Video Collection for the General Public
We collaborated with the William & Mary and JHU iGEM teams to create a collection of videos outlining the basic principles of synthetic biology, such as chassis selection, minipreps, and gel electrophoresis. Our goal was to provide educational material to iGEM participants as a starting point for developing projects and also the general public. Our team’s specific role was to collect feedback from iGEMers and others in biology research to finetune the videos and make them accessible to a larger audience. We also reposted the videos to the youtube channel of Genspace, one of our host labs, for a greater outreach. We aimed to bring synthetic biology to people who are curious about the subject but unsure of where to start learning.
Check out the JHU team's entertaining and educational work-in-progress videos that we contributed feedback for and which we hope will help educate others about the basics of lab science and synthetic biology.
Connecting PCB History and Local Community
By talking to EPA officials and other experts in the field, we came to realize that the decision to test for PCBs in the environment is largely made by local governments and communities. Therefore, we wanted to raise awareness about the issue and what our team is doing to solve it to members of our own community. We wrote an article about the history of PCBs and its role in the environmental justice movement. We are in the process of getting it published in CHARM: Voices of Baltimore Youth, a youth literary magazine targeting young adults in Baltimore. We are also disseminating it via our lab e-newsletters and PCBusters social media accounts.
Social Media Outreach
We developed and managed a twitter and an instagram account educating the public about PCBs and synthetic biology concepts. We created posts about the symptoms of PCBs, the Monroe School District, and congressional acts surrounding the chemicals. Our social media accounts offer a means of dialogue for people interested in synthetic biology and PCBs. We have kept an impartial point of view at all times so our audience can formulate opinions based on facts. According to Instagram analytics, our account has reached a total of 552 people over the last 30 days.
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