The FAU-GEM Podcast
For the education part, the Human Practice team created our weekly FAUgem podcast, where each
episode introduces a past iGEM project to the audience.
We created FAUgem because we to introduce the audience to the concept of iGEM and its many
different projects, while also providing an easily accessible and entertaining source of
education. Since podcasts are a contemporary, modern way to deliver content that allows access
to a wide range of listeners, we decided to use this medium for our educational purposes.
To record the episode, a group of two or three members of our Human Practice team met every one
to two weeks to record after selecting a topic that we wanted to present. Generally, we selected
projects that deal with topics that are of high relevance for society such as environmental
pollution, (chronic) diseases and women’s reproductive health. This was done to educate people
about these contemporary challenges and their potential solutions in an easy-to-understand
manner. The target audience for our podcast consists of people interested in iGEM, synthetic
biology, and science in general.
After choosing the project, our team members prepared a script for each episode. Typically,
the episodes follow a common thread, which established a structure that was easy to follow:
in the beginning, the hosts introduced the team and the overall problem they wanted to address
with their project. Afterwards, the project idea and how this idea was implemented,
was presented. Techniques used and key steps throughout the project are described at a basic
biological level to give listeners a better understanding of the main idea. In the end,
collaborations with other teams as well as their educational outreach efforts were discussed
before giving a short overview of related iGEM projects.
Following the recording, the episodes were cut, and edited before uploading.
These are our Episodes:
| # | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | !MPACT | Our hosts Laura and Lynn introduce a project from iGEM team Einhoven 2022, that deals with the topic of modular and personal autoimmune therapy. |
| 2 | Netlantis | Vivi and Gönlum present iGEM UCopenhagen’s 2022 project, which provides a novel approach against aquatic pollution. |
| 3 | ViTeST | Laura and Lynn give insight about EPFL’s 2019 iGEM project that present a diagnostic device for grapevine diseases. |
| 4 | Reagents of S.H.I.E.L.D | Feyza and Maria, talk about an anti-Malaria device, that was developed by iGEM Hamburg in 2018. |
| 5 | UteRus | Vivi and Maria introduce a noninvasive diagnostic for endometriosis, created by iGEM team Rochester 2020. |
| 6 | SPLASH | Laura, Marina and Maria present iGEM Leiden’s 2019 project about a novel treatment of burn wounds. |
| 7 | Vagineering | Laura, Maria and Marina talk about a non-hormonal contraception method, developed by the iGEM Team Montpellier in 2018. |
To educate as many people as possible about our project and the problem it addresses, we posted educational infographics on our Instagram account. Using our posts, we provide our audience with compact and easy-to-understand information about the most important aspects of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and their treatments, as well as the gut microbiome and short-chained fatty acids (SCFAs). By doing this, we supply our audience with enough context to understand our project and its relevance, without overwhelming them with too much information. This ensures that we educate people in a way that is accessible for as many people as possible, independent from previous knowledge.
School Visits
For the education part of our project, we wanted to educate students of different age groups (ages 11-18) about a healthy diet, gut health, and immunology. Due to this, we developed different games where the participants had to link different foods to their nutritional value and a snakes and ladder (see below) game related to gut health. Additionally, we planned on using microBEnet’s Gut Check: The Microbiome Game as a further resource for educating our audience about a healthy microbiome. To realize our plans, we contacted several secondary schools in our area via E-mail. In the E-mails, we introduced our team and our project, the iGEM competition and the program we prepared for a potential collaboration with the schools. Most of the schools we selected either had a natural science specialization or already worked together with the biology department of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Despite this, no one of the contacted schools were able to fit us into their schedule. However, the resources we prepared for our collaborations with the schools still can be used in the future to educate students about the important topics of diet and gut health.
Snakes and Ladders Game
For education purposes, a “snakes and ladders” game was designed. The goal was to prepare a board game that could be used in schools as a cooperative and interactive way to expand kids (aged between 9 and 13 years) knowledge about the impact diet has on the human body and learn about gut diseases. The preparation of the game consisted in designing and creating a board with 100 squares (numbered from 1 to 100) and drawings of snakes and ladders scattered through the board. Also, generating a pool of age-appropriate general knowledge questions about the gastrointestinal tract, nutrients, diets and diseases. To play, the classroom was divided into teams of approximately 5 kids which competed against each other to be the first ones to reach the highest number on the board. To distinguish themselves from the rest, each team has a token or piece of a different colour. To start the game, a question is asked to all the teams at the same time and the first team that answers correctly obtains the advantage of being the first one to move their piece. In order to move, each team will roll a dice and advance their token or piece as many squares on the board as the number indicated in the dice. The teams will roll the dice in an alternately-fashion. If a team lands on the bottom of a ladder, it will get asked a question. If they answer correctly, they have the ability to climb the ladder, advancing to a higher numbered square. However, if they fail to answer correctly they will remain on the square and will lose their turn. If a team lands in the head of a snake, they again will receive a question they have to answer. If their answer is correct, they will not have to slide down to the bottom of the snake, moving back to a lower numbered square. However, if they make a mistake, they will have to slide down.
