Figure 1. Our educational timeline
The iGEM competition is so much more than just a competition - it is an opportunity to develop not only as a researcher, but also as a popularizer of science, sharing knowledge and passion for the field of synthetic biology. Participating in the educational aspect of the project was one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences of the past year and we are grateful that science communication is one of the core values of the iGEM competition. We believe that science is created by people for people, and it's crucial to raise awareness of current issues while highlighting possible solutions provided by scientific advances.
In December 2022, when our team was forming and we were just starting to brainstorm, none of us were aware of the problem of phthalates. We had all heard about bisphenol A and BPA-free reusable bottles, but phthalates were still uncharted territory for us. As we delved deeper into the topic, awareness of our initial ignorance became the fuel for our educational efforts. We wanted to spread the word about phthalates and endocrine disrupting chemicals, talk about plastic consumption and highlight the problem of chemical contamination of drinking water.
We put a lot of emphasis on talking to high school students. This is due to our own unique experience - we are the first Polish iGEM team in 4 years and the first team from Gdańsk in 10 years. We wanted to encourage high school students to see biotechnology as a possible and interesting career path, but also to promote scientific creativity and emphasize that every project starts with an idea. Who knows, maybe we have already met the next Polish iGEM team?
Nevertheless, we tried to reach a wide and diverse audience of all ages and professions. We learned a lot by talking to people - children, high school students, teachers, as well as experts in the field of biotechnology. Each conversation shaped, if only in a small way, the way we perceived and developed our project. We conducted surveys and received feedback on our workshops which directly influenced the way we held them.
Here, we share presentations we prepared, the idea behind our synbio workshops, as well as the plans we didn't get the chance to execute, hoping that all these resources are a solid foundation on which future iGEM teams can build upon.
Over the past 10 months, we have been connecting with our audiences and encouraging mutual learning, and in return have received inspiration and motivation to move forward with our research.
Figure 2. The target audiences of our educational activities
In March, at the very beginning of our iGEM journey, when we were still raising funds, we took part in the Open Days of the University of Gdańsk. We prepared a booth in cooperation with Bio-Med Students' Scientific Circle - the goal was to promote our field of study and encourage high school students to study at the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG.
However, as part of our Human Practices, we also conducted a survey and collected 57 responses from high school students. We primarily wanted to find out whether high school students had heard of endocrine disrupting chemicals, particularly phthalates, and whether they knew the possible effects of these substances on our health. We also decided to survey the general public's attitudes toward synthetic biology and biological methods of filtration.
Figure 3. Pie charts represent some results of the earliest survey we conducted as IFB-Gdańsk (N=57)
The results of this early survey confirmed our hypothesis - the problem of phthalate contamination of water is still largely unexplored. What's important, the results of this survey shaped the way we approached our future educational activities. We decided to focus on communicating the issue of phthalates, but also on promoting synthetic biology approaches to current environmental dilemmas.
This survey also had an impact on our filter design. Initially, we wanted to create a biological filter with immobilized bacteria capable of degrading phthalates. However, after this survey and lengthy consultations with Prof. Michał Obuchowski, we decided to change our approach and instead opted for a cell-free system based on immobilized enzymes. Both the consultation with Prof. Michał Obuchowski and the results of the survey are described in more detail in our Human Practices section.
Photo album 1. Photos from University of Gdańsk Open Days
In May, we took part in the FarU Science Picnic. During the event, people visited our booth to observe simple experiments and learn more about endocrine disrupting chemicals. We had many interesting conversations with people of all ages, from kindergarten children to adults.
We encapsulated yeast in calcium alginate and placed it in a beaker covered with a balloon - visitors could observe the gases produced during fermentation. We also prepared a "chemical garden." When salt crystals are added to water glass, silicate membranes expand and form plant-like structures – the children enjoyed this experiment very much, making our booth very popular. Another popular experiment was the mini-electrophoresis, which we conducted in tip packs, using batteries as a power source. Anyone interested could learn about the use of this laboratory method, as well as test themselves in applying a dye sample to a gel using an automatic pipette. We also presented a 3D printed prototype of the biological filter and explained the idea behind our "EDC-Seas" project.
It was a pleasure to share our passion for science and answer some burning questions concerning GMOs, phthalates and modern biotechnology.
Figure 4. The poster about endocrine disrupting chemicals
Photo album 2. Photos from FarU Science Picnic
In June, we took part in 2 events - we prepared a booth for both the 30th anniversary of Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG and for IFB Student's Day.
During the 30th anniversary of our Faculty, we presented the project to the scientists and academic authorities of the University of Gdańsk. We discussed our ideas and received valuable feedback on the project. The support from the academic community and the advice we received helped us raise funds, which facilitated our participation in the iGEM competition.
We are the first team from Gdańsk to participate in the iGEM competition in 10 years, so our booth was very popular during the IFB Student's Day. We spent a lot of time talking with other students about our iGEM journey, project design and synthetic biology. One student was particularly interested in our project and, after a long conversation with us, announced that he wants to participate in the competition next year. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the next iGEM team from Gdańsk!
Photo album 3. Photos from the 30th anniversary of IFB UG&MUG
Photo album 4. Photos from the IFB Student's Day
One of our biggest initiatives was "Project: High School." During the workshops, we wanted to reach out to high school students, teach them about synthetic biology, but also promote creativity and teamwork in science. We visited 5 high schools in 3 cities in central and northern Poland - Gdańsk, Włocławek and Toruń.
Figure 5. Project: High School on the map
Our presentation consisted of two parts: a lecture and a workshop. During the lecture part, we discussed the basics of synthetic biology and the idea of BioBricks®, explained the main methods of bioremediation, and discussed endocrine disrupting chemicals, their sources, effects on human health and the environment.
Figure 6. Our workshop presentation
We have implemented the idea of pre-test and post-test into our lecture. Both tests consist of the same 5 questions, but one test is completed before the lecture and the other is completed immediately after. Before the lecture, the high school students knew the answers to half of the questions on average. After the lecture, their scores rose to an average of 87%. Pre-test was completed by 109 high school students, while post-test - by 95. A comparison of the results of the two tests shows that our lecture was informative and successful.
Figure 7. Comparison of the results of pre-test (N=109) and post-test (N=95)
During the workshop part, each group of students was tasked with preparing their own iGEM project. A detailed description of it, along with a technical drawing of the genetic puzzles we created, can be found in the document below.
Figure 8. Our workshops description
The teams had some very inspiring and groundbreaking ideas. The high school students showed great commitment to the task - in their projects, they perfectly captured the idea behind the iGEM competition. Introducing them to the world of synthetic biology was a very rewarding experience for us.
At the end of the workshops, we conducted a survey to establish a dialogue with our audience. We received valuable feedback from 82 high schoolers - some of them asked us to speak more slowly and explain the most difficult issues in more detail, using simpler words. The responses helped us improve our workshops making them more accessible to the high school audience, and motivated us to continue educating about synthetic biology and phthalates.
Figure 9. Post-workshops survey results (N=82)
Photo album 5. Photos from Gdańskie Liceum Autonomiczne, Gdańsk
Photo album 6. Photos from III Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Bohaterów Westerplatte, Gdańsk
Photo album 7. Photos from Liceum Ziemi Kujawskiej, Włocławek
Photo album 8. Photos from V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Jana Pawła II, Toruń
Photo album 9. Photos from IV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Tadeusza Kościuszki, Toruń
We would like to thank each of the high schools we visited:
for giving us such an amazing platform to talk about synthetic biology and iGEM!
We had the pleasure of participating in the INSA ENS Lyon 1 project on antibiotic resistance. The result was a nearly 10-minute video in which several teams from around the world had the chance to share their knowledge about the current problem.
We were asked to answer the following questions:
The questions are simple, but thought-provoking. We hope that our contribution to this educational project will raise awareness about antibiotic resistance and encourage dialogue on this pressing topic.
Thanks to InnovaBio Pomorze, we had the pleasure of presenting our iGEM project to a wider audience at the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park in Gdynia. The audience was full of high school students and teachers, eager to hear about the latest developments in biology.
During our speech titled "EDC-Seas - innovation has more than one name" we outlined the problem of water pollution and the availability of clean water. We talked about plastic production and the current levels of plastic consumption. We also drew attention to the issue of endocrine disrupting chemicals, especially phthalates, which are commonly used as plasticizers, thus contaminating water. We wanted to present the problem, but also explain how we are using the power of synthetic biology to solve it.
Figure 10. Our presentation titled "EDC-Seas - innovation has more than one name"
We wanted to draw the attention of our audience to the problem of phthalate water pollution, but also to show high school students the potential of modern biotechnology as a career path, a field of development, creativity and progress. We talked about our iGEM experience - we wanted to show that every project starts with an idea and a group of people who want to make a difference.
Photo album 10. Photos from the guest lecture in Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Gdynia
Social media, such as Instagram, are a great platform for popularizing science, they give an opportunity to reach many people around the world.
Figure 11. Our Instagram and Facebook audiences
In our educational series, we wanted to focus on two aspects directly related to our project. On the one hand, we prepared posts about great Polish scientists, the founders of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG - Wacław Szybalski, Anna Podhajska and Karol Taylor.
Figure 12. Posts about great Polish scientists, the founders of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG
On the other hand, we wanted to explain some aspects of biotechnology and synthetic biology, fundamental to understanding our "EDC-Seas" project. In this series of 10 posts, we explained the basics of enzymology, the idea of enzyme immobilization and cell-free systems, we also explained techniques such as PCR, HPLC and nanopore sequencing. We talked about synthetic biology, engineering cycle and GMOs.
Figure 13. BioTech 101 - posts about synthetic biology and biotechnology
We wanted to present a slice of knowledge, accessible to anyone interested, everywhere. Simultaneosly, we shared the same posts on our Facebook page.
We wanted to further engage the public in a fun and accessible way. We decided to organize a pub quiz at Cybermachina Gdańsk. We prepared a set of 20 questions about the basics of biology and science in general. We met in the pub with science enthusiasts from all over Gdańsk - our pub quiz was a team competition where you could meet, share knowledge and have fun with new colleagues. For us, it was an opportunity to approach education in a more relaxed way and show our audience that talking about biology can be an interesting way to spend an evening. Attached below are the 20 questions we prepared - maybe this will encourage other iGEM teams to bring biology into student pubs and clubs?
Figure 14. Pub quiz questions and our answer sheets
Photo album 11. Photos from our biological pub quiz in Cybermachina Gdańsk
For our team, education and science communication were a priority from day one. We reached out to people of different ages and scientific backgrounds, promoted mutual learning, exchanged experiences and ideas. We learned how to communicate effectively, modifying our materials to best suit the audience at each activity. The goal was simple - to do science, by the people and for the people.
Children had the opportunity to conduct simple experiments and learned that science is fun. High school students learned the basics of synthetic biology and possible career paths in biotechnology. Teachers observed our workshops, perhaps incorporating the educational innovations we presented into their daily work. Students from Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG learned about our iGEM experience and our project. The general public learned about synthetic biology and the problem of chemical pollution of water with phthalate compounds.
We brainstormed more ideas that we, sadly, didn't have the time to execute. These include:
We hope that future iGEM teams will find on this page inspiration and resources that will help them promote confidence and curiosity towards science.
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