Communication

Introduction

This year we decided on a project in the field of agriculture, a classical application for synthetic biology. Nonetheless, our approach of modifying a fungal species represents a unique approach to the usual modus operandi of working directly on (crop) plant species. We found that public interest in our project was usually quite high, as most people recognized the problems we want to tackle as a familiar theme from news coverage. At the same time, we encountered scepticism concerning the use of genetic engineering, especially in connection with food technology. Such notions seem to be fueled by the legal situation in the European Union regarding genetic engineering in an agricultural context.

Science Slam at HHU Düsseldorf

On the 25th of April, we participated in a Science Slam organised by the AStA (general student committee) of the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. The purpose of this event was to educate a lay audience about different fields of natural sciences and humanities through a short, comprehensible presentation. Although it was a challenge to think of ways to break complex facts down to be understandable to an audience of non-biologists, it was good practice for our team. It helped us understand how to explain our motivations and procedures to a non-professional audience and to deliver a precise and comprehensive plea for our cause. The presentation itself was eventually voted best science slam of the day by the very audience it was presented to. While getting a chance to spread the word about synthetic biology as a new and emerging field of biology, we also got to discuss our project idea, still in development at this point, and gathered new impulses for further communication events.

High school visits

As another component of our educational work, we visited several highschools and held workshops and presentations in biology classes of different grades. To address a suitably interested audience, we decided to focus on biology students as potential future scientists in life sciences. We included an introduction to the iGEM foundation, the goals and procedure of the competition itself and its intentions. We also gave an overview over the discipline of synthetic biology and its advantages and risks, as well as its possible applications with the example of our own project. In doing so, we combined existing knowledge of genetic engineering methods with an outlook on scientific work in a problem-oriented real-world setting.

Gymnasium Voerde, Voerde

Our first high school visit on May 24th marked the beginning of our lecture series. Two of our members visited a high school in Voerde and presented an 11th grade biology course with insights into our project and synthetic biology. This visit set the precedent for using interactive presentation styles to boost participation in the interwoven discussion (e.g. interactive elements like polls and quizzes).

Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Bensberg, Bergisch Gladbach

On May 25th, we visited the former high school of one of our team members in Bergisch Gladbach. Here, we introduced a grade 11 biology course to the principles of synthetic biology and had an inciting discussion about the future prospects of life science. Fresh perspectives on the possible impact of our project helped us reconsider some aspects of our planning.

Gymnasium an der Gartenstraße, Mönchengladbach

Our third high school visit commenced on June 1st at the former high school of another team member in Rheydt. The grade 11 advanced biology course attending our presentation showed great interest in the prospect of a relatively new field of research and the students were eager to ask questions and give their own ideas on the topic.

“Ideenwettbewerb” at HHU Düsseldorf

The Ideenwettbewerb is a yearly competition at Heinrich Heine University. Its purpose is to promote new and visionary ideas in the context of a competition. Everyone is free to share their idea for a better future, with the top three ideas being honoured by a jury. The competition is held by the Center for Entrepreneurship Düsseldorf (CEDUS). This year, we entered the competition with our project idea and managed to secure second place overall. We also got awarded with a special sustainability price, which allowed us to attend the 22nd Annual Conference of the German Council for Sustainable Development. In the competition final, we also presented our project in front of a lay audience and answered the questions of listeners and the jury alike.

Talk at freshman week HHU Düsseldorf

On October 4th, we gave a presentation at the freshman week at Heinrich Heine University. We not only informed our university's freshmen of the project and introduced iGEM to them, we also explained the significance of synthetic biology as a novel field of research. We drew from our own experiences in designing the talk, as little to no of our own team members had heard of the field of synthetic biology before participating in iGEM. This predicament we wanted to change in a future generation of undergraduate students.

BIOspektrum 05/2023

The magazine BIOspektrum, published by Springer-Verlag, is a renowned and well-esteemed magazine on biology and molecular life sciences. It serves as a publication platform for numerous German associations of life sciences and is published in a bimonthly schedule.

In August 2023, we were given the remarkable opportunity to write a short article about our team and our project to be published by BIOspektrum. The prospect of introducing ourselves to a broad readership of around 15,000 readers meant to expand our outreach drastically and to also appeal to many academic researchers working in similar fields of study.