Public Engagement
As iGEMers, we understand that attending the iGEM competition is not only about accomplishing project goals based on what we have designed and built, but also about publicizing knowledge by reaching out to the community. Several public engagement projects have been organized with the vision of introducing the knowledge of synthetic biology to audiences from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, which include the general public and those who speak traditional dialects in our community.
1. Educational Posts on Social Media
Our team thought of releasing educational posts on social media platforms because they enable engagement with a wider audience. On our official Facebook and Instagram webpage, we shared topics about microbiology, including the growth characteristics of E. coli, as well as topics related to our project, such as common methods for monitoring bacterial growth and introduction to fluorescent protein. Within each post, we explained the profound in simple terms, and gave the audience sufficient background information so that the concept is easily comprehensible. While designing our posts, we recognized that teaching is not only a passive, one-way route. Therefore, we asked them questions that could stimulate critical thinking and enable them to reflect on what they have learned.
2. NYCU Tâi-Gí Educational Cooperation Project - Educational Video in Native Language
This year, the NYCU-Taipei iGEM team reached out to NYCU Tâi-gí, an organization devoted to the promotion of traditional native languages in Taiwan, to cooperate on an education project on synthetic biology. Taiwanese Hokkien, pronounced “Tâi-gí” in its language, is spoken natively by over 70% of the country's population. It is an important cultural heritage of our nation, commonly used in rural areas and mainly spoken by the older generation. Our goal is to combine traditional language with science in a creative way so that people from different cultural and educational backgrounds could get equal access to recent trends in society. We shared our educational video on both of our Official Youtube Websites, and added English and Chinese subtitles to enhance understanding from multilingual aspects.
3. Podcast
Podcast, a widely used digital radio which allows thought and ideas to be shared by voice, is a great platform for us to share the knowledge of synthetic biology with the audience. During the Human Practices collaboration between our team and the Wego_Taipei team, we were invited to be the first guest of their podcast Project, Eutro in Vitro. It was a podcast program which invited different iGEM teams in each episode to share their team project. In the podcast, we spoke about the reason for choosing our project, E. color, and what roles did synthetic biology play in it. Also, we talked about the Implementation of our project, including basic research, industrial production and clinical research, by which we hope to enable the audience to think about the wide application of synthetic biology. We treasured every access we were able to engage the public in synthetic biology, and we believe that more and more people would notice the issues of synthetic biology and iGEM through our effort.
To view more details about how we and Wego_Taipei team collaborate and have a partnership throughout the iGEM journey, please visit the Partnership & Collaboration page!
Education
Overview
The NYCU-Taipei iGEM team values the opportunity to implement educational events and design outreach materials that are accessible to a wider audience. We believe that responsibility lies on us to pass on our knowledge and experience to younger students. By designing education programs for high school students and holding an on-campus seminar, we successfully enhanced mutual communication and stimulated interest in the field of synthetic biology.
1. Taipei American School Summer Internship Program (July 4th ~ August 5th, 2022)
In June, we invited senior students studying in Taipei American School (TAS) to participate in a five-week summer internship program. This is a special and valuable experience for our team to make progress together with TAS students and learn from each other throughout the process. To ensure that students could gain practical knowledge and learn all the experimental skills, we arranged a well-knit schedule that covers all aspects of synthetic biology.
Week 1
Safety Training
&
Basic Techniques
Week 1
We conducted safety training and introduced basic equipment and techniques in a microbiological lab, including plasmid extraction, gel extraction, enzyme digestion, ligation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We explained the principles behind each procedure so that they learn how to apply them according to different experimental conditions.
Week 2
Introduction to the World
of Synthetic Biology
Week 2
We gave them lectures on synthetic biology and encouraged live discussion through interactive teaching. By the end of the session, students are familiar with the main concepts of synthetic biology, BioBrick components and key DNA assembly methods. We also mentioned safety considerations that should be taken into account when engineering constructs. From now on, they are ready to design their own experiments!
Week 3
Project Brainstorming
&
Problem-Solving
Week 3
We shared our project design with the students and invited them to join in our lab meeting. They developed a strong interest in problem-solving when we discussed possible solutions to optimize our experimental results. Throughout the brainstorming process, they learned that critical thinking, open communication and cooperation are the essential skill sets for a research team.
Week 4
Dry Lab Core Skills -
Device and Modeling
Week 4
Members of the dry lab group gave students lectures on machine learning and taught them how to draw a computer-aided engineering design. The students also learned basic programming using Python and MATLAB. We also introduced them to modeling tools SimBiology and 3D printing, so that they get a clearer depiction of the device and modeling aspect of an iGEM project.
Week 5
End Project Demonstration
&
Experience Sharing
Week 5
The students demonstrated results of their small synthetic biology project. Using skills learned from the past four weeks, they successfully made new constructs by exchanging fluorescent genes between plasmids using restriction enzymes. By the end of the internship, they gave us a handmade art piece featuring our engineered “Fluorescent E. coli” as a present!
TAS students participating in the summer internship program
TAS students conducting experiments
Introduction to laboratory equipment and techniques
Lecture and discussion session
TAS students and the 2022 NYCU-Taipei iGEM team
Our wet lab handbook for TAS internship
Our dry lab handbook for TAS internship
2. NYCU On-Campus Synthetic Biology Seminar
In order to promote education on synthetic biology-related topics, we held an on-campus seminar and invited students from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University to attend our activity. Within the 2-hour event, we introduced the concept of synthetic biology, the iGEM competition, and our project - E. color, and had live discussions.
- I. Introduction to Synthetic Biology
- What is synthetic biology? How did this concept originate? How did synthetic biology develop over the past few decades? What are the advantages and challenges of synthetic biology applications? How can we apply synthetic biology to improve our daily lives? We used easily understandable analogy - LEGO bricks - to break down a hard concept, and provided many examples of how synthetic biology can be used to solve real-life problems.
- II. Introduction to iGEM
- As iGEMers, we are interested in introducing iGEM to a wide audience. How to start an iGEM journey? What important values do iGEM teams have to keep in mind? How is work divided among members? What are the deliverables, and how to choose a group to join in?
- III. What did NYCU-Taipei do this year?
- In the last part of our seminar, we introduced our project, E. color, which enabled the participants to have a deeper impression on the details of an iGEM journey. Finally, we designed an interactive Kahoot! game to test whether the participants have grasped the key points within our lecture. Our supervisor, Dr. Jane also shared her experience and thoughts with everyone.
This synthetic biology seminar successfully promoted students' interest in the field of synthetic biology. Most importantly, we got the opportunity to outreach and communicate with people who haven't ever heard of this aspect. The creative teaching material, including the tutorial video and QA discussion slides evoked mutual conversation and active participation.