Difference between revisions of "Team:Exeter/Human Practices"

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<div class="container">
 
<div class="container">
 
<div class="div_vl backgroundimage">
 
<div class="div_vl backgroundimage">
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<h1 id="title">Page Title</h1>
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<h1 id="title">Project Exepire</h1>
 
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<a href="#section_1" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 1</a>
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<a href="#section_1" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Introduction</a>
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<a href="#section_2" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 2</a>
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<a href="#section_2" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Design & Discussion</a>
 
<a href="#section_3" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 3</a>
 
<a href="#section_3" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 3</a>
 
<a href="#section_4" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 4</a>
 
<a href="#section_4" style="font-size:145%;line-height:265%;" class="banner_link col-xs-6 col-sm-3">Section 4</a>
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<div id="section_1" class="link_fix"></div>
 
<div id="section_1" class="link_fix"></div>
 
<div id="contentTitle">
 
<div id="contentTitle">
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Section 1
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Introduction </div>
−
</div>
+
 
 +
 +
 
 +
<p id="pp">Our Human Practices is centred around improving
 +
public engagement and tackling the lack of education of synthetic biology
 +
in the UK and overseas. In particular we are targeting education at a
 +
secondary school and university level, focusing on the interdisciplinary
 +
nature of the subject and assessing diversity. We want to highlight the
 +
benefits and potential applications of this new scientific field, as well
 +
as trying to uncover the reasons why synthetic biology doesn’t get as much
 +
positive attention as it should have.</p>
 +
 
 +
<p id="pp">We are working hard to introduce a new synthetic biology
 +
module to The University of Exeter’s curriculum, which will be available
 +
to students as soon as September 2017. For school children we have created
 +
a board game, BioMech, which educates students in key synthetic biology
 +
concepts in an easy to understand and engaging way. Furthermore, we have
 +
visited school and fairs, giving talks and running workshops where we aim
 +
to give children an introduction to what synthetic biology is and how it
 +
already affects their lives for the better.</p>
 +
 
 +
<p id="pp">By interviewing researchers, academics and other
 +
professionals within the scientific community and presenting
 +
their opinions in a fun and educational way, we hope to have
 +
made synthetic biology a more attractive discipline to the general public.</p>
 +
</p>
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 
<div>
 
<div>
 
<a id="Section_link" href="#section_2" style="display:block;margin:20px auto 0 auto;width:14px;"><span style="color:#47BCC2;font-size: 25px;" class="glyphicon glyphicon-menu-down" aria-hidden="true"></span></a>
 
<a id="Section_link" href="#section_2" style="display:block;margin:20px auto 0 auto;width:14px;"><span style="color:#47BCC2;font-size: 25px;" class="glyphicon glyphicon-menu-down" aria-hidden="true"></span></a>
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<div id="contentTitle">
 
<div id="contentTitle">
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Section 2
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Education: Biomech </div>
−
</div>
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<div>
 
<div>
 +
 +
 +
 +
<p id="pp"> We initially had the idea of an educational
 +
synthetic biology board game named BioMech early on
 +
in the summer when we discovered the shocking lack of
 +
synthetic biology education in the United Kingdom. The
 +
aim of BioMech is to introduce secondary and sixth form
 +
students to scientific field in a fun and interactive way.
 +
The game teaches students to plasmid construction, biological
 +
parts and other essential biological concepts like mutation.</p>
 +
 +
<h6>Why did we decided to create a board game?</h6>
 +
<p id="pp">After researching synthetic biology education in the UK,
 +
we discovered  that there is a limited number of cheap and nationally
 +
available educational resources for biology, with many teachers needing
 +
to create their own material to inspire students. Furthermore, there is
 +
also no education in synthetic biology for secondary school or A level students.</p>
 +
 +
<p id="pp">In response to this we decided to get into contact with Edexcel,
 +
a GCSE and A Level exam board, and enquired the possibility of introducing
 +
synthetic biology in the syllabus. They responded with “iGEM could produce
 +
support resources, for the existing A level, which introduced ideas of
 +
synthetic biology and which could be used as ‘stretch and challenge’
 +
materials by teachers”. At this point we focussed our efforts on making
 +
BioMech an easily accessible educational tool that can be used alongside
 +
the current syllabus, building on the cellular biology and genetics that
 +
are currently taught at GCSE and A-Level biology.
 +
 +
<h6>The aim of the game</h6>
 +
<p id="pp">The game teaches students about plasmid construction,
 +
biological parts and other essential biological concepts like
 +
mutation. The game starts with 10 BioBrick cards for each player
 +
who places 5 cards on the board to construct their plasmid. The
 +
winner of the round is the player that designed the plasmid that
 +
will be most useful in a randomly chosen scenario, the most appropriate
 +
plasmid is determined by card scores and player discussion. After a round,
 +
5 more cards are dealt and the game continues, the winner is the person that
 +
wins the most rounds.</p>
 +
 +
 +
 +
<p id="pp"></p>
 +
 +
<h4>Initial testing at The Judd School (July 2016)</h4>
 +
<h6>Playing the game</h6>
 +
<p id="pp">After making an initial prototype the team took the game
 +
to <a href=’#’>The Judd School</a>, a secondary school in Tonbridge,
 +
United Kingdom, to be tested by a group of GCSE students. We started
 +
off the day by introducing the iGEM project as well as explaining
 +
a few fundamental synthetic biology terms such as BioBricks and
 +
plasmids. After forming two groups, the students began to play
 +
the game under our supervision and quickly grasped the rules.
 +
All of the students got involved with the game, often reacting
 +
enthusiastically whenever a mutation occurred in a cell.</p>
 +
 +
<h6>Interviews and Feedback</h6>
 +
<p id="pp">Even though the game was a hit with the students,
 +
we still wanted to determine if the game was a viable option
 +
as an education resource; the game needed to be able to educate
 +
and inspire students. After the session we conducted a number
 +
of interviews with some of the students, with a few saying that
 +
they were much more likely to study biology after playing the game.</p>
 +
 +
<h5><q><i>I barely knew about any of this before today, I’m definitely
 +
much more likely to take Biology for A-Level.</i></q></h5>
 +
 +
<p id="pp">We interviewed two teachers at The Judd School to ask if they would
 +
consider using a learning resource such as our own in their lessons
 +
and if they thought the board game would prepare their students for
 +
entering iGEM in the coming years. The head of key stage 3, Dr Courel,
 +
thought that as the game enables students to consider real life applications
 +
for genetically modified organism, and that this would aid the students when
 +
thinking about their own iGEM project. The head of biology at Judd School,
 +
Mrs Andrew’s thought our game would make a great intermediate step between
 +
theory in the classroom, and introducing students to the wet lab.</p>
 +
 +
  <h6>Improvements</h6>
 +
<p id="pp">The Judd School visit was both a successful and productive,
 +
as we got plenty of high quality feedback from both students and teachers
 +
on how we could improve the game to educate more effectively and reach out
 +
to more schools.</p>
 +
 +
<p id="pp">The students suggested a number of minor improvements to
 +
the gameplay through a short survey, the results of this can be found
 +
<a href=’#’>here</a>. The largest change to our game came after Mrs Andrew’s
 +
asked if she could keep a copy of the game herself. We knew that we could not
 +
afford to give board games out too everyone, so we came up with a new way to
 +
distribute our game at no cost. Our board game BioMech is now online to download
 +
for free on our wiki <a href=’#’>here</a>, with full printing instructions.
 +
This meant that our original target of making our game accessible to all UK
 +
students was a lot more realistic.</p>
 +
 +
<h4>Production</h4>
 +
<p id="pp">After testing the game at a couple of science conventions
 +
such as the <a href=’#’>Big Bang Fair South West</a> and <a href=’#’>Britain Needs
 +
Scientists</a>, we were give feedback to help us make some minor improvements.
 +
After this was complete, we began manufacturing the game.
 +
The unboxing of BioMech can be seen below:<p/>
 +
 +
<p id="pp">This new version of the game was played by students from
 +
<a href=’#’>Colyton Grammar School</a>. As part of our initiative
 +
to make BioMech accessible to as many GCSE students as possible
 +
we have began leaving copies of the game at schools free of charge,
 +
in order to benefit the education of synthetic biology for GCSE and
 +
A level students.</p>
 +
 +
 +
 +
 
<a id="Section_link" href="#section_3" style="display:block;margin:20px auto 0 auto;width:14px;"><span style="color:#47BCC2;font-size: 25px;" class="glyphicon glyphicon-menu-down" aria-hidden="true"></span></a>
 
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Section 3
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Higher Education
 
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Revision as of 15:12, 26 August 2016