Team:Korea U Seoul/Human Practices
Human
Practices
Human Practices
For the interactive communication between science and society, the breakaway of traditional concept of communication is needed; in other words, one-way information transfer from scientific scholars to the general public should be avoided. Instead, easy and intuitive way of the general public recognizing the severity of contemporary social problems should be provided, and therefore encouraage them to voluntarily participate in an effort to solve problems. We have systematically approached the issue by dividing the subjects of communication into three categories- 1. Academia and Industry / 2. Local Communities / 3. Educational Fields .
1. Communication with Academia and Industry [Link]
The foremost area in which change is necessary is the domestic academia including currently working science professionals. Until now, domestic academia had focused on the single field of perspective as a method of recognizing the severity of contemporary social problems and attempts to solve them. However, the limitations of this method has been already revealed. This has drawn attention to potential possibilities of synthetic biology, which encompasses various academic fields such as biotechnology, engineering science and information technology.
To contribute in changing this perception, Korea_U_Seoul had demonstrated the potential possibilities of synthetic biology through EMFC in SWEET 2016, an exhibition of new renewable energy where various domestic science research institutes and companies gathered. Furthermore, by observing and learning from research performances of other companies, we could expand our scientific insight and improve our project. Korea_U_Seoul’s effort will be a bridgehead to solve the continuing severance between respective fields in science.
2. Communication with Local Communities [Link]
Finally, besides current and future science professionals, we value communication with non-specialists as well. The driving force of solving contemporary social problems is rooted in the actions taken in the daily life of every members of society. Instead of the common notion that scientists tended to have of non-specialists as being a “subject of education,” we considered them as a “subject of communication”. Ultimately, we believe interactive communication between science and society should fundamentally be something that is induced by the voluntary participation of every member of the society in an effort to acknowledge and solve the global issues of the 21st century. Through the “Green Campus” activities carried out with Korea University and Seongbuk-gu citizens, we were able to let members of the local community realize the severity of contemporary social problems and the importance of synthetic biology as part of the solution to such problems. Conclusively we made them aware of the fact that small actions in their daily lives can lead to big changes. The activities with Green Campus was an opportunity for voluntary participation and interactive communication rather than simply one-way education, and we too were able to more deeply look into problems that local communities are facing. .
3. Communication with Educational Fields [Link]
Our project is not solely focused on change within the sphere of academia and industry. By providing young future scientists opportunities to learn and experience the significance of our team’s project, we could expect long-term waves of change starting by widening their insight. Our team had visited Hansung Science High School and had an educational session introducing our project, instilling the importance of synthetic biology as an academic field, and educating them proper values and attitudes required for scientists. The interaction with high school students was meaningful in that it provided the opportunity for future members of the science community to earnestly consider their individual roles within the society. .
