Diversity and Inclusion

Splash! Cornell. . iGEM Cornell presented a program about women in synthetic biology to high school students through an educational showcase, Splash! at Cornell. The goal of our event was to promote diversity in the STEM field for underrepresented groups, particularly within female and non-binary high school students. As we completed this outreach event, there were several things of note. Students enjoyed the hands-on components the most as seen through their engagement and activity-driven questions. Furthermore, we realized that being able to adapt on the spot was key to creating a successful educational experience and platform where students could feel free to ask questions. We strived to create an inclusive environment where no questions or comments were seen negatively. Engaging with younger students is central to good outreach as they are the future of this field. It is important to actively engage and thus, encourage students to tap into their scientific curiosity. The extra time available for answering student questions was an excellent use of resources and seemed much appreciated. To improve upon future outreach, we thought we could alter the presentation to be more engaging. While the presentation went well, we believe with additional practice and interactive questions would have engaged the students more. This point was furthered as seen when our extra time was given to answering student questions. Furthermore, pre-packaging materials and making group decisions on how long everything will take would improve the activities, since that way nothing would need to be cut and could improve flow. For the future, it is also important to be more aware of our audience. Although these activities were thoroughly enjoyed by our cohort, especially the interactive ones, they may have been a bit too juvenile for this age range. Overall, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and thought the outreach went well! For next time, increased preparation, communication, and a run-through may improve the effectiveness of the outreach. Sciencenter. . iGem Cornell conducted an outreach event at the Sciencenter, a children’s museum located in Ithaca, NY. The event consisted of three educational stations: one science station, one art station, and one integration of science and art stations. At the science station, children played with biobricks to explain the components of biology. At the art station, children had the opportunity to follow the scientific process through a paint activity. Children placed a number of bouncy balls into a cardboard box filled with a piece of paper and paint. Before shaking the box, they established their prediction. Then, they conducted the experiment. Afterwards, they drew conclusions, determined if the results were aligned with their predictions, and pondered about potential implications and results if the scientific procedure was adjusted. At the science-art station, children were exposed to the creation of oobleck through everyday materials. Furthermore, they were encouraged to draw with markers to make the oobleck their own. At each station, there was a slight educational introduction done by our team but the activity was primarily driven by the child as we wanted to conduct inquiry-based education. After our interview with Ali Jackson, a stakeholder who works at the Sciencenter, she recommended completing interactive activities to maximize retention and engagement with our audience of children. We prioritized creating an inclusive environment, purposely engaging and individualizing our messages to the audience at hand. The children tended to be towards the younger side but despite that were very engaged. Having stations enabled children to move through the stations as they pleased and receive individual attention from the people manning each station. It made the interactions more meaningful. In addition to these one on one interactions, children were engaged due to the interactive activities. Each station had an activity where children were hands-on. These activities were well-structured, providing an educational background first, completing the activity, and finally reinforcing the connection between the educational segment to the activity. The station that was the most popular was the cornstarch oobleck station; this activity showcased the connection between art and science and reinforced that this medium has the potential to spark scientific curiosity. For improvement of the activities, one may consider utilizing small lid-sealed containers, rather than cardboard boxes, for the ball and paint activity to ensure the containers would not break and could easily be held in a small child’s hand. Despite some shortcomings, this outreach event engaged children thoroughly and allowed them to gain insight into the intersection between science and art. Longview Senior Living Community iGEM Cornell conducted an outreach event to Longview Senior Living Community, a retirement center located in Ithaca. The event consisted of first a presentation on the history of bioart and important people in the field. We made sure that the font on the presentation was large so that if any residents were hard of hearing, they could still read the slides, and we used microphones to be as loud as possible. We presented two sides of the bioart ethics argument to them, emphasizing that while the field has immense potential for creativity and raising important questions about moral issues using biotechnology techniques, there are also questions about how ethical it is to modify naturally occurring organisms to do so. As part of the presentation we also presented four different case studies about morally ambiguous art pieces so that the residents had a better understanding about what bioart actually looks like in the world and the questions that arise as a result. After the presentation, we hosted a debate session with the residents where we asked them a series of questions about bioart to start off the debate including questions like how should bioart be defined, how should the field be regulated, and more. They were engaged and kept questioning why these questions were even important. They brought up possible examples of bioart that we had never considered before including tattoos and jewelry made of human remains like children’s teeth or the ashes of loved ones, a practice that has been around for ages. The reason why we chose to hosts the debate at a residential community instead of people around our age group was largely because we wanted to be inclusive to a different generation which means they have different ideas and experiences that shape the way they think about the world, allowing them to bring up examples and perspective that we may not have even heard of. We also asked them, given their experience, whether they thought that bioart would be a field that faded or whether it would stand the test of time. It was a great experience because while we were able to teach and raise awareness to the residents about this field that they hadn’t heard of before, we were also able to learn a lot about how the older generation and public may feel about the ethical issues surrounding the project. At the end of the event, we got feedback from the residents about how they felt about the event both verbally and through handwritten notes. The residents mentioned to us that they really appreciated that the event helped to engage them and allowed them to really think while teaching them about something they hadn’t heard before. One future improvement they suggested for us to consider for a debate event with senior citizens would be to not just have microphones for ourselves, but also to hand them out to the residents because at times, they couldn't understand what other residents were saying as well. Ultimately, the eoutreach debate event was a great learning experience for both us and the residents as well and will be an event we continue to host in the future. . Next Steps for MicroMurals to Increase Inclusivity. . In essence, the Cornell iGEM Policy and Practices team truly believes that MicroMurals serves as a catalyst for introducing the field of bioart into an educational setting. This bioart project integrates the sciences and the arts into aesthetic microbial art, enabling us to use this project as a way to advocate for sustainable art and encourage students to pursue interdisciplinary careers in STEM and the liberal arts. While this project is certainly a step in the right direction, there are many ways in which we can further expand our outreach efforts and educate wider groups of people. One way in which our project might be made more inclusive is if we continue to intentionally reach out to populations that might not have immediate access to art. While we had the opportunity to share our BioArt with local senior centers and youth centers like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, we hope to share our project with marginalized communities like those who are incarcerated, experiencing homelessness, and the large migrant worker population in Upstate New York to shed light on this new development in art and science that they otherwise might not have encountered; this would occur in combination with continued outreach to local schools and universities through presentations, ethical debates, and demonstrations. Through this, we hope to combat some of the exclusivity often associated with art and emerging technologies. We are also cognizant of the fact that some may be financially limited from engaging with MicroMurals. As such, we will continue to choose convenient locations and minimize any costs associated with attending some of our outreach events to make MicroMurals accessible to all. In fact, all of our outreach events thus far were free and open to the public! As aforementioned, one of the defining characteristics of MicroMurals is that they represent a combination of the arts and the sciences. In order to complete the ethics and policy analysis surrounding this project, we had to reference perspectives from leaders in Bioart, microbiology, visual arts, psychology, engineering, bioethics, policy, technology, and education to build a quality project. Continuing to source opinions and insights from a broad range of disciplines would help make our project more inclusive, since it would include more perspectives, which can then reach a wider and more diverse audience. In terms of the microbial art itself, we hope to eventually add a sensory component or tactile materials to MicroMurals so that those who may be visually impaired can still engage with our project. This could accompany our existing exhibit set up, which consists of the MicroMural itself, a written explanation of the project and the design process, and an audio description guide. .


Splash! Cornell

iGEM Cornell presented a program about women in synthetic biology to high school students through an educational showcase, Splash! at Cornell. The goal of our event was to promote diversity in the STEM field for underrepresented groups, particularly within female and non-binary high school students. As we completed this outreach event, there were several things of note. Students enjoyed the hands-on components the most as seen through their engagement and activity-driven questions. Furthermore, we realized that being able to adapt on the spot was key to creating a successful educational experience and platform where students could feel free to ask questions. We strived to create an inclusive environment where no questions or comments were seen negatively. Engaging with younger students is central to good outreach as they are the future of this field. It is important to actively engage and thus, encourage students to tap into their scientific curiosity. The extra time available for answering student questions was an excellent use of resources and seemed much appreciated. To improve upon future outreach, we thought we could alter the presentation to be more engaging. While the presentation went well, we believe with additional practice and interactive questions would have engaged the students more. This point was furthered as seen when our extra time was given to answering student questions. Furthermore, pre-packaging materials and making group decisions on how long everything will take would improve the activities, since that way nothing would need to be cut and could improve flow. For the future, it is also important to be more aware of our audience. Although these activities were thoroughly enjoyed by our cohort, especially the interactive ones, they may have been a bit too juvenile for this age range. Overall, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and thought the outreach went well! For next time, increased preparation, communication, and a run-through may improve the effectiveness of the outreach.

Sciencenter

iGem Cornell conducted an outreach event at the Sciencenter, a children’s museum located in Ithaca, NY. The event consisted of three educational stations: one science station, one art station, and one integration of science and art stations. At the science station, children played with biobricks to explain the components of biology. At the art station, children had the opportunity to follow the scientific process through a paint activity. Children placed a number of bouncy balls into a cardboard box filled with a piece of paper and paint. Before shaking the box, they established their prediction. Then, they conducted the experiment. Afterwards, they drew conclusions, determined if the results were aligned with their predictions, and pondered about potential implications and results if the scientific procedure was adjusted. At the science-art station, children were exposed to the creation of oobleck through everyday materials. Furthermore, they were encouraged to draw with markers to make the oobleck their own. At each station, there was a slight educational introduction done by our team but the activity was primarily driven by the child as we wanted to conduct inquiry-based education. After our interview with Ali Jackson, a stakeholder who works at the Sciencenter, she recommended completing interactive activities to maximize retention and engagement with our audience of children. We prioritized creating an inclusive environment, purposely engaging and individualizing our messages to the audience at hand. The children tended to be towards the younger side but despite that were very engaged. Having stations enabled children to move through the stations as they pleased and receive individual attention from the people manning each station. It made the interactions more meaningful. In addition to these one on one interactions, children were engaged due to the interactive activities. Each station had an activity where children were hands-on. These activities were well-structured, providing an educational background first, completing the activity, and finally reinforcing the connection between the educational segment to the activity. The station that was the most popular was the cornstarch oobleck station; this activity showcased the connection between art and science and reinforced that this medium has the potential to spark scientific curiosity. For improvement of the activities, one may consider utilizing small lid-sealed containers, rather than cardboard boxes, for the ball and paint activity to ensure the containers would not break and could easily be held in a small child’s hand. Despite some shortcomings, this outreach event engaged children thoroughly and allowed them to gain insight into the intersection between science and art.

Longview Senior Living Community

iGEM Cornell conducted an outreach event to Longview Senior Living Community, a retirement center located in Ithaca. The event consisted of first a presentation on the history of bioart and important people in the field. We made sure that the font on the presentation was large so that if any residents were hard of hearing, they could still read the slides, and we used microphones to be as loud as possible. We presented two sides of the bioart ethics argument to them, emphasizing that while the field has immense potential for creativity and raising important questions about moral issues using biotechnology techniques, there are also questions about how ethical it is to modify naturally occurring organisms to do so. As part of the presentation we also presented four different case studies about morally ambiguous art pieces so that the residents had a better understanding about what bioart actually looks like in the world and the questions that arise as a result. After the presentation, we hosted a debate session with the residents where we asked them a series of questions about bioart to start off the debate including questions like how should bioart be defined, how should the field be regulated, and more. They were engaged and kept questioning why these questions were even important. They brought up possible examples of bioart that we had never considered before including tattoos and jewelry made of human remains like children’s teeth or the ashes of loved ones, a practice that has been around for ages. The reason why we chose to hosts the debate at a residential community instead of people around our age group was largely because we wanted to be inclusive to a different generation which means they have different ideas and experiences that shape the way they think about the world, allowing them to bring up examples and perspective that we may not have even heard of. We also asked them, given their experience, whether they thought that bioart would be a field that faded or whether it would stand the test of time. It was a great experience because while we were able to teach and raise awareness to the residents about this field that they hadn’t heard of before, we were also able to learn a lot about how the older generation and public may feel about the ethical issues surrounding the project. At the end of the event, we got feedback from the residents about how they felt about the event both verbally and through handwritten notes. The residents mentioned to us that they really appreciated that the event helped to engage them and allowed them to really think while teaching them about something they hadn’t heard before. One future improvement they suggested for us to consider for a debate event with senior citizens would be to not just have microphones for ourselves, but also to hand them out to the residents because at times, they couldn't understand what other residents were saying as well. Ultimately, the eoutreach debate event was a great learning experience for both us and the residents as well and will be an event we continue to host in the future.

Next Steps for MicroMurals to Increase Inclusivity

In essence, the Cornell iGEM Policy and Practices team truly believes that MicroMurals serves as a catalyst for introducing the field of bioart into an educational setting. This bioart project integrates the sciences and the arts into aesthetic microbial art, enabling us to use this project as a way to advocate for sustainable art and encourage students to pursue interdisciplinary careers in STEM and the liberal arts. While this project is certainly a step in the right direction, there are many ways in which we can further expand our outreach efforts and educate wider groups of people. One way in which our project might be made more inclusive is if we continue to intentionally reach out to populations that might not have immediate access to art. While we had the opportunity to share our BioArt with local senior centers and youth centers like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, we hope to share our project with marginalized communities like those who are incarcerated, experiencing homelessness, and the large migrant worker population in Upstate New York to shed light on this new development in art and science that they otherwise might not have encountered; this would occur in combination with continued outreach to local schools and universities through presentations, ethical debates, and demonstrations. Through this, we hope to combat some of the exclusivity often associated with art and emerging technologies. We are also cognizant of the fact that some may be financially limited from engaging with MicroMurals. As such, we will continue to choose convenient locations and minimize any costs associated with attending some of our outreach events to make MicroMurals accessible to all. In fact, all of our outreach events thus far were free and open to the public!

As aforementioned, one of the defining characteristics of MicroMurals is that they represent a combination of the arts and the sciences. In order to complete the ethics and policy analysis surrounding this project, we had to reference perspectives from leaders in Bioart, microbiology, visual arts, psychology, engineering, bioethics, policy, technology, and education to build a quality project. Continuing to source opinions and insights from a broad range of disciplines would help make our project more inclusive, since it would include more perspectives, which can then reach a wider and more diverse audience. In terms of the microbial art itself, we hope to eventually add a sensory component or tactile materials to MicroMurals so that those who may be visually impaired can still engage with our project. This could accompany our existing exhibit set up, which consists of the MicroMural itself, a written explanation of the project and the design process, and an audio description guide.