Team:Bielefeld-CeBiTec/StreetScience

iGEM Bielefeld 2015


Street Science

street science

Street science is an event organized by Bielefeld Marketing which takes place three times a year in Bielefeld downtown. The aim of this event is to communicate science to the public.

We participated in this event on April 4th 2015, a Sunday open for business, from 12 am till 6 pm. It was the first time we presented our topic and team in the public. Therefore, we had created posters about synthetic biology, the iGEM competition and our topic. As it was very crowded, we got into conversation with many people and informed them about problems with drinking water and the difference between synthetic biology and other areas like e.g. bionics.

street science

We also explained what synthetic biology is and where you can find products from genetically engineered organisms in everyday life. To evoke enthusiasm for science in children, we offered several small experiments. The most popular experiment was the DNA isolation. With simple household objects like salt, spiritus and detergents, children could extract DNA out of fruits such as bananas and kiwis. For younger children we offered chromatography with filter paper and creating ink images by pipetting ink onto sugar cubes in water. As a gift, we sent them the images and let them take the chromatograms. For adults, we had prepared a set of memory cards with images of products and the corresponding production organism to show them where biotechnology is hidden outside the laboratory. As genetic engineering is a controversial issue in Germany, we tried to lower concerns by outlining the facts about this topic in a small presentation. As a highlight, we created a chemical garden every two hours by adding metal salts to a solution of sodium silicate.

As we had already decided to focus on water analytics at that time, we did a survey to find out which water contaminants are most important to people and which requirements they have regarding a biosensor. The results helped us in defining in which direction we wanted to go with our project.

Survey

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.

survey result

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.