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| </div> | | </div> |
| <br> | | <br> |
− | <h4>Mini iGEM</h4>
| + | <h4>Ethics debate</h4> |
− | <p>As we wanted to give them an overview of how the competition works, we made them imagine iGEM projects. In this activity, small groups of students worked together to create iGEM projects and then explained them to the other groups. They were asked to think about feasibility, usefulness, safety and ethics. During the brainstorming, each group was coached by one of our team members. We introduced the concepts of kill switch, biobricks, motility, transcription pathways, transporters and bio-informatics to them. The ideas that they shared with us were surprisingly smart and imaginative for students who had received little technical and background information on the matter. Some teams even brought up and discussed projects that had already been realised in previous iGEM competitions.</p> | + | <p>The future use of novel technologies is a matter that every scientist with integrity has to think about. To make the students reflect about actions and consequences we prepared an ethics debate during which we gave the students a role with a specific opinion. The goal was to make them think of opinions that diverge from their own and to make the activity more fun with a little drama. At the end of the debate, we took some time to discuss the activity withouth the roles. We were pleased to see that what we had opened their eyes on different aspects concerning the responsibilities linked to research in the field of synthetic biology.</p> |
| <h4>Lab immersion</h4> | | <h4>Lab immersion</h4> |
− | <p>Even the most renowned scientist started by pipetting water, this is why we prepared a few activities in the lab to let the students see how it is to work in the world of synthetic biology.[insert activities]</p> | + | <p>Even the most renowned scientist started by pipetting water, this is why we prepared a few activities in the lab to let the students see how it is to work in the world of synthetic biology. After giving them safety guidelines and safety equipment we made them plate chromophore cells to introduce them to cell manipulation techniques, run a gel colony PCR to teach them about plasmids, PCR and gel size separation. The last proposed activity was a workshop using a <a href="http://www.neuroproductions.be/logic-lab/"> website</a> to design logic circuits.</p> |
| <div class="row"> | | <div class="row"> |
| <div class="col-lg-4"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/df/EPF_Lausanne_Delphine_Laurie_Unicorn.jpg" alt="Unicorn"></div> | | <div class="col-lg-4"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/df/EPF_Lausanne_Delphine_Laurie_Unicorn.jpg" alt="Unicorn"></div> |
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| <div class="col-lg-4"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c0/EPF_Lausanne_Lili_Jojo_Sun.jpg" alt="Sun"></div> | | <div class="col-lg-4"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c0/EPF_Lausanne_Lili_Jojo_Sun.jpg" alt="Sun"></div> |
| </div> | | </div> |
− | <h4>Ethics debate</h4> | + | <h4>Mini iGEM</h4> |
− | <p>The future use of novel technologies is a matter that every scientist with integrity has to think about. To make the students reflect about actions and consequences we prepared an ethics debate during which we gave the students a role with a specific opinion. The goal was to make them think of opinions that diverge from their own and to make the activity more fun with a little drama. At the end of the debate, we took some time to discuss the activity withouth the roles. We were pleased to see that what we had opened their eyes on different aspects concerning the responsibilities linked to research in the field of synthetic biology. [maybe talk about swiss votation system?]</p> | + | <p>As we wanted to give them an overview of how the competition works, we made them imagine iGEM projects. In this activity, small groups of students worked together to create iGEM projects and then explained them to the other groups. They were asked to think about feasibility, usefulness, safety and ethics. During the brainstorming, each group was coached by one of our team members. We introduced the concepts of kill switch, biobricks, motility, transcription pathways, transporters and bio-informatics to them. The ideas that they shared with us were surprisingly smart and imaginative for students who had received little technical and background information on the matter. Some teams even brought up and discussed projects that had already been realised in previous iGEM competitions.</p> |
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| <div class="row"> | | <div class="row"> |
| <div class="col-lg-4"> | | <div class="col-lg-4"> |
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| <div class="col-md-6"> | | <div class="col-md-6"> |
| <p>On saturday the 22nd of August from 9 am to 4 pm, we held a stand in Rue Haldimand in our town Lausanne. Passerby came and went from and to the market and many of them were intrigued by our poster asking “What is synthetic biology ? Give us your opinion !”. We submitted them our survey and took the opportunity to answer questions about synthetic biology, iGEM and our project. About fifty people stopped by, talking with them was very interesting and open-minding.</p> | | <p>On saturday the 22nd of August from 9 am to 4 pm, we held a stand in Rue Haldimand in our town Lausanne. Passerby came and went from and to the market and many of them were intrigued by our poster asking “What is synthetic biology ? Give us your opinion !”. We submitted them our survey and took the opportunity to answer questions about synthetic biology, iGEM and our project. About fifty people stopped by, talking with them was very interesting and open-minding.</p> |
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| + | |
| <p>To begin with our investigations of the following matters : communication, interaction and responsibility in scientific research, we decided to ask the general public about it. On saturday the 22nd of August from 9 am to 4 pm, we held a stand in Rue Haldimand in our dear town Lausanne. Passerby came and went from and to the market and many of them were intrigued by our poster asking “What is synthetic biology ? Give us your opinion !”. This allowed us to better spot the expectations that people have towards the scientific community as well as opening our minds to views we are not used to meet as scientific students. It was also an opportunity to introduce synthetic biology to those who did not know about it. Here is a summary of the survey and an analysis of the most interesting results.</p> | | <p>To begin with our investigations of the following matters : communication, interaction and responsibility in scientific research, we decided to ask the general public about it. On saturday the 22nd of August from 9 am to 4 pm, we held a stand in Rue Haldimand in our dear town Lausanne. Passerby came and went from and to the market and many of them were intrigued by our poster asking “What is synthetic biology ? Give us your opinion !”. This allowed us to better spot the expectations that people have towards the scientific community as well as opening our minds to views we are not used to meet as scientific students. It was also an opportunity to introduce synthetic biology to those who did not know about it. Here is a summary of the survey and an analysis of the most interesting results.</p> |
| | | |
| <p>We began by asking the subject whether he/she had ever heard about synthetic biology, and if the answer is no, we provided him/her with the Wikipedia definition: “Synthetic biology is a scientific field combining biology and engineering in order to design and build (synthesize) new biologic systems and units”. Note that the definition does not mention the word GMO, as this has its importance later on. It was clear to us that synthetic biology still is not a popular expression, as most people had never heard about it.</p> | | <p>We began by asking the subject whether he/she had ever heard about synthetic biology, and if the answer is no, we provided him/her with the Wikipedia definition: “Synthetic biology is a scientific field combining biology and engineering in order to design and build (synthesize) new biologic systems and units”. Note that the definition does not mention the word GMO, as this has its importance later on. It was clear to us that synthetic biology still is not a popular expression, as most people had never heard about it.</p> |
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| <img class="img-responsive" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/3/3d/EPF_Lausanne_HP_Gauche_1.png" alt="" /> | | <img class="img-responsive" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/3/3d/EPF_Lausanne_HP_Gauche_1.png" alt="" /> |
| <p>We then asked the subject whether this definition gave him/her a rather positive or negative feeling about synthetic biology. The answers were enthusiastic, with a vast majority of “rather positive”.</p> | | <p>We then asked the subject whether this definition gave him/her a rather positive or negative feeling about synthetic biology. The answers were enthusiastic, with a vast majority of “rather positive”.</p> |
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| <p>We were quite surprised by these results, as in Switzerland, direct democracy and referendums allow the whole population to vote on very specific questions, scientific topics included. And research in synthetic biology could have come to an end if in 1998, the federal popular initiative “for the protection of life and the environment against gene manipulations (initiative for genetic protection)” had been accepted, indeed: production, acquisition and handing-over of any genetically modified animal would have been prohibited. To us, seeing the people delegate the responsibility to researchers is the consequence of a lack of interaction. The subject of interaction is further explored in our main article.</p> | | <p>We were quite surprised by these results, as in Switzerland, direct democracy and referendums allow the whole population to vote on very specific questions, scientific topics included. And research in synthetic biology could have come to an end if in 1998, the federal popular initiative “for the protection of life and the environment against gene manipulations (initiative for genetic protection)” had been accepted, indeed: production, acquisition and handing-over of any genetically modified animal would have been prohibited. To us, seeing the people delegate the responsibility to researchers is the consequence of a lack of interaction. The subject of interaction is further explored in our main article.</p> |
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− | <p>Next, we quickly described the purpose of the iGEM competition, and we exposed the main idea behind our project (building independent transistors in cells). We then introduced some examples of organisms that could be designed using our project, or synthetic biology in general. Some were past iGEM projects, some we imagined ourselves, and they covered a lot of different domains suck as energy, agriculture, medicine and information processing. | + | <p>Next, we quickly described the purpose of the iGEM competition, and we exposed the main idea behind our project (building independent transistors in cells). We then introduced some examples of organisms that could be designed using our project, or synthetic biology in general. Some were past iGEM projects, some we imagined ourselves, and they covered a lot of different domains suck as energy, agriculture, medicine and information processing. |
| </p> | | </p> |
| <img class="img-responsive" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c7/EPF_Lausanne_HP_Milieu_5.png" alt="" /> | | <img class="img-responsive" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c7/EPF_Lausanne_HP_Milieu_5.png" alt="" /> |