Team:UPO-Sevilla/Engagement

ENGAGEMENT

SCIENCE WEEK

One more year, the Office Results Transfer of the Oficina de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación (OTRI) at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide organizes from 3 to 15 November 2015, the Week of Science, the largest annual event popularizing science and technology at European level.

The Science Week is the biggest annual event popularizing science at European level. For two weeks, many entities related to research and knowledge organize a wide range of activities popularizing science for all tastes and all ages.

Participation in the event is completely open to any entity wishing to organize activities (universities, research centers, businesses, museums, botanical gardens, and general knowledge agents) and of course everyone interested in enjoying the same.

For two weeks are scheduled different activities in the UPO to offer the public the opportunity to learn about the work done by scientists, their research, and their motivations and visit the places where knowledge is generated.

We participated in science week which takes place every year in the UPO. This week, we explained to school kids what synthetic biology and what was the iGEM competition. As heard on a trip to Boston where we could present our project, they paid more attention because they saw it was something important. They also talked about GM, and our project, explaining the problem of glycerol and how we intend to fix it. These guys were attentive to our project, although they had to hear more things than ours, and often very tired. It was the first time they heard about it and they liked it a lot. We had to start explaining the central dogma of molecular biology. It was one of our first experiences as a team, as we had not yet started work in the lab, so we remember it as something special.

The Science Week originated in France in 1991, when Hubert Curien, Minister of Research of France, decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ministry opened their gardens to the public for the first time. This local event, which aimed to bring the Parisian citizen science and its protagonists, was the forerunner of the Fête de la Science (Science Festival) which acquired national character and annually in France. Since then other European countries were incorporated, but not until 2001 when celebrated for the first time in Spain to be collected as a recommendation of the Action Plan for Science and Society of the European Commission.

This year the game Trivial Science, where students have tested their knowledge of biology, geology, technology, math or chemistry, one of the best ways to learn and have fun scheduled. Besides the students have been involved in any of the seven workshops scheduled to enjoy science. For this edition, the UPO has had practical workshops "Restoring degraded", "manipulatives Materials: playing with mathematics," the biotechnology workshop "Here's Science" or "Using the worm C. elegans to study the sense of smell "

In the science week we were able to contact with many students and teachers from various areas. It was a great success, for the first time we discussed our project as innovative idea. Nearly 700 students spent a week of science and 35 scientists of the Universidad Pablo Olavide could be at this event. ¡¡A great week was!!

SCIENCE FAIR

The 14th Science Fair was held at the Exhibition and Conference palace in Seville on days 5, 6 and 7 May 2016. The Science Fair is an educational and cultural project organized by the Andalusian Society for the Promotion of Science, the Discover Foundation and the Faculty of Sevilla Center. This year, the topic was climate change and environmental pollution. Therefore, we thought our project would perfectly fit in this edition.

This year the Science Fair included a STEM space + A. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics; + A refers to arts and other topics in general discussed in schools, more related to social sciences and education.

The purpose of the Science Fair is to create a space that allows the exchange, dissemination and communication of scientific knowledge, in which the actors-disseminators are pupils of schools, teachers of universities and staff of research centers and innovative companies. The development of this idea aims to achieve the following objectives:

  • To promote the dissemination and social communication of science.
  • Energize the teaching of science, incorporating active and research methodologies in the classroom programming.
  • Contribute to the development of scientific vocations through an active and practical approach to science education and contact with researchers
  • Encourage innovative and entrepreneurial spirit among the participating students.

In the event, most of our audience were school children. They were interested in the project and wanted to look through the microscope or magnifying glass all the time. We tried to explain our project to the children in a easy way, but it was a bit difficult and very funny.

According to the press, about 12,000 people, of whom about 5,000 are students, have visited the 14th edition of the Science Fair of Seville.

To explain our project to children, we turned our project into an interactive game. We asked children what they thought they could see under the microscope, and their answers were really funny and different. Many children thought they were dragon balls, because of its orange color and position. Other answers were carrot, flowers, stains, blood and small bugs.

  • Carrot
  • Blood
  • The Dragon Balls
  • Spots
  • Flowers
  • Little buggers
  • Among other things…

We showed children this petri dish. They liked its shape and color. Placing the bacterial colonies is similar to dragon balls. The children found it hard to believe that it each circle is composed by millions of bacteria.

To older children and teenagers we showed this scheme of the bacteria we work with. In this scheme, we also show the substances we use and we propose producing. One of the best ways to make science communication is to get the understanding of anyone. We think that this Science Fair was a completely success!

People have seen in our project the solution to serious problems in the world. A door to other major scientific advances. Everyone who stopped on our stand congratulated us and applauded our project. Many teenagers were thinking about what they wanted to study in the future and after talking with us, they felt attracted by biotechnology and genetics.

During the fair we made contact with people from very different areas: from teachers from Spain and from other countries to children of primary school. It was a great experience to show our project. For young students our idea was inspiring for their future, and they were very interested about DNA manipulation and the several proceedings about DNA manipulation that are be able to use.

In addition to a successful presentation of our project, we were able to meet other very interesting projects of other students. As a result we learned a lot about other scientific topics and, of course, we made friends. At this fair, we got to bring our project a little more closer to everyone. It was a pleasure.

LAB PRACTICES WITH STUDENTS

we ventured to explain what synthetic biology was young school students with the solid idea of spreading synthetic biology among future generations. Not only we explain to them what it was synthetic biology but also talk to them of what is iGEM and tell them our project in a very fruitful theory class where students could participate fairly.

In May 2016 we decided to become teachers for a day in Martinez Montañes institute (Sevilla). We had the opportunity to teach the main techniques to consider in the field of synthetic biology and the risks involved.

In a laboratory of our university them we were able to explain how to electrophoresis, digestions, extractions plasmids, transformations ... For them it was the first time working in a laboratory pipettes and experiments that level even the first time that addressed those terms. We feel very fortunate to be the first professors to teach them something that fascinates us so much.

We also discuss the results with them to learn how to see the different possibilities that exist for certain goals. This was our first experience as authentic teachers, and was a success.

The students were very involved and interested. We congratulated all even the teacher had words of support and encouragement for us.

We also had to teach the practices organization, to write a script about them. That's not easy, but it was a very rewarding experience and a success.