Team:ITB Indonesia/Engagement
Public Engagement
Summary
What we do with synthetic biology is a precious experience for us. The opportunity of simultaneously learning and engineered a bacteria within synthetic biology field has been an irreplaceable moment. In Indonesia, the development of this science field is arguably minimum. As one of the enthusiasts, we firmly believe that the spirit and knowledge should be transmitted to various layers of Indonesian society. Therefore, we made educational programs for the Indonesian community to accelerate the synthetic biology awareness. The programs reached the community at a various spectrum. We engaged on the people by both online and direct interactions.
CroTion - Crowd Education
This was our first step on our human practices educational programs. On 20th November 2016, we did a campaign at Car Free Day Dago, Bandung, West Java to validate our assumptions regarding the people awareness on synthetic biology field as well as informing our iGEM project. We asked the civilians simple questions about synthetic biology such as: What is synthetic biology and what is the first thing comes from their mind when hearing a word "Synthetic Biology". The result showed that only 2 out of 10 people were aware of synthetic biology by giving a relevant answer. The rest of it either gave an irrelevant answer or have no idea about it. After a short interview, we briefly explained synthetic biology basic and our project idea. We also taught the people about a vast application of synthetic biology. The civilian gave a positive response and was willing to support us by taking their picture with our team logo.
SynOEdu - Synbio Online Education
Extending our educational programs requires a social media utilization. According to Global Web Index Survey, Indonesia is the most active Asian country, in term of social media usage. The most used social media in Indonesia is Facebook and LINE application. We used this opportunity to educate Indonesian about synthetic biology. We create an infographic material which contains about iGEM projects and also our public engagement activity. We utilized LINE and Facebook application to spread the materials.
Campus Visit
National Seminar on Synthetic Biology
Conclusion
