Difference between revisions of "Team:BostonU HW/HP/Silver"

The goal of public engagement was twofold: firstly, we wanted to do our part in educating the public about synthetic biology, and about microfluidics! Secondly, we wanted to learn about what the public knew about microfluidics- are DIY microfluidics a common practice? Does the average person know what a microfluidic is? Our first outreach was the Building with Biology event at the Boston Museum of Science.

In the Building with Biology event, our team participated as guest researchers, we worked alongside museum staff to present museum goers with synthetic biology activities. These activities serve to educate the people playing, and we also got to learn about what the public knew about in synthetic biology.

One such activity included solving problems using various genetic “building blocks,” each labeled with a specific function. These literal blocks represented genetic parts that could be stacked together to make a full genetic circuit to solve the problem at hand. Kids loved this game, as it was very hands on; much to our surprise, many younger kids were very creative, and very open with new ideas, like creating synthetic blood. Another example of an activity that received great public reception was the “golden rice” table, where we showed museum goers a plate of yeast that expressed the gene for beta-carotene, and “golden bread,” baked with this yeast. We were again surprised by how many members of the public were open to such ideas.

We taught the public about microfluidics as well, making the analogy of scientists doing experiments to bakers trying to find the best cake. If the baker only needed a taste to test how the cake came out, why make a whole cake? We described microfluidics as “mini-ovens” in which scientists could make “mini-cakes,” to check if the “cake” came out good. This would save the baker/scientist lots of time and ingredients.

After these activities, we met with the public for a forum on ethics in synthetic biology. This was an amazing opportunity! We were able to sit side-by-side at a table with members of the public; we got to listen to a talk on gene drives as a solution to malaria, and we got to play out an ethical decision making process. In this roleplay, we acted as members of the local public and government in a Zambian community considering to use a gene drive to rid malaria. We got to discuss our plan of action, and we had to come to a conclusion on whether to release GM mosquitoes.

In order to reach out to young women interested in STEM fields of study, we teamed up with the BostonU iGEM wetlab team to speak at the Boston University-hosted event Summer Pathways. During this seminar, we were able to teach high school students from areas around New England about basic synthetic biology and electrical engineering principles through interactive activities operated in smaller groups. We then engaged all of these students in a discussion about synbio and engineering ethics using a mock debate over whether or not the proposed solution of terraforming Mars was reasonable and ethical. Each student first read a short article explaining more context and highlighting various options as possible paths of action. All of these options encouraged students to consider and discuss biologists’ responsibilities to human civilization, other life forms, and the environment.