We conducted extensive outreach throughout the duration of our project, reaching out to as broad a base as we had the ability to. We spoke to people of varying ages and socio-economic backgrounds, to disseminate information regarding our project and about science in general.

Starting from the very first day, we tried to construct a Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle for our educational endeavours - We would create detailed lesson plans and presentations for events, and try to have a clear idea of what we are trying to accomplish with the session, and how and why we are planning to do so.

Following each event, we tried to assess our own performance and the impact we had on our audience. Whenever possible, we would distribute tailored feedback forms to our audience, to try and gauge how they responded to our session, what they learned, how they learned best, what worked and what didn’t. We also used our own instincts to judge the same.

We would use this information to adjust our later sessions, so our audience would learn better.

We conducted multiple sessions for schoolchildren aged 9-16, to teach them the basic principles of microbiology and synthetic biology. We tried to convey to them the wonder of working in biology, and the strange and incredible things that can be achieved through genetic and cellular manipulation.

We used what we learned in the first sessions to adjust the later ones - including more use of the chalkboard, references of pop-cultural figures in our presentations, and making a point of targeting an all-girls school, when it became evident to us that the gender gap in STEM started early.

In addition to schools, we also reached out to vulnerable members of our society. Dengue affects those most strongly who have limited access to healthcare, so we felt it important to speak to some of these disadvantaged demographics, and understand their perspectives on the problem we were trying to address.

We visited the women at the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, a home for distressed women. We talked to them about their experiences with dengue, and listened to their stories.

We visited an orphanage run by the same trust, to teach the children there about dengue, biology and basic practices of hygiene.

We set up a synthetic biology exhibit at the Science Fest, a part of our institute’s flagship event, Mimamsa, a national quiz for undergraduate students. It is an event that elevates and lauds skill in critical thinking and comprehension; we decided to use it to introduce visitors of all ages to biology, through a trivia quiz, DNA origami and microscopy, both of pre-prepared samples and samples that people brought to us right there. We were able to show them the microorganisms that swim around in pond water, and the stomata of a potted plant that was growing near the stall.

We created material to help lay-people understand dengue, immunology, and synthetic biology - ensuring to the best of our abilities that they would be truly effective in reaching their desired audience. This included translating our content into regional languages, and communicating it in regional languages when we couldn’t. We kept all of it as free of jargon as possible.

We made a fun card game (PlasmiX) to help people understand how restriction enzymes work on plasmids, and the basic principles of cloning. The game was designed using a colourblind friendly palette to widen our reach.

We created a survey regarding dengue that we used to measure people’s understanding of the disease, and simultaneously dispense information regarding the same. We tried to design the questions to be short and succinct, so it would be easier for people to absorb the information provided. We translated this survey into five languages other than English.

For maximum dispersal of basic safety practices regarding dengue, we created a short anti-dengue pamphlet regarding the same. We translated it into seven regional languages.

We created an activity book (ImmunoWorld: An activity book for Young Scientists) for children, with anthropomorphised versions of immune cells, telling a short story on how they defend the body from infection. We took copies of this book to a nearby ‘vasthi’ (slum) to share it with the children there. We sat with them and explained the story in languages they understood, and helped them do the activities in the book. Copies of the book were donated to Abhyasika, an organisation at our college that promotes and facilitates school-level education in the Vasti.

We were also lucky enough to have the chance to speak with primary and secondary school science teachers, and tackle the issues with science pedagogy from the ground.

We talked about teaching practices with them, and encouraged them to think about what their favourite teachers had done to earn the title. We suggested changes they could make in their classrooms to help their students learn better, and discussed the impediments they face in trying to become more effective educators, like administrative pressures and resource constraints.

In addition to the above, we hosted two talks as part of our series, Immunotalks -

The first featured talks by Dr Mehmet Berkmen and Dr Narendra Chirmule, who respectively spoke about the synthesis of full-length antibodies in SHuffle E.coli and about gene therapy.

The second featured a talk by Dr Satyajit Rath, who spoke eloquently about the nature of the immune system, and how it fits within the logic of evolution.

We also co-hosted a webinar with Team MIT MAHE regarding biosafety. The speaker, Dr Vinod Jyothikumar, spoke about dual use and the threat posed by irresponsible behaviour with gene-editing tools.

Finally, we also helped organise a blood donation drive by The Rotary Club, Pune, at our institute. We spoke to the donors and medical personnel about dengue and recorded people taking the Dengue pledge we had written for World Dengue day.

We did the above in a more unstructured manner at a local park, where we asked the children what they knew about dengue, and corrected their misconceptions regarding the same.

We also posted more informal educational content on our Instagram page, in the form of the series 'Zeitgeist' and 'Splice of Life', and regular stories that updated people on our lives and the progress of our project. Along with this, we posted a video of people across the world taking our "Let's fight Dengue" pledge, along with informational videos about compound microscopy and slide preparation.