter and a few basic materials can make a plasmid game of their own. |
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| + | <h2 class="featurette-heading">Avonmouth Summerfest</h2> | ||
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| + | In August we attended Summerfest in Avonmouth, where we spoke to the <a target="_blank"href="http://darren-jones.co.uk/">MP for Bristol North, Darren Jones</a> (pictured left), <a target="_blank"href="https://democracy.bristol.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=593">Councillor Jo Sergeant</a> and members of the community about our project. We got lots of useful feedback and ideas about how the pods could be incorporated into the community. Summerfest also gave us the opportunity to trial our Plasmid Hoopla Game and talk about synthetic biology to adults and children of all different ages. | ||
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| + | <img class="featurette-image img-responsive center-block" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/9/97/T--Bristol--Summerfest.jpg"> | ||
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Revision as of 16:40, 27 October 2017
Our outreach activities include attending the Big Bang Fair and Avonmouth Summerfest, where we trialled our Plasmid Hoopla Game, attending the BrisSynBio annual conference and a radio interview on BCfm. We have also created a Media Guide, to help others use social media effectively in order to engage with the public, and a Pollution Bot, which users can tweet to find out about pollution levels in their area.
Plasmid Hoopla Game
Early on in our iGEM journey this Summer, we managed to secure a stall at the Big Bang Fair to showcase our project and talk about synthetic biology with local school children. We knew we wanted to incorporate a physically-interactive element into our stand to bridge the gap between P.E and Science, and avoid overcrowding our space with technology and screens - thus the Plasmid ‘Hoopla’ Game idea was born!
With little to no budget, we used the resources available to us via our university to bring our idea to life and produced the first version of our game in the engineering workshop. Armed with the Plasmid Hoopla Game v.1 we headed to the fair where it was so well received by teachers and kids that we were invited to go to one of the schools to test our prototype further. This gave us the opportunity to get some written feedback on our game and see how it could work as a teaching tool alongside a biology lesson.
Taking the feedback on board, we made a few modifications to our game to make it complementary to the UK GCSE syllabus, such as the addition of the base pairs and ligase enzyme tools. Now, armed with v.2 of our game, we headed to the Avonmouth summerfest to put it to the test with some of the residents there.
Following the success of our game as an educational tool for synthetic biology, a talking point to spark discussions about our project and an easily-producible visual aid for a science fair, we decided to make the game readily available to as many people/teams as possible. It was really important for us to be able to share the game with others for as little cost to them as possible - we therefore have developed a full set of assembly and play instructions so that any school/team/company/individual with access to a laser cutter and a few basic materials can make a plasmid game of their own.
Big Bang Fair - Pod Designs
At the Big Bang Fair we asked children and adults to design pods to hold our bacteria. The pods needed to be secure, have a large surface area for maximum efficiency and look good! See their designs here.
Designing pods at the Big Bang Fair. The designs were then hung on trees for everyone to see (right).
BrisSynBio Conference
One of our most substantial beneficiaries, BrisSynBio, were kind enough to invite us to their annual Synthetic Biology conference held on the University of Bristol campus to hold a short talk and present a poster on our project. The conference consisted of talks and posters over a two day period with many notable speakers. This allowed us to gain valuable feedback about our project from accomplished synthetic biologists and gave us great practice for our jamboree presentation!
Radio Interview
As past of our outreach programme and attempt to communicate our project to the public we appeared on Bristol Community fm’s ‘Love and Science’. Our interview lasted an hour, in which we began by explaining our project and answering questions, after which we discussed a broad range of scientific news ranging from why leaves are different sizes to discovery of new species in the amazon jungle. The interview gave us the opportunity to discuss our project with members of the public outside of the scientific community whilst also reaching a relatively large audience, as well as propelling Jono and Nick to D-list celebrity status!
Listen to the interview here (04/09/2017 show).
Media Guide
In order to help other teams communicate their projects effectively, we created a Media Guide. It includes advice on using social media and getting the most out of interviews about your project. We consulted a number of social media experts, as well as Malcolm Love, the star of BCfm's "Love and Science" radio show. See the guide below, or download a copy here.
Pollution Bot
We created a Pollution Bot on Twitter, which users can tweet to find out about pollution levels in their area. Read more about it on our page here, or click here to tweet it.
Avonmouth Summerfest
In August we attended Summerfest in Avonmouth, where we spoke to the MP for Bristol North, Darren Jones (pictured left), Councillor Jo Sergeant and members of the community about our project. We got lots of useful feedback and ideas about how the pods could be incorporated into the community. Summerfest also gave us the opportunity to trial our Plasmid Hoopla Game and talk about synthetic biology to adults and children of all different ages.
