Over the last few years, we have seen teams produce some truly outstanding work in the areas of education and public engagement. Innovative educational tools and public engagement activities have the ability to discuss the science behind synthetic biology, spark new scientific curiosity and establish a public dialogue about synthetic biology from voices/views outside the lab. To highlight this work and draw a distinction from other areas of human practices, we are introducing a new award in 2015 to the team that produces the most innovative work in this area. We have made public engagement and education a cornerstone of our 2016 iGEM work. Through a variety of educational initiatives and public events, we have taught close to a 1000 students, talked to hundreds of adults, and are working in schools to promote learning and inquiry into synthetic biology and science research.A successful 2016 Building with Biology host, through kits of hands-on activities and a public forum guide, we have introduced basic synthetic biology to students and adults alike, and started engaging conversations on its benefits, risk, and safety. We hosted two public events, at the Ashburn library and the 2016 Loudoun STEM day, reaching out to over 300 students. Two highly effective focused debates on engineering mosquitoes was held in our school. At a middle school, we have teachers integrating this content into their science classrooms.Other public outreach has included local events like the 2015 Loudoun STEM Day and an elementary school STEM night, reaching over 550 students with fun, basic molecular biology activities, giving opportunities for sparking curiosity and interest in synthetic biology. Outside our local community, in Maryland and DC, we seized opportunities for deeper conversations on the potential of synthetic biology research: at focused public events like being panelists at a Synthetic biology discussion, talking to other makers at the Capitol Maker Faire, and discussing iGEM at an American Society for Microbiology.More importantly, we will continue our educational initiatives at the middle school through a research mentoring program that we have already begun, and by working with the teachers to accomplish Building with Biology’s and our own objectives for a public better informed about synthetic biology. These and the public forum style debates on gene drives and synthetic biology we began will continue at another local high school, thus making sustainable our initiatives to engage and educate the public. For more information, please visit these our Human Practices page; specifically, the Public Outreach, Building with Biology, and Sustainability pages.
