June 14th 2016 Mos(kit)o simulation game with middle school students
In order to familiarize middle school students to the raising issue of arboviruses, our team went to a middle school to simulate the scenario of our project through a game-like activity.
The day at the school was divided into two phases: in the morning, we gave a quizz to the students in order to test their overall knowledge about synthetic biology and arboviruses. Then, we corrected the test and gave them a little “crash course” on the topic of mosquitoes and arboviruses to prepare them for the afternoon game.
In the afternoon, we organized 2 activities: first, we had the students, in groups of 4, design a mosquito trap and think of how it would be placed and hidden in the environment. The students were extremely creative and had very original ideas like making a chicken-shaped trap in order for it to easily blend into the environment!
They presented their projects in front of the rest of the class and then: game time!
The rules of the game were the following : the students were given a list of 10 geographical zones including swamp, city, desert, house, etc. Based on the presentation they received in the morning, they had to pick 4 of these zones where they thought they were the most likely to find mosquitoes.
The winning team was the one that made the best prognostics on infested zones and found the most mosquitoes!
To determine the results of the game, we went to the playground, where boards representing every zone had been placed. Each “zone” contained pieces of information about the zone, explaining why it was inhabited or not by mosquitoes. Each board had mosquito traps attached to it.
Each team had to pick one trap in each of the zone previously selected.
Then we went back to the classroom where the students opened the traps and counted the number of mosquitoes inside. The team that found the most mosquitoes was the
→ put pictures
→ remake the game under the form of a downloadable kit (in English) for re-use.
This game is aimed at children (between 10 and 14 years old). It’s purpose is to educate them about arboviruses, and to make them understand that being able to locate mosquitoes upstream will enable a more efficient fight against arboviruses. The game material is available for download HERE in french and english, if you would like to reproduce the experience !
Summary: > « Jeu à débattre » in Bobigny
On Thursday June 16th, the iGEM Pasteur team went to Bobigny to take part into a “jeu à débattre” that was hosted by the association, “arbre des connaissances”. Our role was to advise the players during the game, and then, to have a little debate about synthetic biology and the ethical and moral questions it raises.
1) The game
The « jeu à débattre » was a simulation game about synthetic biology issues. The students were divided into 5 smaller little groups that each represent a town. Each town starts off with the same number of health, wealth, and environment points.
Then, a series of 5 innovations (all created with synbio) was proposed to every town. The students in each group, representing the citizens of the town, had to decide whether or not they wanted to implement the innovation. The innovations proposed often had a positive economic and/or immediate environmental impact, while being dangerous for public health or the environment in the long term.
After each innovation was proposed and the students debated about them for 10 minutes, they voted on whether to adopt it or not. After each round, the game leader told the groups the outcome of their decisions, whether it had a positive or negative impact on health, employment, economy, by removing or adding points to their town score.
The winning team was the one with the most points in health, environment and wealth at the end of the game.
2) The debate
First, we described our project to the high school students.
Then, the iGEM Pasteur team had a very interesting debate with the students and teachers. They asked questions about:- Safety issues- Long term effects of synthetic biology- The economic aspect of our project- How the patch works- The modification of the human genome, whether or not it was possible and allowed- The protection of biotechnological inventions by patent law
The outcome of the day was very positive and the association is willing to collaborate with us again.
If you want to find out more about the association
