Difference between revisions of "Team:Oxford/Engagement"

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<h2>Questionnaires</h2>
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We are continually asking the public's views on our project.
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1d6_Ta7tnh90WDFuZ3vngFtzhTIJVluPr_bdv0ZSGaEE/viewform?c=0&w=1">Click here to complete our questionnaire!</a>
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                <a href="#Intro">Introduction</a>
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                <a href="#Card">Cardiff</a>
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                <a href="#XMU">XMU China</a>
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                <a href="#SVCE">SVCE_CHENNAI</a>
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<h2 class="h2BorderTop">Summer School: Outreach</h2>
 
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<a href="https://oxfordigem2016.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/summer-school-outreach/">Click here to read the blog entry!</a>
 
  
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<h1>Collaborations</h1>
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<section id="Intro">
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<h2>Introduction</h2>
 
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On Thursday 23rd June we were invited to speak and run an activity at a science summer school run by Corpus Christi College. Upon arrival we were met by 18 enthusiastic pupils, all considering applying for science courses at Oxford.</p>
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As we carried out our public engagement throughout the course of our project we wanted to address two questions in order to make our activities in this area meaningful and useful.
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Who do we need to talk to and what do these people want or need to know?
 
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We began with a short presentation discussing the development of synthetic biology, its current applications and uses, the future of the subject, and the iGEM competition itself. Following this, we split the students into 4 groups to run small activities.</p>
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We carried out a survey to find out which aspects of the project public were least familiar with to provide a focal point for our engagement activities. We split the responses into two categories according to the age of respondents; under 21 and over 21 as many of the older groups had very few members. From this survey we found that 90% of people had heard of genetic engineering but we found that people in the younger group were more likely to have heard of genetic engineering and, in a further question, were more likely to be prepared to take a genetically engineered bacterium as a medical treatment. This suggested to us that education is linked to our our treatment being accepted by the general public, and therefore the ongoing success of our project.  
 
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Rosie and Andreas were both running activities related to biobricks and the construction of working parts: Rosie was getting the students to build biological circuits whilst explaining the importance of different regions of different parts, meanwhile, Andreas was getting students to troubleshoot circuits and identify why they may or may not work. Sam was running an activity investigating protein structure using PyMOL to model the proteins and examine their functions. Finally, I was running an activity that aimed to explain PCR and its importance, before getting the students to design primers for a hypothetical gene of interest, and explain why we may want to include sequences relating to restriction enzyme sites, stop codons etc.</p>
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Only 45% of people had heard of synthetic biology and as this is what iGEM is about we decided this was another topic we should focus on when engaging with the public so that people can fully understand what we are trying to do.
 
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We found that the students were very eager to ask questions and learn more about the subject, particularly those with a greater background in biology. Some of the students were more interested in the physical sciences, and in these cases, we slightly adapted our activities to explain the necessary background information required to appreciate the exercises.</p>
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In the same survey we found that only 29% of people had heard of Orphan diseases such as Wilson's disease. Lack of awareness is a massive problem for rare diseases as it makes it harder for people to be correctly diagnosed and funding for treatments of these diseases is harder to obtain as they only affect small numbers of people. We decided this would be something we could publicise that would have a beneficial impact beyond iGEM for people who have Wilson's disease and other rare diseases.
 
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Overall, we thought the event was a great success and we are excited to continue outreach over the rest of the summer!</p>
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Our engagement can be split into three different levels; local, national and international activities. Within these categories, some activities were specific where we explained the exact mechanisms of our project and got people interested in the potential of synthetic biology, while others were more general and helped bring the general issues of our project to a wider audience.
 
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<h2>Cardiff</h2>
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<h2 class="h2BorderTop">Cyprus: Outreach</h2>
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Oxford iGEM will be doing an outreach event locally.
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<h2>XMU</h2>
 
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This will take place in <strong>Natural History Museum, Oxford</strong> on <strong>Date TBC</strong>.
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We sent team XMU-China some of the parts made by last year's Oxford iGEM team that they were unable to obtain from the registry themselves. This enabled them to carry out their project successfully as they were able to use all the parts that they wanted.
 
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<h2>SVCE_CHENNAI</h2>
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We filled in team SVCE-CHENNAI's survey on lab techniques to pass on our experiences of protocols that worked, and others which didn't, in order to help them improve efficiency for other iGEM teams in the future.
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<h2 class="h2BorderTop">Wilson's Disease Patient Association Meeting</h2>
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Oxford iGEM will be giving a presentation about Wilson's disease, and what we hope to achieve with your project. We will talk to patients with Wilson's disease to gain their perspectives and whether our approach is something they think will be useful to them.
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This will take place in <strong>Cambridge</strong> on <strong>Sunday 24th July 2016</strong>.
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Revision as of 13:26, 3 October 2016

iGEM Oxford 2016 - Cure for Copper

Collaborations

Introduction

As we carried out our public engagement throughout the course of our project we wanted to address two questions in order to make our activities in this area meaningful and useful. Who do we need to talk to and what do these people want or need to know?

We carried out a survey to find out which aspects of the project public were least familiar with to provide a focal point for our engagement activities. We split the responses into two categories according to the age of respondents; under 21 and over 21 as many of the older groups had very few members. From this survey we found that 90% of people had heard of genetic engineering but we found that people in the younger group were more likely to have heard of genetic engineering and, in a further question, were more likely to be prepared to take a genetically engineered bacterium as a medical treatment. This suggested to us that education is linked to our our treatment being accepted by the general public, and therefore the ongoing success of our project.

Only 45% of people had heard of synthetic biology and as this is what iGEM is about we decided this was another topic we should focus on when engaging with the public so that people can fully understand what we are trying to do.

In the same survey we found that only 29% of people had heard of Orphan diseases such as Wilson's disease. Lack of awareness is a massive problem for rare diseases as it makes it harder for people to be correctly diagnosed and funding for treatments of these diseases is harder to obtain as they only affect small numbers of people. We decided this would be something we could publicise that would have a beneficial impact beyond iGEM for people who have Wilson's disease and other rare diseases.

Our engagement can be split into three different levels; local, national and international activities. Within these categories, some activities were specific where we explained the exact mechanisms of our project and got people interested in the potential of synthetic biology, while others were more general and helped bring the general issues of our project to a wider audience.

Cardiff

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

Julia put cardiff text here.

XMU

We sent team XMU-China some of the parts made by last year's Oxford iGEM team that they were unable to obtain from the registry themselves. This enabled them to carry out their project successfully as they were able to use all the parts that they wanted.

SVCE_CHENNAI

We filled in team SVCE-CHENNAI's survey on lab techniques to pass on our experiences of protocols that worked, and others which didn't, in order to help them improve efficiency for other iGEM teams in the future.





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