Diversity and Inclusion

Accessible Synthetic Biology Pamphlets

We first came across the idea of focusing on education for students from underprivileged backgrounds from one of our members who had prior contacts with social programs dedicated to this. This idea was further consolidated when discussing it with our supervisor who has years of experience in Education as well as many contacts that aim to make it inclusive to all. After additional research, we identified that education enormously lacks inclusion. The Education Policy Institute reports that, in secondary schools in England, disadvantaged students are on average 18.1 months of learning behind their peers [1]. The Education Endowment Foundation has also identified a significant attainment gap between the two groups [2]. Our team was therefore motivated to ensure our research was available to all.

Our goal was to create a self-contained, accessible and digestible material going over the basics of Synthetic Biology. We made two leaflets (Fig. 1-2), one simpler and the other more advanced, going over the foundations and applications of Synthetic Biology as to make the material widely approachable. Additionally, we identified the need to make our research globally accessible. International engagement is now considered a key requirement to succeed in the field of Synthetic Biology in terms of collaboration across sectors and policy consensus [3]. To make our material comprehensible by a larger audience, we translated our leaflets in six different languages: English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Moreover, we worked alongside many social education projects in improving and implementing our leaflets to our desired end users. Our international science communication and education was made possible by our previous connections, allowing for cognitive empathy i.e., to understand how the audience thinks, what their prior knowledge is, and what they will take away. We aimed to ensure that the people maintained their agency, that they could decide themselves what level would be appropriate, rather than it being assumed. The objective was to make educational material that would not require extensive previous knowledge of the field and that could universally promote interest in synthetic biology.

Figure 1: Technical guide to Synthetic Biology. This leaflet provides a more in-depth guide to Synthetic Biology, showing the molecular mechanisms of life, parts description, logic gates and applications.

Figure 2: Synthetic Biology: An Introduction. This leaflet offers a simplified introduction to synthetic biology mostly showing analogies on how this technology works. Also goes into safety and implementation.

We first partnered with the Adote Um Aluno (Fig. 3), a program from Rio de Janeiro that offers free private lessons for anyone interested in learning. Teachers are volunteers and have some background in the subject they are teaching. This programme started simply as an act of kindness from its coordinator and grew to having dozens of teachers. We showed our material to coordinator, and he immediately forwarded it to all his biology students giving us incredible feedback on the material.

Figure 3: Project “Adote um Aluno”. This image shows some of the volunteering members and students from the project. In the middle is Silverio Moron, coordinator and founder of “Adote Um Aluno”.

We then offered the material to Pre-Vestibular Morro dos Prazeres in Rio de Janeiro, which specialises in tutoring high school level students for their university entrance exam. Once again, we received praise for the clarity in our description of synthetic biology and how it can be used in solving pressing problems. Both groups were eager to accept given that the material was design to be fully prepared for use, without any need to train the teachers.

In the UK, we have shown our material to members of Wessex Inspiration Network, an initiative that has the goal of aiding in the career development of students from underprivileged backgrounds. We have made the connections to work alongside them in the future and we’re currently working on a guide choice to make throughout their academic careers. This partnership will continue with future teams at the University of Bath, with many educational opportunities being discussed.

The University of Bath conducts a program called Widening Participation that aims to integrate students from underrepresented areas. We shared our material with one of the teachers involved and we were also offered the opportunity to do a quick presentation on iGEM, synthetic biology and our project specifically. This was to inspire students to join in on this exciting new field and potentially join the competition in future iterations.

Additionally, with the material being translated into six different languages, it could be implemented in various countries. With the ties we built through our partnership with team BioBrussels, we have will be able to implement this material in programs within Belgium to further the reach of our educational inclusivity project.

References

  1. Reader, M., J. Hutchinson, and A. Akhal, Education in England: Annual Report 2020. 2020, Education Policy Institute.
  2. Rose, S., et al., Impact of school closures and subsequent support strategies on attainment and socio-emotional wellbeing in Key Stage 1: Interim Paper 1. 2021, Education Endowment Foundation.
  3. Dixon, T.A., et al., A global forum on synthetic biology: the need for international engagement. Nature Communications, 2022. 13(1).‌‌