Education events hosted by GEC were designed and executed to foster community excitement about synthetic biology and research. North Dakota is the United States’ number one producer of honey. Therefore, our project this year revolved around a local issue that many people in our community could relate to. Because of this, we wanted to design events that promoted pollinator health, as well as educate our community about synthetic biology.
Community Education Events
These community education events were aimed at spreading awareness about pollinator health and educating the general public about synthetic biology and how it can be used to address local issues.
Red River Market
The Red River Market is a weekly farmers market. We hosted a booth one weekend to educate the public about our project. We created and handed out pamphlets and supplies to create solitary bee houses, a children’s activity book about pollinators, and pamphlets that provided in-depth information about our project and pollinators in general.
Pollinator Party
Baker Garden and Gift, a local gardening shop, hosted the Pollinator Party. This event was to celebrate the opening of their pollinator garden. Multiple local organizations hosted tables at this event to promote their mission and spread awareness about pollinator health. We created and handed out pamphlets and supplies to make solitary bee houses.
NDSU Avenues of Scientific Discovery
Our university hosted middle and high school students to participate in a science day. The students would select workshops and classes to attend that they would rotate between. We put together a presentation to teach students about biotechnology. As a group, we developed the workshop using backwards design, starting with the course objectives and ending with the activities and resources needed.
The objectives of this workshop were to:
- Define generalized biotechnology
- List different applications of biotechnology
- Practice oral presentation and communication skills
- Design and validate experiments in a group setting, including appropriate controls
During the workshop we gave a brief overview of what biotechnology is and the history of it. We then delved into case studies that pertained to different biotechnological topics. These case studies were obtained from the National Center for Case Study Teaching Science and edited to fit the age range, time frame and course objectives. We finished the class by going into what iGEM is and what our project was for this year. This event allowed our team to expose younger students to the world of synthetic biology to inspire them to look into biotechnology as a possible career.
Bee Fact Campaign
