Team:Ionis Paris/Engagement
Conducting surveys and working on a drone and at the bench was not enough for the iGEM IONIS team. As we were developping our project, we felt like having a more intense and close relaions with the student population we are from, and we decided to give our passion of biology and science to younger students that would maybe be part of the iGEM adventure. In order to do that, we took different actions that would help us to get in touch with students. The iGEM Week: we organized food distribution on-campus for a whole week, providing music and unusual dishes for students such as thematic food. the objective was to create an atmosphere in which we could talk easily to students around a good meal. Many of the campus students felt free to ask questions and we could answer to them by explaining what we were doing in the iGEM and how the competition works. We presented our project during classes to first-year students that could not know about the iGEM if not talked about, and we even managed a poster competition in which students had to realise a poster about an iGEM project of their choice, with scientists evaluating them, allowing them to win prizes but also to learn the basics of a good poster. Students were quite responsive to this competition and we hope it trigged some iGEM vocations. Lecture presentations at UPMC (Unniversité Pierre & Marie Currie, Paris, France): working with the iGEM Impact team, we went to their campus to give a talk to bology students about the iGEM, with both teams presenting their projects. We had the opportunity to develop our scientific concept, occasioning a lot of really interesting questions, on a more general level which was the chance for us to test our knowledge! This presentation was also the right time to talk more about the opportunities a biology student can come across during its studies, and that it is possible to live this adventure while studying. A good exchange took place after the presentations.Engagement & Education
beyond the project
