Difference between revisions of "Team:Sydney Australia/Outreach"

TO ADD:

• fill in all activities

• Strange Nature - and analysis (emails, media exposure, number of entries)
• reflection on the activities and how they link to our project
• add collaboration page

Figure 1: Selection of our agar artworks

Strange Nature

Our flagship project was running a creation competition called Strange Nature. Strange Nature was started in 2013 and was highly successful with the previous iGEM teams. Our major issue in developing this competition was finding a way to expand the competition from pervious years to target a wider audience. We achieved this by:

• Removing the "undergraduate section", as no one entered the 2014 undergraduate competition
• Adding the team multimedia component where students could chose to answer the question by creating a 5 minute podcast, documentary, or video
• Opening the competition to all school students, not just those in high school
• Increasing our advertising and presence across Australia through contacting local papers to promote the competition
• Contacting significantly more schools than in previous years

In total we contacted 2223 schools in New South Wales, 220 in the Northern Territory, and 2184 in Queensland schools and 6 Australian-wide organisations. We were published in 4 papers including the Science Education News, a magazine that is distributed to all Science Teacher's across New South Wales. Indeed the editor of the magazine said XXX

Strange Nature is a great opportunity to introduce students and teacher to the world of Synthetic Biology. This year we focused on the design and application of synthetic biology rather than the technological advancements as was done in previous years. This switch was to ensure the students thought about how synthetic biology can be used in the "real world", and hopefully break down some of the barriers and myths surround the uses of synthetic biology.

On the 18th of September we received XX entires, however as the competition does not close till early October we are expecting many more.

On the 18th of September, our website had been visited XX times and engaged with XXX times. Thus, we can conclude that so far the competition has been a great success.'

Check out the website [http://strangenature.org/index.html here] for more information.

School and educational events

Compass Presentation: 6th of May

Figure 2: Past and present Sydney iGEMers at the University of Sydney

[http://sydney.edu.au/compass/events/index.shtml Compass] is an organisation that assists underprivileged school students by providing tutoring sessions and trips to Sydney University to inspire and encourage the students. On the students in year 6 attended the [http://sydney.edu.au/compass/programs/discover/index.shtml "Discover Uni Day"] at Sydney. The iGEM had a stall which the students visited and learnt about microbes and genetic engineering. Activities included looking at agar plates and posters, and using light microscopes to look at bacteria, along with general discussion about microbes and genetic engineering.

Alexandria Park Community School Outreach: 22nd of July

[http://www.alexparkcs-c.schools.nsw.edu.au/ APCS] is a public school in the inner suburbs of Sydney, and Matt's previous school. We conducted two workshops at the school for year 10 and 12 school students. In the morning session, we talked to year 12 biology students about university, biology, genetics and cloning. We also talked about the ethics behind making GMOs. The students were greatly intrigued, asked questions, and were highly engaged in the content. All this was done over delicious scones, jam and coffee thanks to Mr Peter Miller, the students' very generous biology teacher.

Following, we conducted our workshop for year 10 science. We began by giving a talk about synthetic biology, the use of cloning to generate GMOs and also explaining the process of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in the context of forensic analysis of a crime scene. Using all that knowledge, we explained what we are trying to do in our project. We also ensured to highlight the ethics behind the use of synthetic biology, where it should only be used in appropriate projects such as making good quality pharmaceuticals products. We have provided links to these worksheets in the hope they can assist future iGEM teams in school specific outreach activities.

At the end of the session, we received a heartwarming applause form the students and the teachers were really thankful and impressed by our workshop. But at the end of the day, the enthusiasm of the students in listening to us, answering challenging questions and participating in the activities was what really made us leave the school with big smiles on our faces.

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Workshop Presentation

Year 12 Information

Activity 1: Merlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Stolen Pen

Activity 2: Cloning

Kambala School: 21st of August

LIZZIE TO ADD

Australian National Science Week: 15th - 23rd of August

Science in the Swamp: 15th of August

LIZZIE TO ADD

Australian Museum Science Festival - JAMS Stall: 11th - 20th of August

LIZZIE TO ADD

Presentations

Rotary talks

We participated in giving talks to various Rotary clubs to communicate with communities across Sydney and different demographics, most prominently with no to little science background and passed the stage of tertiary education. At every talk, we were posed with many questions ranging from the previous applications of synthetic biology to how we use various techniques such as cloning to create our genetically modified bacteria. We were also asked about patents which we found to be the hardest question. Maybe next time we should include a lawyer in our team!

Clubs we spoke to were Kings Cross Rotary (4th of May), Rose Bay Rotary (26th of May), Ku-ring-Gai Rotary (6th July), North Sydney Sunrise Rotary (14th of July), and Randwick Rotary (14th of July).

The best response was received from a member of the Kings Cross Rotary club - "only 50 years ago we just found the structure of the DNA, and now not only we know so much other than the structure, but that we are creating new organisms." This really gets you thinking and gives you a very enlightening perspective.

You can download the presentation here, we hope this will be useful for future iGEM teams.

Sydney University Mathematics Society

Matt to add

Media

[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/syd-uni-designer-genomes-in-world-competition/6525626 ABC Science Show Radio Interview]: 6th of June

Figure X: Front page of the ABC Science Show

Two of our members, Gaia and Harry, decided to enlist in the frightening journey of radio interview. They spoke to Robyn Williams, renowned scientists and radio presenter of the famous nationwide popular science radio show, [http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/ ABC Science Show with Robyn Williams], run by the national broadcaster [http://www.abc.net.au/ Australian Broadcasting Corporation]. They talked about designing genes, cloning and use of synthetic biology in manufacturing vital compounds difficult to make using traditional chemical synthesis methods. To listen to this enlightening interview, click below..

Listen to our interview by downloading it here.

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader: 29th of July

One of our members Mark was interviewed by the prestigious paper St George and Sutherland Shire Leader. The article was featured news and received many hits. You can read the article [http://www.theleader.com.au/story/3238189/synthetic-biology-offers-medical-hope-and-a-sutherland-aspiring-scientist-is-looking-for-answers/ here].

Figure X: Front page of the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader

Wentworth Courier

Lizzie add

North Shore Times

Matt add

A*STAR Magazine

One of our members wrote a piece about the importance of genetic engineering for an online magazine targeted at high school students. You can access the article [http://astar.tv/post/explainer-genetically-modified-organisms-and-you/ here].

University of Sydney - School of Molecular Biosciences and Microbiology

The SMB School at the University of Sydney published an article on our project and appearance on the ABC Radio Science Show. This was well received by faculty and students in the school. You can read the article [http://sydney.edu.au/news/molecular_bioscience/1893.html?newscategoryid=180&newsstoryid=15111 here].

Facebook

Lizzie add

Twitter

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Figure X: A map showing the locations of our outreach events across Sydney