Education | Sydney_Australia

Outreach & Engagement

One of the focuses for our outreach and engagement was to engage with under-represented communities in science and technology. As a disability inclusive, gender, racially diverse team ourselves, we wanted to advocate and be role models for these communities by improving their access to scientific resources and experiences.

Tahgara Winter Program

As a part of our commitment to inclusion, one of our outreach activities was for the Tahgara Winter Program, a week-long residential program run by the University of Sydney. This program improves access to university experiences for First Nations (Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander) high school students from across Australia.

We ran a microbiology workshop for 7 students interested in science. Our workshop focused on investigative microbiology and epidemiology, allowing students to analyse the characteristics of various microbes to determine the ‘disease-causing’ agent. Students looked at the macroscopic and microscopic morphology and gram-staining results of Micrococcus, Penicillium, Escherichia, Bacillus and Saccharomyces. Our workshop discussed pathogenic Escherichia as a cause for disease, linking to our project as we discussed the various forms of E. coli, from pathogens, normal flora and research purposes as a model organism. This took place in a PC2 laboratory, allowing us to discuss the relevance and importance of safety when working with microorganisms. The workshop also had ample discussion of microbial-human interactions, introducing the roles microbes have in daily life as well as consequences and mechanisms of manipulating microorganisms, such as mutations or engineering. The workshop was also heavily focused in infectious disease, discussing transmission routes, identification, preventative measures, treatment options, antimicrobial resistance and stewardship. All of these are integrated into and highlight the importance of our project; microbial identification using rapid antigen testing using nanobodies from prokaryotic systems.

While our project was not directly synthetic biology, it utilised and highlighted many aspects of synthetic biology. Our workshop was designed at a high school level to be accessible to students who may have had limited scientific experiences or representation. The goal for this was to spark a general curiosity in science and show that synthetic biology is a possible pathway for these students. Access to university programs, particularly in areas such as science are extremely important for indigenous students to open pathways to tertiary education. One of our iGEM members, Kawana, is a proud Wiradjuri woman from regional NSW who attended this program in high school. This program was fundamental in her pathway to accessing a tertiary education in synthetic biology and increasing her confidence to enter the scientific field.

Here is the microbiology workshop handout and presentation .

Connection to the Syllabus

Our workshop also integrated themes and topics featured throughout the NSW Australian curriculum Biology Stage 6 (Years 11 and 12) Syllabus. The connections between the syllabus and our project are outlined below.

Syllabus Module	Topic	Connection to our workshop and project
Cells as the Basis for Life	Cell types, structures, and functions	Discussing characteristics and structures of different microbes. Our project uses E. coli so looking at the differences in structures between bacteria and other microbes e.g. archaea, fungi, protist, viruses Examining macroscopic and microscopic morphology of microbes Discussing the functions of cell wall composition and performing gram stains to determine structures and relating this to disease treatment such as antibiotic effectiveness
Biological Diversity	Selection pressure and adaptation	Discussing microbial adaptations for pathogenicity and virulence Selection pressures of antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance
Ecoystem Dynamics	Human activities influencing ecosystems	Discussing the effects of human behaviours on microbes, particularly disease emergence and adaptation, relating to the need for rapid antigen testing Implications of biotechnology on various systems and safety considerations such as PC2 labs
Heredity	Replication	Discussing replication methods of microbes, e.g. binary fission – E. coli, discussing how research using these processes
Genetic Change	Mutation and biotechnology	Discussing the effects of mutations of disease and highlighting the importance of antibiotics effective against different microbes, relating this to rapid antigen testing Discussion of biotechnology applications, such as E. coli for research, e.g. cloning and transformation
Infectious Disease	Transmission, prevention, treatment, and control	Discussing microbial safety and considerations for infectious disease Examining how microbes can be pathogenic or beneficial and how microbes can be transmitted Use of antimicrobials for treatment of infections, and the importance of antimicrobial stewardship Importance of identification and prevention methods for infectious disease, linking to our process for creating nanobodies for rapid antigen tests

National Science Week

Our iGEM team developed educational materials that were implemented at the University of Sydney Welcome Week and Sydney Science Trail at the Australian Museum in conjunction with Joint Academy Microbiology Seminars (JAMS) and Synthetic Biology Australasia (SBA). These materials involved students identifying the species of origin for various fluorescent proteins produced in E. coli. We created 4 agar plates using recombinant chloramphenicol resistant TOP10 E. coli expressing various fluorescent proteins from different species outlined in the table below. Using the recombinant E. coli, we drew pictures on the agar plates representing the species the fluorescent proteins came from. Each of these plates was placed into a dark box and could be viewed using UV and non-UV torches. We explained to participants that we engineered these bacteria to fluoresce using proteins from various organisms and asked them to match the plates to printed images of the organism.

We had various UV and non-UV torches available to show the participants how different wavelengths of light can change whether the plates fluoresce and allowed us to discuss how fluorescent and chromo-proteins differ. As well as this, we were able to explain how excitation, absorbance, emission, and fluorescence occurs. We also discussed the ability for microbes to fluoresce and the chemistry of how this occurs as well as where different fluorescent proteins have been found. It also We also raised awareness around synthetic biology and promoted the curiosity of synthetic biology processes such as genetically modifying organisms and the use of recombinant hosts.

Our participants asked a wide range of scientific questions that allowed us to discuss many aspects of synthetic biology from biological processes and synthetic biology to safety and ethical considerations with the use of genetic engineering.