Team:Virginia/Engagement
Public Engagement
Our public engagement on UVA grounds, in an elementary school, and within the iGEM community at large paralleled the innovative nature of synthetic biology by focusing on creativity.
Art Competition
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Wastewater Sticker Project
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By bringing together engineering principles within a biological context, synthetic biology enables creative innovation. In our efforts to teach students about synthetic biology, we wanted to parallel this integrative foundation.
To do so, we partnered with Ms. Pagni, an art teacher for 5th and 6th graders at Walker Upper Elementary School, and created an art competition for her students. The goal was to bring science and art together. We felt that this was the best way to generate excitement about synthetic biology as a science for her students and to stimulate creative thinking. Recent data has illustrated that creativity, from a neurological perspective, is quite similar in highly talented scientists and artists.1 Instead of arising from “two cultures,” as one might suppose, creative thought in art and in science stimulate similar associated cortices and both shown increased activation of socioaffective processing.1 We were hopeful that this connection in creativity would manifest through the direct integration of art and science.
To do so, we partnered with Ms. Pagni, an art teacher for 5th and 6th graders at Walker Upper Elementary School, and created an art competition for her students. The goal was to bring science and art together. We felt that this was the best way to generate excitement about synthetic biology as a science for her students and to stimulate creative thinking. Recent data has illustrated that creativity, from a neurological perspective, is quite similar in highly talented scientists and artists.1 Instead of arising from “two cultures,” as one might suppose, creative thought in art and in science stimulate similar associated cortices and both shown increased activation of socioaffective processing.1 We were hopeful that this connection in creativity would manifest through the direct integration of art and science.
While at Walker, we described our project, gave a brief lesson in DNA composition, and then led an edible DNA demonstration for forty of Ms. Pagni’s students. Afterwards, we went on to describe the art competition. The overarching goal was to use art to describe and reflect the ideas of synthetic biology.
We received over forty submissions, of which only five of the students had heard of synthetic biology before our visit, but 38 of them were interested in further exploring synthetic biology. What we were most impressed by, aside from the sheer number of artistically talented students, were the creative ways in which students approached the task. Some focused on mutations, while many used watercolors to depict cells. Using the DNA double helix as a guide, some students focused on the genes themselves. Ultimately, the artwork, some of which is pictured here, reflected an understanding and a unique way of approaching science.
