Difference between revisions of "Team:BroadRun-NorthernVA/Education and Public Outreach"

September 15 Presentation, Physical Science Class I of Mrs. Collins, 24 Students

We had a powerpoint presentation ready to share with the students. We introduced synthetic biology, iGEM, and then got into talking about the problem we were tackling through synthetic biology. We worked hard to keep it simple, but still explain the process of engineering our yeast cells, before we shared our actual results. We set aside about 15 min for questions. We also walked the students through how we started an iGEM team, and answered questions from how we got funded to our experience with lab work. Overall, the students showed much interest. One student in particular was extremely interested and was definitely wanting to do iGEM! We had another student ask us about our solution and whether it was patentable and how much money could be made. We used this question to explain the benefits to society from science that may not always involve huge monetary rewards and that the work itself is a reward.

September 15 Presentation, Physical Science Class II of Mrs. Collins, 16 Students

We repeated our presentation and took questions from the students. We used question time as an opportunity to give more information about how science had helped us to think more critically and that these are good skills to have even if we may not follow careers in science. We had students ask us if we got paid to do lab work over the summer. But we did tell them that remuneration is a real possibility for collegiate iGEM teams, notwithstanding the work skills they gain!

September 16 Presentation, Physical Science Class III of Mrs. Collins, 24 students

After presenting, we had lots of questions from this class. We almost ran over our allotted time.

When Mrs. Collins asked about how many students were interested in doing iGEM next year when they got to high school, we were so excited to see about 10 hands go up. Way to go !!!!

September 16 Presentation, Physical Science Class IV of Mrs. Collins, 20 Students

Some of the most probing questions were asked in this class; they went from “how much enzyme was being produced?” to “how that compares to the promoter?” Demonstrating a good grasp of what they had heard and a keen interest in the iGEM project, we were super pleased that we had connected with the students.

B. Broad Run High School

We approached Mrs. Rosperich, a science teacher. She already knew of the existence of our iGEM team from our school website, but became very excited when we explained to her what we had done over the summer with the Armstrong industrial waste water problem. Having more concrete information to share about our experience after having completed our iGEM project, we felt better positioned to reach out to our peers and Mrs. Rosperich, who was eager for us to share our work during her classes.

September 14 Presentation, Research Biology Class of Mrs. Rosperich, 33 Students

We had a powerpoint presentation ready to share with the students. We introduced synthetic biology, iGEM, and then got into talking about the problem we were tackling through synthetic biology. We worked hard to keep it simple, but still explain the process of engineering our yeast cells, before we shared our actual results. We set aside about 15 min for questions. Being a freshman class, we found that there were a number of students wanting to know more about our project and iGEM. They also were interested in the Jamboree and learning that there were going to be many college students. We feel we made a step forward in getting our students acquainted and perhaps more than a slight interest in getting involved with science.

September 14 Presentation, AP Environmental Science Class of Mrs. Rosperich, 32 Students

We followed the same presentation and questioning period as for the previous class. We received good feedback and answered many questions.

2. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

A. ARMSTRONG Outreach

As mentioned elsewhere in this wiki, we reached out to several businesses, but with our sponsor Armstrong, we got the opportunity to begin a dialogue that has taken Armstrong into considering synthetic biology as a possible option to address their waste water problem. We believe, this is partnership that has grown over the course of this iGEM project, has educated us both on using science as a vital platform to explore alternative solutions, and is one of our team’s most valuable public engagement and outreach successes.

B. TELOS Outreach, August

Adriel Sumathipala, our business partnership team lead, made contact with Telos’ VP, Lisa Kimball, and got an opportunity to talk to them about our iGEM team. He presented to Lisa Kimball, CEO John Wood, and 9 other Telos employees in the month of August. He gave a brief overview of what iGEM was accomplishing through advancing synthetic biology, about our project solving a real world problem of Armstrong's, how we travel more than an hour to do our research in Baltimore at BUGSS, and of course how we were progressing with our work. The meeting ended on a positive note, with much interest sparked in synthetic biology solutions, followed up with requests from Telos to share our results, which we did.

C. TELOS and SWAN LEGEND Outreach, September 16

Marissa and Adriel Sumathipala made a brief presentation before John Wood and Lisa Kimball of Telos, and Fred Schaufeld, Founder of Swan Legend, a venture capitalist firm, about our iGEM project, rapidly covering the content of our project; problem, solution, results, and future work. As supporters of technology and community, they were interested in what we were doing and after that meeting generously agreed to fund our trip to the Jamboree!!! Thank you Telos and Swan Legend, we are so grateful to your community support. Through our iGEM project, we have informed business leaders of our community about synthetic biology, and created greater awareness of youth initiatives like our iGEM team’s vision to turn science into solving problems and useful products.

Telos and Swan Legend extended their community support by taking us over to Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus to meet very briefly with Director Dr. Gerald Rubin, where we got to speak briefly of our iGEM and other research.

CONCLUSIONS

Through our synthetic biology solution to the starch problem in Armstrong’s plants, we have the potential to impact way beyond our Broad Run High school and local community, Virginia, Maryland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but also to impact people in many nations where Armstrong has its plants.

In conclusion, from our own team’s composition uniquely made up of students from different states and school districts, to our educational outreach to students at middle and high school, and the penetration we have made into the business community by presenting synthetic biology as a viable solution, we have definitely educated our peers and the public, and raised their awareness of synthetic biology, iGEM, and science as a realistic and rewarding strategy for tackling world problems.