Team:UCSF/Practices
HUMAN PRACTICES
Our project explores complex communication in yeast communities, but the communication between science and nonscience communities is commonly overlooked. Throughout the course of our project, we looked at the myriad of ways scientists (within and outside of the iGEM team) communicate their thoughts, projects, and ideas amongst each other. Some of these commonly used outlets include, but are not limited to, lectures, seminars, and published journal articles. However, social media is becoming a more prominent source of scientific outreach. More and more scientists are using websites such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter to convey their research.
Yet despite the increasing number of users in these social media sites, there still exists a large disparity between the science community/iGEM and the general public, especially within the field of synthetic biology. Our mission is to use the burgeoning field of social media to bridge this gap between the two communities.
COMMUNICATING WITH THE PUBLIC
We began a video series to attempt to reach the public directly. Our video blog’s first installation shows varying depths of knowledge in synthetic biology terms: GMOs, genetic engineering, and gene cloning.
INSET CLIP OF VIDEO ONE HERE
We then went on to concisely and accurately define those terms in an easily digestible video in hopes of erasing the negative stigma surrounding these terms.
INSET CLIP OF VIDEO TWO HERE
Ultimately, we wanted to elucidate the tremendous potential of synthetic biology and genetic engineering, and shed light on the many groundbreaking discoveries that have and continue to largely benefit mankind.
COMMUNICATING WITH iGEM TEAMS
iGEM Academy, a YouTube platform created by Trinity iGEM, aims to further bring the synthetic biology community together. UCSF iGEM has teamed up with Trinity iGEM to propel the mission and goals of iGEM Academy by integrating Wiki Flicks and utilizing iGEM Academy as our primary platform for submissions.
INSERT IMAGE OF S4 LOGO HERE
In addition to promoting communication through social media, our team also helped plan and organize the Sierra Systems & Synbio Symposium. Held at the University of Nevada, Reno, this two-day conference enabled undergraduate and high school students to present their synthetic biology research to peers through team and poster presentations. Several iGEM teams from universities and colleges in northern Nevada and northern California attended this Symposium, networking and collaborating with each other. The Symposium served as a great addition towards furthering the goal of increased communication within the iGEM community.
HELPING iGEM COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC
Our capstone effort in human practices for iGEM 2015 is Wiki Flicks. These are short videos meant to describe a team’s project without the use of science terminology and jargon, with the key goal of being accessible to anyone. We worked in collaboration with iGEM HQ and other teams to develop this idea, with the ultimate goal of making this a mainstay feature on future wikis. This is an innovative approach to accomplishing our Human Practices mission for it fueled other iGEM teams to recognize this communication problem and directly become part of the solution.
We encouraged teams to create short, creative Wiki Flicks as a way to effectively convey their projects not just to the iGEM community, but to entire whole world. As of now, we have 9 Wiki Flicks showcased in one platform. To watch the Wiki Flicks, follow the link below.
