Finding out that communicating around the project and sharing knowledge was
valued by iGEM judging criteria was a true joy for our team. We felt like we should make it a priority
to raise awareness about big issues the world is facing such as hunger and climate change. Moreover, our
encounters with different stakeholders (biotech industries, agricultural organizations, law makers,
consumers) throughout the journey led us to understand the great importance of communicating about the
different steps and actors that enable us to have access to healthy food. Agriculture in general and all
the jobs that are part of this field deserve to be put under the spotlight and we wanted to contribute
to that.
Aside from raising awareness about these issues, we also wanted to show how
biology, and more precisely synthetic biology, could be used to tackle these issues. By doing so, we
jumped on the opportunity to promote this field of research, as well as the iGEM competition.
Communicating our passion for science and engineering especially to
underrepresented communities (such as students enrolled in priority education zones) was also a priority
for us. In particular, the engineering aspect of a biology career deserves to be communicated to all
kinds of public. This led to very convivial moments of discovery, sharing and exchanges of scientific
interests, which were very beneficial to us.
We tried to adapt our actions to a broad variety of publics, from children to actual research associate professors, to allow mutual learning, all the while thoroughly following safety policies.
In order to promote science and research, we went to meet the youngest we could interest
with our project: we spent a nice afternoon with children between 6 and 11 years old at the summer
camp “Maison de l’enfance Henri Wallon” in Vénissieux, France, on the 28th of July.
We covered many different thematics:
The approach of a scientist: starting with a simple problematic, finding hypotheses, thinking about an experiment with a protocol, expressing the results in the appropriate way and finally answering the question.
Hand washing awareness
The omnipresence of bacteria in the world. Indeed, the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic could lead them to fear bacteria and viruses. So, it was important for us to prove to them that even if bacteria are everywhere, many of them are harmless and actually beneficial to their health.
A microbiology activity
We made them take part in a fun activity to show them how amazing science
can be, and it made them really curious: developing a scientific culture at the youngest age is
interesting, but above all, it is the curiosity of these children that astonished us.
Concretely, the first part’s theme was “Why do we wash our hands?”. We
brainstormed to elaborate hypotheses and the plan of the experiment, together with the children.
They then put their fingers on a simple nutrient agar, before and after washing their hands. We were
careful, and made sure it was safe for them to experiment with these media. This experiment was
carried out twice, before and after washing their hands in order to observe the difference. We later
sent them photos of their Petri dishes, so they could observe the microorganisms that grew on
them.
Then, to illustrate the omnipresence of bacteria, every child swabbed a
surface they thought was dirty, in order to observe the presence of bacteria on the different
objects. They presented the expected results under the form of a drawing.
We therefore made them follow all the steps of a scientific experiment,
and they followed the steps brilliantly, showing admirable capacities of observation, deduction and
analysis. It was also a challenge for us to think about how to adapt activities to such a young
public, but we succeeded and learned a lot from this experience. We learned from their curiosity and
their eagerness to learn, as much as they did about the bacteria that surround them.
Ebullisciences is an association that promotes science and
popularizes it via stands. It invites young people (8-13 year olds) and adults to take part
in simple science activities. The aim is to encourage them to develop their own ideas, maybe
fail but then repeat it, to observe, find, in an iterative process, as a scientist would. We
had the opportunity to participate in an event on the 8th of October. We wanted to propose
activities easily adaptable to every age, to encourage a mutual exchange and
discussion.
We prepared an activity where participants could visualize lactic ferments with a microscope. The protocol can be found in the next section, middle and high schools.
We also presented potato diseases and our project. Then, we
proposed little games around bacteria infecting potatoes, as well as enigmas, puzzles and
memory games, etc. We encouraged them to ask questions, and give us ideas.
Children were truly amazed when discovering this activity. We
loved exchanging with them, discovering what they were capable of doing, and understanding
how their mind worked. We also learned how to simplify the explanation of our project, to
make sure they could perfectly understand everything. We loved seeing how happy they were
with themselves when they understood what we were explaining, and how that made them want to
know more.
We managed to have an official meeting with the directors of partner middle and
high schools of INSA Lyon, our engineering school. These headmasters are part of a special
program in collaboration with our school called "cordée de la réussite", a national program
that promotes access to higher education for young people from underprivileged backgrounds
(students enrolled in priority education zones or living in isolated rural areas). Fighting
against social and territorial inequalities is a commitment of our school that has been
passed on to us, and it was therefore important for us to be part of this process.
Following this meeting, we were able to organize an intervention within Paul Eluard, a middle school in Vénissieux, France, on the 6th of October. The aim of this intervention was to promote synthetic biology, its applications through the iGEM competition, as well as our project.
We organized simple activities: starting with a Kahoot with questions on microbiology, bacteria, GMOs, the environment, sustainability and responsible production and consumption. We then encouraged them to ask questions, explained the answers at the end and did a small presentation on the world of microbiology (the invisible world): microorganisms, lab working conditions, examples of jobs, possible applications, and finally what the iGEM competition is all about. Then, by groups, students could experience visualizing with a microscope bacteria from lactic ferments.
Similarly to children in the summer camp, they also experienced placing fingers
on a Petri dish with a simple agar medium, before and after washing their hands with soap.
Since we could not wait overnight to show them the results, pictures from plates we did
ourselves the day before were shown. Their own plates’ pictures were sent to them later on.
Again, we adapted activities to the public we were exchanging
with. These activities were very successful and were probably as educational for the
children, as they were refreshing in the middle of a day of classes. They seemed amazed by
everything we were telling or showing. They even asked if they could do an internship with
us in the lab!
If we could spark the academic ambition of these students to give each one of them the means to succeed in the construction of their career path and to awake a scientific awareness, this would be a victory for us. Working with the professors enrolled in these programs was truly inspiring for our team. They are extremely interested in other interventions of our team within their schools, even after the iGEM competition, and we are excited to be given the opportunity to carry on promoting iGEM and synthetic biology to as many people as possible!
A forum within the biosciences department of INSA Lyon
The biosciences department of our college hosted a forum (22-23rd of March), destined towards
early engineering students. The aim of this forum is to help them make a choice between
different specializations. We were lucky enough to obtain a spot at this forum, and jumped on
the occasion to promote the iGEM competition, the applications of synthetic biology and our
project. We wanted to give a foresight of the great things you can accomplish when joining the
bioengineering speciality.
As we were talking to early engineers, we presented all these aspects in
a fun, but scientific way, to encourage discussions around the subject.
A conference to third year undergraduate students of INSA Lyon
On the 16th of September, we had the opportunity to welcome 80 newcomers at our college. We
introduced iGEM to them, as a possibility for their future in the biosciences department of the
school. Our goal was to show them how they will be able to use their biology education to tackle
global problems, and encourage them to think about forming new teams for the years to come.
We presented this under the form of a short conference, but also an open
discussion, to encourage them to ask questions and give us their advice.
They were really amazed and interested by the project, and we are looking
forward to seeing a future team forming within this promotion!
To feed our interventions, we imagined and created a card game, enabling
us to show and share basic concepts of molecular biology in an entertaining manner. This game is
inspired from Rafts!. This was a huge success at every event we brought it to, and it was also a
reward for our donors from the crowdfunding platform. The aim of this game is to show people what it
is possible to do with synthetic biology, particularly regarding global issues.
Making science fun was truly rewarding, it was an efficient way to communicate our project to:
children who were discovering the concepts,
science lovers who were not only happy to be able to recognize elements but
also to learn new things while having fun,
experts who were able to appreciate the concepts present in the game and were
sensitive to the humor that we incorporated.
This game is also available and made accessible on our Contribution page, so anyone can use
it!
To make sure that everyone could understand FIAT LUX and its
applications, we developed a comic that you can find on the Homepage. It is written in a simple and
friendly manner, so that anyone could understand the potential of our tool.
We used this comic as a support throughout our communication.
As part of our human practices study, we sent out a survey to be filled. The aim of this survey was to communicate about our project and learn more about their consumption habits. Through this survey, we also aimed at finding out how much people knew about potatoes, with simple questions, followed by answers. We received good feedback from people who filled it out!
Seminar within our laboratory
On the 30th of September, we had the opportunity to host a seminar in the
lab our PIs are working in. This was a
unique chance to confront ourselves and the communication of our project to experienced researchers.
Again, this was a huge change for us, as we had to adjust our
communication material for experienced researchers. We learnt how to present our project in a
concise and precise way. We emphasized on the environmental context that led us to create this
project, how synthetic biology could address this issue, the scientific and biological mechanisms
behind FIAT LUX, the scientific results and conclusions. The aim was to communicate around our tool.
This experience taught us a lot about how to communicate in science, be
precise and concise and answer specific questions. We got valuable feedback, and this experience was
extremely beneficial to us. We also felt like this presentation was interesting for these
researchers, and we enjoyed presenting our research to them.
SynBio Symposium Paris
Together with a few other French iGEM teams, we were invited to present
and pitch our project at the SynBio symposium in Paris, on the 14th of September.
Again, being able to present our project in front of other iGEM teams and
scientists was very enriching for us, and we learned a lot. We practiced answering detailed and more
scientific questions about the project. We also met a few other Parisian iGEM teams, and we loved
connecting and exchanging with them over the iGEM competition.
Scientific popularization
Awareness on important topics of today’s context
Phytopathogen treatments and biocontrol vs pesticides + environmental
problems:
Dickeya solani and the blackleg potato disease:
Food security and hunger:
We regularly posted stories with simple questions and scientific problems, to encourage
thinking and discussions! As well as Instagram, we posted similar posts on Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn.
Throughout this iGEM season, we strived to make education and communication a priority. We
made sure to touch a broad public, of different ages and experience in science. We made sure to adjust
the material and activities to our public, to encourage discussion and mutual learning. Our goal was to
talk about the science behind synthetic biology, but also public values, such as food sources, global
sustainability and responsible production and consumption. We learnt so much from all these different
interventions, and want to thank all of the actors that made these possible. We hope that these
interventions helped:
children learn more about synthetic biology
students learn about iGEM, synthetic biology and the possible careers of this sector
college students in the choice of their specialty
scientists learn more about our project and the potential of FIAT LUX
the general public learn more about techniques, synthetic biology and different global issues.
We hope that all these different interventions and activities will inspire future iGEM teams and enable them to build upon our work to promote education and communication.
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