Team:HokkaidoU Japan/HP/Silver
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Team:HokkaidoU Japan
We held a workshop at Hokkaido University Festival from June 2 to June 5, 2016. This event aims to answer questions such as "What is DNA?", "What is Gene Recommbination?" and so on and deepen understanding of DNA and gene recommbination. We conducted a poster session, an easy experiment "Detection of DNA extraction from banana" and crafting, "crafting DNA keyholder".
Experiment
Participants can see the DNA with their eyes and feel more familiar to DNA.protocol
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- Crush one third of a banana with a spoon; to break its cell wall.
- Mix well 10% saltine water 30 mL and detergent 2.5 mL; Saltine water makes nucleic acid and salt. Detergent breaks cell membrane.
- Pour 1 and 2 into a beaker through coffee filter and filtrate them.
- After 5 minutes or so, pour 100% ethanol 40 mL into the beaker slowly.
- Then you’ll see some white lump. That’s exactly the DNA!!
Crafting
Participants craft a DNA keyholder and learn the structure of DNA. They can take their work home.
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After the activities, we took the survey and got 117 answers
| SEX | AGE | School |
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What does "bio-″mean? |
Do you know iGEM? |
Do you know DNA? |
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Did you understand what DNA is? |
Did you feel familiar to DNA through the experiment or making the accessory? |
Did you enjoy our programs? |
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Comments
Participant1
Age: 10’s / Sex: M
Score before workshop:5
Because genetically modified food is a little scary.
Score after workshop:8
Because I don't care if it's safe.
Participant2
Age: 20’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:0
Because it may be bad for the health.
Score after workshop:6
Because it's safe to eat.
Participant3
Age: 40’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:3
Because I suspect genetically modified foods or crops, harmful to noxious insects, is also harmful to human beings.
Score after workshop:N/A
Because I can't answer since I didin't have time to see your poster.
Participant4
Age: 10’s / Sex: M
Score before workshop:3
I thought human being should not enter the territory of the gene.
Score after workshop:6
I thought whether it has bad effects on the environment depends on how we use it, and we can make our life more convenient without the effect.
Participant5
Age: 10’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:4
Because it will have effect on the ecosystem.
Score after workshop:7
Because I understood that it can give various functions useful for human being.
Participant6
Age: 20’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:3
Because it may be bad for the health.
Score after workshop:6
Though it may be unhealthy to eat, I feel that it is acceptable.
Participant7
Age: 10’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:6
Because there're indications whether the food such as soybeans use genetic modification.
Score after workshop:8
Because it was really fun to see real DNA.
Participant8
Age: 20’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:5
It's very useful if we use it in a right way but it'll cause problems if we don't.
Score after workshop:5
The same reason.
Participant9
Age: 30’s / Sex: F
Score before workshop:5
I can't say good or bad.
Score after workshop:5
My child is in hospital because of a genopathy. I hope more and more remedies are dveloped to save lives.
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On 7th August, university’s open day for mainly high school students (called “Open Campus” in Japan), we gave a lecture and took a questionnaire. In the lecture, we explained what gene recombination is and about this year’s our project. According to the questionnaire, we can see that majority had an adverse impression on gene recombination before the lecture, however, more than 90% of visitors appreciated its usefulness by the end. Also, more than 90% of the people answered they acquired new knowledge about gene, DNA, protein and gene recombination. Based on these statistics, we consider that we accomplished contributing to the public understanding about gene and its recombination – topics which still raise anxiety amongst many people in Japan probably due to ignorance. We believe that our efforts will help people create a society in the future that utilizes gene recombination.
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On a scale of 1 (do not consider, low and bad) to 5 (heavily consider, high, good)
| Did you know about the DNA, gene,and protein? |
Did you understand what gene, DNA, proteins are after taking the lecture? Did you learn anything new? | Did you know about GMO before taking the lecture? If you knew, did you have any idea what GMO is used for? |
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Did you get any new knowledge about GMO? |
Based on today's lecture, do you think GMO is a useful technology? |
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On a scale of 1 (do not consider, low and bad) to 10 (heavily consider, high, good)
| What was your image of GMO before taking the lecture? |
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Beside today's lecture, do you have any idea for the application of GMO?
- I have had negative impression on genetically modified food. But I learned they can take the place of limited resources. I don't have any ideas now (I'm sorry). I hope that you do your best.
- Creating flowers which have diverse colors
- Recreating organisms that lived in the past
- Creating nutritious food
- If genetic modification is applied to people who are born weak, they may be able to overcome diseases.
- Apply genetic modification to medicine
- The regenerative ability like the tail of a lizard (Perhaps it has already been realized).
- Producing a large quantity of good cocoons of silkworms
- Creating bacteria which makes the concentration of carbon dioxide of sea water lower / Evolution of human beings / Creating livestock which eat less food and water and grow fast
- People will use up oil someday. So I think creating material instead of plastic and using it by genetic modification are good ideas.
- If we can select or create the gene which resist cancer cells, we may be able to apply it to wide medical cures.
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On 7th August, university’s open day for mainly high school students (called “Open Campus” in Japan), we gave a lecture and took a questionnaire. In the lecture, we explained what gene recombination is and about this year’s our project. According to the questionnaire, we can see that majority had an adverse impression on gene recombination before the lecture, however, more than 90% of visitors appreciated its usefulness by the end. Also, more than 90% of the people answered they acquired new knowledge about gene, DNA, protein and gene recombination. Based on these statistics, we consider that we accomplished contributing to the public understanding about gene and its recombination – topics which still raise anxiety amongst many people in Japan probably due to ignorance. We believe that our efforts will help people create a society in the future that utilizes gene recombination.
We broadcast a talk about synthetic biology and iGEM toward people in Japan and Indonesia on Radio PPI Jepang, from 20:00 to 20:30 on July 28th, 2016. We believe people gained knowledge about syn-bio and iGEM through our talk. We spoke in English, Japanese and Indonesian on the radio. Also, Radio PPI Jepang is an online radio that anyone can listen to if they have access to the internet, so we could successfully tell people about syn-bio and iGEM, especially Japanese people who had heard about the radio from Yusuke, and Indonesian people listening to the radio all over the world. We talked about 4 things: what syn-bio is like; its history; its benefits; about iGEM and iGEM HokkaidoU team. First, we told listeners that DNA codes proteins, and that it is like a cooking recipe book. Second, we spoke about the history of syn-bio, from the finding of DNA double helix model to Human Genome Project. Third, we suggested many benefits of syn-bio, such as curing diseases or cleaning polluted environment. Finally, we introduced iGEM and iGEM HokkaidoU team, about when and where iGEM started, what iGEMers do, and our project in 2016. In conclusion, we succeeded in broadcasting about syn-bio and iGEM, and then enlightening people, especially Japanese and Indonesian people, with knowledge about syn-bio. After we finish the Giant Jamboree in 2016, we will again broadcast what iGEM’s Giant Jamboree is like, and raise people’s interest in iGEM!
We wrote an introduction about iGEM for school newsletter called “Gakunavi”. The newsletter is for all the students at Hokkaido university, so we took care to make it easy to understand. We did not use difficult scientific words, and we compared iGEM with robot contest to make it easy for people to understand what iGEM is like. Also, we introduced about what Giant Jamboree is, and what our project this year is. Finally, we told students to search us “iGEM HokkaidoU.” People who read the newsletter said that they got interested in iGEM. We believe many students at Hokkaido university read it, got knowledge about iGEM, and got interested in iGEM!
