MOTIVATION

Our survey showed that the majority of the general public either wished that they had learnt about synthetic biology or they would would want it to be a part of the school curriculum. Therefore, we aimed to design activities and interactive workshops for students of all ages. Have a look below on the different ways we educated and reached out to the young generation.

iGEM bootcamp

We were able to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, computer scientists and phycologists to think about how synthetic biology can change the world we live in. Our iGEM bootcamp was designed as a 2-day workshop for year 8 students, where during day 1 they learnt what synthetic biology is, what we are doing and some activities that we designed to get them thinking about the relationship between synthetic biology and the real world. During day 2, the students were then brought into the labs where they got to do learn from our iGEM team how to do some mini prep.

Day 1 of the iGEM bootcamp: discussing misconceptions of the elderly

The point of the workshop was to pioneer a new, but effective programme during summer at which future iGEM teams can use for their outreach activities.Some of the activities that we ran were to get the students to draw what they think of when we talk about ageing.

Slideshow showing the images from day 1 of the iGEM bootcamp

Other activities involved getting the students to pick out an image from a box, and then they had to relate the image to synthetic biology in some way.

Outcome: As this was our very first outreach session, we really wanted to keep doing these sessions and raising awareness of synthetic biology and our project. The bootcamp was not only fun for the students but we really enjoyed talking and interacting with the students.

Sutton trust programme: Interactive workshop

Michelle, Amandeep & Abbie presented to a group of year 12 students about synthetic biology, iGEM and ageing (and even got invited back to present later this month)! We encouraged discussion throughout the lecture and it was great to teach them a little bit too.

We then proceeded to have two debates: one focussing on ageing, another on synthetic biology.

The arguments were eloquent, well thought through and focussed on aspects such as the economic, ethical and even emotional impact of this research. The debate was particularly poignant at times and the students all had their own opinions which we encouraged the discussion of. We were not only impressed, but inspired by their enthusiasm and the feedback we received. Especially now some of the students want to get involved with iGEM and even study biochemical engineering- a degree they previously didn't know existed.

Presenting our project + Synthetic biology to year 12 students

UCL iGEM x Sutton Trust summer school - biosciences stream

This summer school is based at UCL and formed part of our outreach activities since it is aimed at students from widening participation backgrounds. Abbie worked closely with the students and lead a group of 5, year 12 students.

This involved demonstrating various lab activities from basic pipetting to performing restriction digests and running gel electrophoresis. We also performed an activity which looked at the bacteria on skin before and after washing hands, the effectiveness of chemicals on killing bacteria and even gram stained these, looking under them at a microscope. A lot of the experiments were new to the students so it was essential to explain the techniques and assist throughout.

It was also an opportunity to give advice about university and share our own personal experiences.

Amandeep and Abbie also gave a lecture on iGEM, synthetic biology and ageing. Afterwards we ran a workshop and debate with regards to synthetic biology and ageing research as before to the 30 students on the stream. We really enjoy this activity due to the consideration of ethics, economics and personal experiences. Not only did we get to see how well the students were interacting and learning, but the points that were raised in the debates got the team members thinking about things that we had never thought about initially. Chris – the organiser of the summer school said that he would love to integrate iGEM into the summer school program every year because of the success this year. Some highlights have been collated in the video.

Healthy ageing in London: Interactive workshop

Friday was another day of presenting for us 3- this time to year 8 students - we gave them an insight into ageing in London and again encouraged participation. After our talk we again set up a debate in which the students represented one of the following stakeholders: 'Business person wanting to build a gym', 'scientist wanting to build an ageing research institution', 'doctor wanting to build a walk-in clinic' and 'the council wanting to build a community centre'.

Again, great arguments were constructed which considered the negatives of the other parties as well as the strengths of their own. They considered the different types of job prospects, ethics and short vs long term investments. We were particularly pleased with the vote outcome in which the students favoured a research institution to be built.

UCL iGEM presenting to year 12 students about the importance of synthetic biology and healthy ageing

"Get your hands dirty with synthbio" workshop for PhD students

London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme (LIDo) funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is a PhD programme with a particular focus on interdisciplinary research. It is currently attended by about a hundred students studying at UCL, King's College London, Royal Veterinary College, Birkbeck, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary.

During LIDo retreat, we run a synthetic biology workshop for both students and staff involved in the programme. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the programme, we prepared a wide range of activities for researchers from all backgrounds. For those unfamiliar with synthetic biology, we prepared mini-posters describing ways in which it can be used to solve some of the world's biggest problems. We talked about the Braunschweig 2014 team's E. cowli, which help to reduce the amount of methane produced by cows and thus prevent the global warming, about plastic-degrading bacteria designed by Imperial College 2013 team, biofuel-producing bacteria created by the University of Washington 2011 team and about University of Colorado Boulder 2014 team's idea on how to use phages to fight antibiotic resistance. The attendants were also encouraged to propose their own ideas and discuss related scientific and ethical issues, business viability of the idea and its impact on the society.

We also prepared a synthbio game composed of plasmid backbones with standard iGEM prefixes and suffixes surrounding elements such as (but not limited to) genes of interest. The players were asked to figure out the way of joining the biobricks into a new, longer biobrick using restriction enzymes and selection by antibiotic resistance. The players on their own initiative commented on the advantages of the biobrick format and a discussion on pros and cons of the standarised technique followed.

Finally, we presented our poster and received some feedback on our project.