I Synthetic Biology Week

In order to expand and strengthen the local synthetic biology community, we organized the I Synthetic Biology Week. There were 7 days of an online event taught in Portuguese, in which lectures, mini-courses, round tables and conversation circles were held. See the schedule below:

There were 118 certified participants, of which 62.7% were women and 52.5% from Minas Gerais. We had the presence of participants from 17 Brazilian states, in addition to the Federal District. In the map below, we show in green, the states that participated:

The videos of the lectures and round tables are available on YouTube and had a total of 1,096 views.

The event was hugely successful. In addition to great feedback, people who participated online entered the world of synthetic biology, participating in other projects we developed, such as the Synthetic Biology Club, the Course of Engineering of Biological Machines and even other projects developed in the biohackerspace Idea Real/ICB UFMG.

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STEAM Initiation for Children from Social Center

"Every child begins as a born scientist. We take that away from them. Only a few go through the system with their admiration and enthusiasm for science intact." ~Carl Sagan

Inspired by the great thinker and scientist Carl Sagan. The project developed in partnership with the NGO Nosso Pequeno Lar has the objective of exploring the intrinsic curiosity of the children assisted by the institution and the awakening of their scientist being.

The project consists of group dynamics that work the scientific method and critical thinking and the teaching of science classes. In addition to visiting environments where science is made.

Meeting 01

Class Proposal I : "Levels of Organization of Life - The Incredible World of Biology"

1.Introduction

Science can be interpreted as human enterprise in order to describe, understand, explain and predict phenomena, as well as the relationships between the characteristics of these phenomena, by the use of empiricism, skepticism, scientific method and technology.

Levels of organization in biology are the hierarchical form of biological structures. This organization is structured based on a lower level (atom) and follows up to a higher level (biosphere). Each of these levels consists of the units present at the previous level, increased in organizational complexity. (mod.)

2.Main Goal

The main objective of this class is to define the concept of science, an introduction to the scientific method in addition to exploring the levels of organization of life.

2.1.Specific Objectives

- Scientific method teaching;

- Understanding the biological organization of life;

- Stimulating interest in scientific study and practice;

3. Materials and Methods

I) Provocations;

Children will be asked questions about what they understand by science and how they see a scientist. From the perspective presented by the students will be created narrative in this context for the explanation and application of the scientific method.

II) Paper sheets with hierarchical illustration of life;

III) 3d parts of atoms for assembling molecules;

4. Results and discussion

The role played by scientific and technological innovations in society is very expressive, whether in politics, economics, culture or education. The redefinition of educational practice is necessary given the acceleration of changes in social relations. The dialogue provided by the interdisciplinarity between the human and natural sciences questions the standard from the mechanistic paradigm leading to a learning process where the student is the main author in the search for knowledge.
The interactive dynamics described in item 3 was developed with 10 students from the NGO Nosso Pequeno Lar whose ages ranged from 8 to 14 years old.
The methodological procedures assumed the character of a descriptive exploratory investigation, through the analysis of what was proposed and presented to the children - exposure of the scientific method and the levels of organization of life - in addition to the dynamics of assembling molecules.
After exploring the levels of organization of life, exposition of how scientific research is carried out and the work of a scientist. The students emphasize the interest in the most diverse areas of science, on the other hand, they also made comments relevant to the professional future they aspire to.
The awakening of interest in the activity proposed to the children was clear, during the discussion they were very participative and answered the questions asked accurately. Such as: What is science? What makes a scientist? The surprise was evident for them when they learned of the possibility of working with science.
Assembling the molecules from the 3D models printed by the Ideia Real Laboratory. There was a lot of adhesion between them, at first they were asked to assemble ready-made molecules of substances such as H2O and O2 and encouraged them to guess what it was about. In the second moment, they were free to assemble the molecules as they wanted and then it was fully explored whether the assembled molecule was existent or not.
With the lecture and the proposed dynamics, the children understood the scientific method and the organization of life on planet earth.

Meeting 02

Class Proposal II : "Visit to the Museum of Natural Sciences of PUC Minas"

1.Introduction

The Museum of Natural Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais is a Brazilian museum of natural sciences, which through exhibitions, education and research, preserves the natural, historical and cultural heritage of Brazil.

2.General objective

Given the interest in awakening children's intrinsic curiosity and the scientist existing in them, as mentioned by Carl Sagan. The team and the Museum of Natural Sciences of PUC Minas partnered to view the institution's facilities on November 12, 2020. The Museum of Natural Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais is a Brazilian museum of natural sciences, which through exhibitions, education and research, preserves Brazil's natural, historical and cultural heritage. The Museum has exhibitions of scientific collections, highlighting the collection of mastozoology, exotic and paleontological fauna. The contact with the past and the present will have inestimable value and an essential contribution to children's knowledge and the creation of their scientific and critical thinking.

2.1.Specific Objectives

- Understand the levels of Life Organization;

- Get to know Brazilian paleontology and fauna;

- Talk about usage and application of these molecules;

3. Materials and Methods

I) Museum Visit;

Resources needed: Museum tickets(we were able to obtain vistation fee exemption), Transportation for 15-20 people, Monitors from NGO and iGEM team, Authorisation for the visit.

4. Expected Results

It is expected that students understand the importance of the preservation of the natural, historical and cultural heritage of Brazil and that the children develop interest in science.

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VI CEMB - Biological Machine Engineering Course

This one week course is inspired by the iGEM structure, so its organiztion is designed in a way to integrate people of differente areas, knowledge level and ages, providing a multiciplinary and a colaborative learning about sythetic biology and co-realted themes.

The content addressed the teams of:

• - Entrepreneurship and inovation
• - Synthetic biology and molecular biology techniques
• - Bioart, maker movement, DIY-Bio and nanobiotechnology
• - Computational modeling of biology sistems
• - iGEM Competition, past projects.

The schedule included speeches of each theme, lectured by renowned professors, like our PIs Mrs. Liza Felicori and Mr. Tiago Mendes, followed by a practical laboratory activity, with 15 hours of hands-on work in total. Throughout the week, our team kindly mentored the participants, with the help of others udergraduate, masters and doctoral students, for a better guidence to the development of their projects. The general idea of the course is for the teams to learn about synthetic biology, and with the knowledge acquired in the activities present a project that solves a especific problem, like a "mini iGEM".

The last day of the course was for the presentation of the projects and awards for the best project by judges choice (our speakers), best project by public choice, best human practices, best biological machine and best entrepreneurial proposal. We had amazing ideas and very good speeches by the participants. Many different projects were created by them

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