Team:Concordia/HP/Silver
Human Practices: Abstract
As members of the iGEM Concordia 2016 team, one of our main priorities is to interact with the public. Our goal is to inspire the public about science and synthetic biology. By working with the public in a science-oriented environment, we thought this would be a great way to introduced them to our project. Our first outreach to the public resulted in our project being featured on the popular science blog ‘FrogHeart'. Their post about our project can be found here.
Following this, our team wanted to find a way to reach a large audience. One of the ways we achieved this was through an interview with a student-led radio station called CJLO. This interview allowed us to discuss our project and try to encourage students to join the iGEM team in the future. We also made a point to discuss nanoparticle safety because this is an important aspect of our project. The exposure that we had from this interview later led to another interview with a local newspaper called The Link which is a Concordia - based student run newspaper. The article emphasizes our human practices and was a good way to update our community on what we have accomplished. The article can be found here
Informing the public about our project is important but we also want to educate young people about science. We felt that a good way to get young people interested was by having hands on activities that they could do. Our team spent a day with the Concordia Athletics Sports Camp and showed them how to do three simple experiments. More details about our time with the kids camp can be found below in the “Concordia Athletics Sports Camp” section.
We later had the opportunity to go to a high school and present our project to two different biology classes. We went to Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School to educate the students about our project and some of the theoretical aspects of it. What was great about this 'visit' was that the students were quite vocal and gave a lot of constructive feedback. They gave us ideas about how to gear our micro-gladiators with the best equipment and even discussed offensive strategies that could be applied by the cells. Based on this feedback alone, we are confident that our project would interest a number of young people.
Another great way to reach a large audience was through the creation of a webseries. This webseries includes videos about each phase of our project, as well as videos where we interview members of our community and get their input about our project. Our webseries can be found at this link.
Our Visit to Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School
In order to reach out to a group of young students and to gain a fresh new perspective on our project, several of our team members visited two Biology classes at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School and presented about iGEM, science as a field of study, and about our project. A major goal of our presentations was to educate the students about nanoparticles in general, and also about the science behind our synthesis, attachment, and microfluidics protocols within our experimental process.
During our presentation, we introduced the iGEM Foundation, what participating in iGEM is all about, and finally we discussed the final Jamboree using a video depicting last year’s iGEM competition. The presentations were also an opportunity to motivate the students to become involved in upcoming competitions, especially considering iGEM is open to high school students.
In order to render the presentation more appealing and to captivate a younger audience, we made use of animations to explain some basic experimental procedures in a fun and interactive fashion. Throughout the presentation, we communicated with the class by asking them questions on various topics as well as asked for their opinions on different areas of our project. This provided us with their perspectives and feedback which we could use and integrate into our Combat Cells project. The students were encouraged to participate in discussions during the presentation and to ask their own questions as well. We were pleased to hear that several of the high school students were aiming to pursue a future career in a scientific field. This left us with a sense that we accomplished our goal of bringing the students an interest in iGEM and the sciences.
Concordia Athletic Sports Camp
The iGEM Concordia team wanted to get young kids excited about science while teaching them a bit about our project. On July 27th, we spent an afternoon with three groups of children from the Concordia Athletic Sports Camp. The ages of these children ranged from 6 - 8 years old. We started off by introducing ourselves and giving them a brief description of our project at a level that they could understand. We then proceeded to perform three experiments with the kids: while explaining the science behind what was happening. Some of these experiments were very hands-on for the kids and they seemed to enjoy these the most. For example, one of the experiments involved the kids making “goop” out of corn starch, water and food coloring. The kids could see how fun science could be while also learning about solids and liquids. We were happy to hear many of the children mention that they were interested in becoming scientists. Below you can find our introduction to the students as well as the protocols for the experiments we did.
Elephant Toothpaste:
Start with 10 mL of 30% H2O2 in 3 erlenmeyer flasks.
Add detergent and food coloring to each flask.
To begin the reaction, pour 25-30 mL yeast in each flask
The yeast catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The oxygen being released from the reaction creates bubbles in the detergent and causes the foam to expand.
Oobleck:
Mix 2 cups starch with 1 cup water.
Give each kid a container.
When we press hard the starch comes together and traps the water inside, which makes it hard
Magic Pepper:
Start with bowl of water with pepper.
Tell kids to poke surface of water.
Then do same with soapy finger.
Our Webseries
As previously emphasized, a major priority for our team is to inform the public about our project and how we plan on executing it. We figured that a fun and interactive way that we could get people interested in our project would be to create videos that summarize our work. Not only are these videos a way to show people how we conduct our experiments to reach our goals, but it gives the viewers a laboratory-like experience where they can really follow each crucial step in our experimental process. Our team has created a webseries that can be watched using the following link.
Our webseries videos cover everything ranging from our experimental protocols to our human practices activities. Many of the videos also include animations that illustrate the essential biochemical and technological processes involved in our project. These videos aim to make the more technical scientific aspects of our project easier to understand, even for audiences that may not have a scientific background As opposed to preparing a lengthy and wordy written description, people have the option of watching Episode 1 of our webseries to provide them with a general overview of our project in order to get an idea of our major objectives. With a simpler more visual option to explicate our project, we hope to reach more people and provide them with an entertaining way of exploring new science.
A major drive for creating an interactive webseries was to address current issues regarding nanoparticle safety. In addition to having designed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and a written essay about the effects of nanoparticles on the environment, we aimed to use the webseries as a way to describe safer lab practice when using nanoparticles. More precisely, we made a lab safety video stressing the importance and steps toward safe handling and disposal of nanoparticles. This lab safety video is Episode 3 of our webseries and includes information on use of proper lab equipment. It also serves to shed light on the potentially detrimental effects of nanoparticles on human health. The creation of this episode was one way in which we addressed the concerns about nanoparticle safety raised by several university students that we had interviewed beforehand. These student interviews were also made available for viewing in Episode 2 of our webseries. While these interviews led us to draw attention to lab safety concerns, they were also a great source of ideas for our project design. For instance, students interviewed made suggestions in terms of which kind of nanoparticle “weapon” they would want to see if they were designing cells for ‘battle’. Inasmuch, since our project aims to be a source of education but also entertainment for its audience - the public, we placed considerable effort into the integration of the community’s ideas in our project design.
iGEM Concordia's Interview with The Link
As members of the iGEM Concordia 2016 team, we made it our priority to spread the word about the iGEM Foundation and final competition, in hopes to inspire more students to participate in the future. A great way in which we were able to reach out to the public was through The Link, -a Concordia University-based student-run newspaper. Our team was fortunate enough to be featured in an article in the newspaper’s first issue of the year. Four members of our team: Julia Phillipp, Alaa Selim, Farhat Zafar and Nathalie Jreidini sat down with interviewer Kelsey Litwin from The Link to discuss iGEM and our project.
Among the things discussed during the interview, emphasis was placed on our work done for the human practices aspect of our project. We used this interview as an opportunity to discuss a bit about the possible dangers associated with working with nanoparticles in a laboratory setting and how our team is addressing these issues. This allowed us to introduce the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) we created which answered the need for better nanoparticle safety in laboratory practice. This SOP encompasses all of the information needed for the safe handling and disposal of materials in our experimental process that involve nanoparticle synthesis and attachment to cells. In addition to discussing the competition and our project, we brought up the importance of encouraging women to pursue careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Inasmuch, it is worth noting that our team has more female members than male, which could be considered somewhat surprising for what is often observed in terms of participant gender distribution for a scientific genetic engineering competition.
Overall, the success of this interview in reaching out to the community became evident when several Concordia students mentioned having read about us and learning about our iGEM project after viewing The Link newspaper or seeing our article with The Link online. We hope that this article and our public exposure has enticed people to join next year’s iGEM competition.
iGEM Concordia's Interview with CJLO
As part of our Human Outreach, this year’s iGEM Concordia team aims to educate the public on nanoparticles, as well as inform them about our project and goals.
On June 13th, Concordia’s iGEM 2016 team members Farhat and Edgar were interviewed by CJLO radio’s Patricia Petit Liang. They talked about the iGEM competition including the requirements for winning and our reason for participating. At the time, the team hadn’t started much lab work yet so they mainly discussed dry lab work tasks such as contacting sponsors, reaching out to the public through social media, creating animations as part of a web-series, and writing a safety protocol for nanoparticle handling and disposal.
The main focus during the interview was the introduction of nanoparticles; what they are, where they come from, what they’re made of, and what shapes and sizes they are found in.
To showcase the uniqueness of the project, both members explained how plants are used for nanoparticle synthesis as an eco-friendly alternative to chemical synthesis procedures, and that the resulting nanoparticles are found in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the plant extract used.
Farhat and Edgar explained how the lab work is split into 3 phases: Synthesis of nanoparticles, Attachment of nanoparticles to cell membranes , and Microfluidics where two cells will be isolated and made to collide with each other to partake in the Battle. They also mentioned the various lab training sessions we had to take with EHS (Environmental Health & Safety) Concordia prior to starting lab work.
In order to stress the importance of nanoparticle safety measures, our team representatives mentioned that nanoparticles themselves are more harmful than their macroscopic equivalents due to the fact that they can be easily inhaled during synthesis procedures. This lead to the discussion that nanoparticles must be synthesized in the biosafety cabinet and should either be stored there or in the fridge.
Also, due to the lack of research on their long-term effects and the specific laws for disposal and handling of nanoparticles (despite some recommendations put forth by the government), they mentioned a safety protocol intended for members of this year’s team as well as potential future iGEM members following up on our project. (this SOP can be found here)
The interviewer asked about the observation of nanoparticles after the synthesis step, and they explained that this will be done under a transmission electron microscope. (TEM images here)
Farhat and Edgar said that they expect to gain valuable lab experience from this project during the following months, and took this opportunity to encourage undergraduate students to apply for next year’s iGEM Concordia team.
They concluded the interview by acknowledging the help we have gotten from our mentors; graduate students who guide us throughout our project, and by asking listeners to follow us on social media and stay updated!
Interview with CJLO
iGEM Concordia Featured on FrogHeart
As one of our team’s goals is to reach out to the public about science as well as to advertise our project, we came into contact with some of the web-owners of ‘FrogHeart.ca,’ a well-frequented science web blog which features commentary on topics such as nanotech and science policies. We were lucky enough to reach them in the early stages of our project, and received publicity during the preliminary stages of our experimental process. This truly provided us with the exposure we were looking for. On FrogHeart’s blog, viewers could access a general overview of our Combat Cells project idea as well as our future goals. Moreover, the blog post also discussed the iGEM Foundation and final competition as a whole.
We also provided a way in which the public could reach our team by leaving our email address at the end of the blog entry. The aim was to address any comments, questions or suggestions,as we were pleased to receive feedback from FrogHeart’s science enthusiasts.
To read the post, please follow this link.
