Team:Vilnius-Lithuania/Engagement
Engagement
High school visits and children's education
To ensure that the younger generation is fairly informed about the science progress and to encourage them to seek the knowledge on the field, our team spent several months on communication with the schools of Lithuania while paying visits and giving talks. The aim of the school visits was to spread the knowledge to both students 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 and in an annual event "Children’s University". 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 centres in Lithuania: UAB “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
Discussion cycle "Café Scientifique"
In collaboration with "Café Scientifique" project ambassadors in Lithuania - Baltic Institute of Advanced Technology (BPTI), our team organised discussions cycle. The subject of each event was chosen in order to cover as many questions about life sciences as possible. 5 discussions were conducted – about Synthetic biology and GMO’s, Biotechnology in Lithuania, Human genome editing, Art and science and finally Rare genetic diseases. Around 50 people were participating in each event. 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
