Silver Criterion

High school visits and children's education

To ensure that the younger generation is fairly informed about synthetic biology and iGEM competition in general, our team spent several months on communication with schools of Lithuania while arranging visits and giving talks. The aim of these visits was to spread the knowledge to students both with scientific and non-scientific profile. Our team visited 11 schools in 6 cities, met 530 pupils aged from 7 to 18 years old and got filled 214 questionnaires by high school students. Adding to that, we had a chance to run workshops in "The Centre for Child Development" for children with developmental, mental and behavioural disorders or children who have experienced abuse and violence. What is more, we participated in an annual event “Children’s University”, where we turned our attention to children of 11 to 15 years old and organised workshop, called 'Create your own bacteria'. Read more

Competition for school students - “A Day of Scientist”

Our team believes that one of the most important things for the world’s successful future is the connection between science and schools. That is the reason, why we decided to announce a competition for secondary school students, called “A Day of Scientist”. The winners of this competition had an extraordinary opportunity to visit the biggest and the most innovative science centers in Lithuania: ThermoFisher Scientific Baltics and Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre. Read more

The COINS

The COINS is the biggest international conference of life sciences, which is organised annually only by students. Our team had a chance to represent themselves at this conference and share the ideas with the scientific community. The presentation was followed by the vast interest of the public, which motivated the team to pursue their ideas. The feedback on the project helped us to plan the project more thoroughly, taking into account all possible issues.Read more

Blood donation

Sometimes giving is easy, but it makes all the difference in the world. With this idea in mind, eight bravest Vilnius iGEM team members participated in the unpaid blood donation campaign. Read more

Collaboration with artists and participation in European Researchers’ Night

We were proud to discover that the news about our team had spread out and reached many people from different fields: we were contacted by Kristupas Sabolius, Lithuanian writer and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vilnius University, who expressed interest in both our project and scientific research in general. Throughout this year we have conducted several meetings with Kristupas and his colleagues and had a few very interesting discussions, one of which was open to the public and took place during our discussions cycle “Café Scientifique”. The important part of this exciting collaboration was the workshop “Adjusting Bacteria” at the public event, called "European Researchers’ Night". During this event, we were able to not just introduce people to the theoretical background of the topic, but also give them the possibility to put this theory in practice – to stain microorganisms and examine the results using microscopy. We have also exhibited 3D protein structures. This exhibition perfectly illustrated the need of visualization in science.Read more

Participation in National Science festival “Spaceship Earth”

National Science festival "Spaceship Earth" is an annual event, where children of all ages, schoolchildren and families are taking part at the various activities. Our team took a chance to organise few events during this festival. We conducted a lecture for high school students about the modern biotechnology, genetic engineering, iGEM competition and synthetic biology. The other activity was more interactive. We created an escape room, called BioBreakroom, where students had to use their life sciences knowledge to get out within a set time limit. The purpose of this activity was to make science more attractive to students, engage them to pursue career in life sciences and spark new scientific curiosity. Read more

Human Practices collaboration with iGEM Aachen

We have organised a Human Practices collaboration with iGEM Aachen. . We have found out the opinion and defined the current knowledge of the common public about genetic engineering in Lithuania. Our team managed to question 57 people of different educational background and age. Results revealed that the majority of people in Vilnius were poorly informed about genetic manipulations. Read more

The European Biotech Week

The European Biotech Week is a series of events, dedicated to celebrating biotechnology, an innovative and vibrant sector, the beginning of which was set by the discovery of the DNA molecule back in 1953. For this event we have organised team-quiz game "Life Sciences Quiz" and invited people with any educational level. It was a great chance to encourage participants to broaden their knowledge in the life sciences field. Read more

Life Sciences Baltics

Life Sciences Baltics 2016 is the only international forum in the Baltic states for world-class biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices experts from all around the world. During the conference we presented our project to many people from life sciences industry, attended meetings with representatives of various companies, made a few collaborations and also raised our knowledge about industry of life sciences in the Baltic states.Read more