Education & Communication
Introduction
Despite legislation and regulatory frameworks, a large part of the population is skeptical about Synthetic Biology and Genetically Modified Microorganisms. Therefore there was an important occasion to investigate the views of the public, and to find ways of educating and reconciling with the concept of Synthetic Biology and its applications, especially in environmental, agricultural and nutritional issues. The Education and Science Communication actions of Human Practices Team focused on a wide spectrum of audiences, including kids, students of all ages and academic levels, people in STEM and general public from different backgrounds.
Informative posts
Here are some informative posts about our project which aims to raise public awareness about precision agriculture and the innovative practices that are used.
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TIL: Today I Learned
The TIL is a series of very short texts that provide basic information for the better understanding of certain scientific methods and terminologies. Thus, the public is informed without tiring texts.
TIL Soil Edition
Today I learned...about soil!
Stay tuned for more interesting facts.
TIL Precision Agriculture
Today I learned...about precision agriculture!
Stay tuned for more interesting facts.
TIL Drones Edition
Today I learned...about drones!
Stay tuned for more interesting facts.
TIL NGS
Today I learned...about Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology!
Stay tuned for more interesting facts
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Remote Sensing
Some examples of precision agriculture include drones used for Remote Sensing, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and irrigation technologies. The goal of precision agriculture is to learn new management practices to increase the profitability of agriculture production. This new technology is to assist farmers to maximize their profitability and automize their everyday tasks.
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Green Biotechnology (part 1 & 2)
Biotechnology includes biological processes that are utilized to produce useful or commercially viable products and to provide services beneficial to humans. It extends to many sectors, one of which is environmental protection.
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Nanopore Sequencing
What is Nanopore sequencing?
Nanopore sequencing is a unique, scalable technology that enables direct, real-time analysis of DNA or RNA molecules.
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Metagenomics
What is metagenomics?
Metagenomics is the study of the structure and function of nucleotide sequences isolated and analyzed from all the organisms (usually microbes) in an environmental sample.
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PCR
We will introduce you to the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)!
To know more about different techniques in synthetic biology, remember to visit #SynBioOtd! The activity is co-hosted by iGEM CityU and iGEM CUHK-Hong Kong-SBS ATREUS.
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Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the science of both storing lots of complex biological data, and of analyzing it to find new insights, which we use in many different ways.
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iGEM Competition and iGEM Patras' project 2022
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Marie Curie by iGEM Patras - Science despite the odds
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iGEM Patras x ASU iGEM
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Syn Sentido by iGEM ITESO Guadalajara
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UBC iGEM Team
Video Series "iGEM Patras asks about"
iGEM is an international competition, in which all participating teams around the world have one main passion in common, which is no other than 'Synthetic Biology'. Our team however realized that there are some difficulties that a team has to overcome to communicate this scientific concept further to the public. One of them, and of great importance is the language barrier. Thus our team, mainly concentrating on an inclusivity and educational purpose, created a series of informative videos, named "iGEM Patras asks about...", about the iGEM Competition, Synthetic Biology, Wet Lab and Dry Lab subgroups.
More precisely, we collaborated with iGEM teams around the globe and asked each of them to create a video answering four different questions in their native language, and translate the script in English, which is an internationally spoken language and would be used as subtitles.
Our team then collected the videos, edited them and created four videos in 7 different languages. In this initiative we collaborated with iGEM IISERTVM, iGEM Heidelberg, IISER Mohali, TecCEM, ASU iGEM, HKUST iGEM, IISER Tirupati, which created videos in Hindi, Bengali, German, Spanish, English, Mandarin respectively, and our Team in Greek.
These videos were later published in our Youtube channel. We believe that by this initiative, we managed to break this barrier, showing that the passion for science and accessibility to knowledge can not be limited by linguistic differences, as well as emphasizing the uniqueness of each language.
You can watch the videos here!
Comic "Synthetic Biology Mischief"
During the early steps of our team, we tried to figure out the nature of the iGEM competition, thus responding to the question 'What exactly is Synthetic Biology?' We soon understood that none of us had realized fully the various applications of Synthetic Biology, as well as their scientific impact. As a consequence, the Human Practices team came up with the idea of a comic's creation, "Synthetic Biology Mischief" which targets students of primary and secondary level of education in an attempt to familiarize the younger age groups with the concept of Synthetic Biology and some of its applications in an interactive kid friendly way.
We decided to write an English and a Greek script and after the scenario was ready, one of our team's members illustrated the comic. In the end, we were all very pleased with the result but the Human Practices Team taking under consideration the educational character of this project decided to expand the target group to students of more countries. So, we knew it was time for collaboration with foreign iGEM teams! As iGEM Patras, we made an open call at the global slack for teams which wanted to translate our English script in any language they could. The correspondence was immediate and huge and our team was more than grateful for this!
iGEM USP-EEL translated our script in Portuguese, Costa Rica iGEM in Spanish and French, iGEM Bulgaria in Bulgarian, iGEM Gothenburg in Swedish, iGEM Atreus CUHK HongKong in a chinese dialect and iGEM twcsmu in Chinese, iGEM gdl, iGEM Ashesi in Twi (Ghanaian local dialect), iGEM koreahs in Korean, iGEM nu in Kazakh, iGEM Hkust in Cantonese, Ben-Gurion University iGEM in Hebrew and Haalto-Helsinski iGEM made the finnish translation and iGEM Pharaohs in Egyptian. Through this action, our Team was able to communicate the enchanting world of Synthetic Biology in 14 countries, engaging students of different ages to stimulate their curiosity around Biology and its applications!
Educational Articles
An important part of our team's attempt to make Synthetic Biology and our project more accessible to the general public, was publishing informative articles on local websites and magazines, as well as on agrifood related websites.
Scientific Journal of the University of Patras
This communication process began with the University of Patras' student magazine, called @Up, where we introduced the iGEM Competition and its goals, our Team, as well as the basic pillars of our project. This was a great opportunity to inform University students from many different fields to know better about Synthetic Biology and understand our project, and how they could possibly get involved in the iGEM Competition, as it is an initiative characterized by interdisciplinarity.
"The Best" Website
We decided to expand the target group and address to the general public, so we published a simplified article on local site "The Best", communicating our project in a comprehensible manner, as well as the contribution in the field of agriculture, so that we can raise awareness to a local and national problem. By these means, more people would get to understand effectively the applications of Synthetic Biology in solving daily problems and providing prominent solutions.
№ 2 Magazine
№ 2 is a magazine addressing themes that revolve around Health and Nutrition. Given that project PAGGAIA aims to improve crop yield and food quality, we published an article on our projects' contribution to the agri-food sector, again in a comprehensible and simplified manner.
Agropublic
Agropublic is a magazine for farmers and scientists in the field of agriculture. Our Team published an article on the concept of Precision Agriculture and how our project will provide a useful tool for farmers to improve crop yield in a bio-sustainable way. There was also referring to Sustainable Agricultural practices in this direction. In this way, we tried to inform more and more farmers and those interested in the field of agriculture about the possibilities of the project and how they could be benefitted.
Participation in Conferences and Events
Our team participated in a variety of conferences and webinars, with the ultimate goal of disseminating the iGEM Competition as well as our project and our goals to a great spectrum of audiences.
Omic Engine Symposium 2022
Our Team participated in the first Conference for this year, OMIC-Engine, which took place on April 14-16, 2022 at the National Technical University of Athens. Among the main topics of the Symposium was the contribution of Synthetic Biology to Agri-Food, omic technologies that enable Synthetic Biology in Agrobiology and the contribution of Engineering to the evolution of Synthetic Biology for a sustainable development strategy. Our Team had the chance to gain precious knowledge regarding our project and present previous iGEM projects from the legacy of our lab, along with other Greek iGEM Teams.
1st Conference "Volunteering from the University of Patras in Society for Solidarity, Prosperity & Sustainability"
In an attempt to better communicate the Global sustainable goals, and how our project ensures sustainability, our team participated in the 1st Conference "Volunteering from the University of Patras in Society for Solidarity, Prosperity & Sustainability" which took place between 5th and 6th of May 2022 at the University of Patras. During the conference our team had the opportunity to meet fellow voluntary teams from the University of Patras, present our project and exchange ideas on how to approach our project's goals. There, our Team communicated to fellow students from different scientific majors, how Synthetic Biology can contribute to create sustainable societies and a positive environmental impact. As a team which targets environmental conservation and protection, we also had the opportunity to talk about ways of making our University campus greener by planting trees in various empty untapped spaces between the buildings along with other university students. Lastly, we participated in a live radio show organized by UP FM, the official radio station of the students of the University. During the live show, we introduced our team and our project to the general public and answered the questions of the interviewers regarding our future collaborations and actions.
28th Scientific Conference of Medical Students of Greece (ESFIE) & 16th International Forum of Medical Students and Young Doctors
It was a very important conference, that was held by EEFIE, a medical students' association in Greece, that offered our team the chance to present our project to medical students and doctors on the 14th and 15th of May 2022. Our team presented in a rather interactive way our project, by firstly inviting the participants to join a small Synthetic Biology in Agriculture quiz. Then we presented our goals and hopes for this project among other Greek iGEM teams. This was a great opportunity to highlight our participation in the competition and spread its philosophy, but we also got the chance to communicate for the first time with other fellow Greek iGEM teams in person.
4th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students
Our team participated in the 4th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students on the 14th and 15th May 2022, organized by ATP, a greek pharmacy students association, in order to raise public awareness about Synthetic Biology and to promote the values of the iGEM Competition. We communicated our project to young pharmacy and medicine students, as well as professors. Also, we came in contact with other iGEM teams and student teams, discussing our projects and networking.
Webinar on Sustainable Agriculture and the role of Synthetic Biology with iGEM Thessaly and AVEROFEIO Agro-Food Technology Park
Our Team participated in the webinar with Averofio Agro-Food Technology Park of Thessaly and iGEM Thessaly, on the role of Synthetic Biology in sustainable agriculture, on 13th of September 2022. The purpose of the webinar was to inform the audience about the agri-food sector and the importance of Synthetic Biology. Along with iGEM Thessaly, our team presented its project, informing the public and people involved in the agricultural sector about our teams and their goals. The thematology also included contemporary environmental issues arising during the production process, and how to promote principled sustainable practices of Synthetic Biology. Our Team gained precious knowledge from speakers about the importance of Synthetic Biology in the agricultural field, and got the chance to attend the Sustainable Agriculture Handbook that iGEM Thessaly presented.
Synbio for Agriculture Team Meetup
At the same time, our team participated in the online SynBio for Agriculture MeetUp. The event was hosted by team Thailand_RIS and was a great opportunity for teams to come together and make connections, present, and discuss their projects, as well as ask for suggestions and help on project related aspects. Our Team seized the opportunity to exchange ideas with other iGEM Teams with similar projects and goals, finding a chance in building new collaborations!
iGEM Pharaohs Conference
We also had the chance to take part in iGEM Pharaohs conference, by presenting online to college students in Egypt our project and its applications. We were really grateful for this opportunity and made new acquaintances with other iGEMers!
Golden Helix Summer School
Our team had the chance to present our project at the 2022 Golden Helix Summer School. The Summer School educational program focused on Genome Informatics and Health Economics in Genomic and Personalized Medicine, aiming to familiarize and educate participants with the basic and advanced notions of applying genomic science into medicine. Our team participated as speakers, presenting Metagenomics and NGS analysis in the context of our project, in front of researchers from all around the world!
TEDxPatras 2022
In an attempt to communicate our project and its goals, we participated in TEDxPatras 2022, which took place on the 8th of October 2022 at the University of Patras. The main theme was "Metamorphosis", so our team saw an interesting chance to communicate how Synthetic Biology can transform societies and how we aim to achieve this through project PAGGAIA. During the conference our team had the opportunity to communicate with high school students, University students from different major fields, as well as the general public. There, we communicated the advantages and prospects of Synthetic Biology and exchanged ideas on sustainable development and environmental protection. We also distributed the educational comic that our team created about Synthetic Biology (more for the comic here) and the pamphlets that we created in collaboration with iGEM ULaval, iGEM Stockholm and iGEM Thessaloniki (You can find more on the collaboration here), which address different age range and academic level, including and involving more and more of the participants in the process of getting to know more about Synthetic Biology. There, we also met with iGEM Patras Med, who was also present at the conference, with whom we gave an interview about the competition and our projects and had a great time!
iGEM Patras Podcast
Our team created a series of Podcasts with a variety of educational topics around iGEM Competition, SynBio and science. Podcasts are a very convenient means of learning new information and can be accessible to many different groups of people, including the visually impaired and blind people:
Our team talked about the global competition of iGEM and our team through the journey of representing the University of Patras in it. More specifically, we took a look back at the history of the competition and the history of the team of iGEM Patras. Then we explained more about the field our team is involved with and the goals we want to achieve this year. We introduced the concept of Precision Agriculture, in order to raise public awareness about agriculture's need for modernization.
This episode was a collaboration with iGEM KU Leuven, about one of the episodes in their series of podcasts, called "Science despite the odds", dedicated to the ways scientists overcome their problems. We chose to talk about Marie Curie. The life and work of this prominent scientist is always fascinating and always worth talking about. We wanted to shed light to other women in STEM who have either been our predecessors or are nowadays working on the scientific field and making progress.
This episode was a collaboration with ASU iGEM. The goal of this episode is the promotion of the project of ASU iGEM. ASU iGEM deals with an important problem about the water purity and democratization of water in Arizona, aiming to achieve some of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. So, in this podcast we discussed ASU iGEM's project and we're given the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the problem they are trying to solve. By asking and answering questions about it, we tried to raise public awareness about water pollution.
This episode is a collaboration with iGEM ITESO Guadalajara. The team of iGEM ITESO interviewed us about our project. Our team explained why we chose to deal with Precision Agriculture, the SDGs that our project aims to achieve, the course of our work, the difficulties we faced and why we decided to create podcasts. It was a great opportunity to inform people about the progress of our project, raise awareness about a local problem and the solution we would like to provide.
This is an ongoing collaboration with the UBC iGEM team. We discussed our projects with UBC iGEM and found the similarities and the common goals between our teams. Our projects both deal with agricultural growth and address the Sustainable Development Goal #12, Responsible production & consumption. Both our projects create tools that will result in more sustainable food production systems, and that is why we decided to collaborate on a podcast where we would invite individuals working towards this SDG to inspire and educate people about this. Although UBC iGEM focuses on the cellular mechanisms of the crops, the main objective of our projects was alike. A major goal for our team is to help achieve some of the SDGs, especially to reduce world hunger.
Survey on GMOs and Synthetic Biology
We believe that a great way of engaging the public actively and further communicating the concept of Synthetic Biology and the iGEM Competition, is no other than scientific surveys. Thus we collaborated with Team-IISER Mohali,Team-IISER TVM and Team-AFCM in a survey, initiated and developed by Team-IISER Mohali regarding GMOs and Synthetic Biology. We translated the survey in Greek after it obtained approval from a Bio-Ethics Committee member, a Social Science Researcher from the Team's Institute, concerning the informed consent used. It was later released to the public in a convenient way using a Google Forms format. The participant could choose the language that was prefered and all data was collected anonymously by Team-IISER Mohali. By taking part in this collaboration we can gain an image on the opinion that exists in different countries, age groups and levels of education concerning the use of GMOs and the field of Synthetic Biology and then we will be able to develop more innovative ways to communicate knowledge and widen the public's horizons on such matters, as future scientists.
Level Up!
A Science Communication Collaboration
Aiming to include more and more people to communicate with Synthetic Biology, we formed a Science Communication collaboration with iGEM ULaval, iGEM Stokholm and iGEM Thessaloniki, and created pamphlets about Synthetic Biology and its applications, addressing to people of all ages. This activity was called "Level Up" and aimed at learning basic applications of Synthetic Biology in Medicine, Chemistry, and Agriculture, and daily life in general.
The pamphlets were at 4 different levels of complexity to target four different audiences: primary students: (5-7 years), secondary students (12-17 years), University students (18-24 years) and PhD, Master students (24< years). Through this constructive collaboration, we created informative material for the general public, and accessible regardless of age and academic level, making it possible for everyone to understand basic concepts of Synthetic Biology, and how it can be used to create a more responsible society. People had the chance to move to the "next level" , by picking the corresponding pamphlet and getting informed about SynBio and iGEM Competition as well.
These pamphlets were distributed throughout our Team's participation in TEDxPatras 2022 and during our visit to the Experimental High School of Chalkida.
2022 International Bioremediation Conference
iGEM Patras in collaboration with ASU iGEM and iGEM TecCEM organized the 2022 International Bioremediation Conference, iGEM's first online conference on bioremediation, to raise awareness about water pollution and the bio-sustainable solutions our projects can offer through Synthetic Biology. The educational program included many interesting speeches around this theme, from hydrogeologists, biotechnologists, ambassadors for SDGs, environmentalists, and industrial chemical engineers. The topic was approached in a versatile way, from causes, to consequences and solutions, as well as the environmental impact and the SDGs for a sustainable and responsible confrontation. Also every iGEM Team presented its project and how they may contribute to the problem.
Experimental High School of Chalkida
Our team visited the experimental High School of Chalkida and presented the PAGGAIA project to its students, as well as the professional perspectives in the field of Synthetic Biology. At the same time, the "Level up" pamphlets were distributed and the students attended some videos from our video series "iGEM Patras asks about" and had the chance to learn about iGEM Competition and the possibilities of Synthetic Biology.