Team:William and Mary/Practices

Human practices

Adult Communication

After hearing the community's concerns about SynBio, we held workshops and seminars to clear misconceptions.

Youth Education

Synthetic biology can be a blast with the right approach. The 150 kids at our workshops sure thought so.

Long-Term Sustainability

We made a teacher-friendly curriculum to keep up the momentum long after the Jamboree.

Workshops & Seminars

• Spreading Public Awareness of Our Project:
• We created an outreach blog directed at the general public about our project, iGEM, and Synthetic Biology as a whole. This blog recieved thousands of page views and was used by people around the world.
• We created and maintain a William & Mary iGEM 2015 Facebook and Twitter to spread awareness of our project.
• We conducted a survey that measured Synthetic Biology awareness and gauged public concerns about Synthetic Biology at our local farmer's market.

• Two articles about William and Mary iGEM were published in the Flat Hat, William & Mary's Newspaper:
• An article about our team and our outreach efforts: http://flathatnews.com/2015/09/15/students-participate-in-igem/
• and an article by two team members, Elli Cryan and Panya Vij, about communicating science: http://flathatnews.com/2015/09/08/improving-communication-making-science-understandable/

• Parent sessions:
• Four of our nine workshops had parent sessions, where adults had the opportunity to learn about synthetic biology.
• Half of those gave parents the opportunity to see our lab and discuss ethical questions about subjects pertaining to Synthetic Biology, such as GMO consumption and the morality of Synthetic Biology research. We also gave parents the opportunity to ask any questions and voice any concerns they had relating to Genetic Engineering and Synthetic Biology.
• In three of the four workshops, adults had the opportunity to try out the protocols we do (i.e. gel electrophoresis, streaking plates, and mini-prepping.)
• In progress:
• Michael Elowitz, whose paper about promoter noise inspired our project, has agreed to a skype interview with our team to discuss our project and how to better communicate science and scientific research.
• The Williamsburg Library has agreed to distrubute free pamphelts about synthetic biology. These pamphlets will address concerns voiced in the survey we conducted.
• In an ongoing partnership with Williamsburg James-City County Public Schools, we are arranging for primary and secondary school students to tour our labs throughout the school year.
• We will be hosting a two-hour public event in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Q?rius Lab on November 21, where we will do four of our curriculum activities with children and adults who walk in!

The Curriculum

Our original synthetic biology teacher curriculum is available online for anyone to use for free. This includes future iGEM teams looking to hold Synthetic Biology workshops and camps, as well as educators worldwide. Additionally, teachers in the Williamsburg area can request in-class assistance or tutoring for the curriciulum from volunteers of College Partnership for Kids. CPK is a group of William & Mary students who tutor at local schools. CPK volunteers will recieve special training in order to tutor our Synthetic Biology Curriculum.

Knowledge of Synthetic Biology: The information we provided and taught to students and adults in our workshops will inspire them to look into Synthetic Biology and see scientific research as a more tangible career option. We have already recieved emails from parents whose kids couldn't stop talking about our workshops, and we feel certain that this enthusiasm for Synthetic Biology will carry them into the future.

Lab visits: We put our local public schools in contact with Dr. Saha, our iGEM PI, who will continue to organize and facilitate visits by classes to William and Mary Biology Department labs.