Project
Description
Safety
Contribution
Lab
Design
Notebook
Experiments
Results
Proposed Implementation
Proof of Concept
Engineering
Engineering Success
Hydrogel
Parts
Hardware
Model
Beyond The Lab
Human Practices
Entrepreneurship
Science Communication
Team
Members
Attributions
Sponsors
Collaborations
Impact
Sustainability
Education
BioArt
Inclusivity
Beyond The Lab
Human Practices
Entrepreneurship
Science Communication
Team
Members
Attributions
Sponsors
Collaborations
Impact
Sustainability
Education
BioArt
Inclusivity

Education

Overview

"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world" -Nelson Mandela.

The best way to promote science and synthetic biology to the public is simply through the help of education. Growing desire for scientific education is best done through early stages like childhood or school period by engaging young minds in various exciting activities. As for adults, who are less prone to learning as they age, however, they still stay the same curious children inside; through fascinating activities and approaches, they would be able to get involved in something new and exciting. By conducting several events, our team tackled a chance to change people's perceptions of science, synthetic biology, and cancer.

Summer Camp

logo

iGEM Summer Camp - is an annual summer event for teenagers that our team has organized for the last 3 years. It is a project that aims to increase science literacy, promote iGEM activities among high school students, and provide participants with professional career guidance in the field of science and technology.
The primary goals of iGEM Summer Camp 2023:
Here you can see the Camp's statistics:

Figure 1. Statistics of the Summer camp

The special features of iGEM Summer Camp 2023:
Figure 2.Special features of the camp

By setting summer camp in two different modes and in three different languages we ensured access for everyone from different and remote regions, as well as for various levels of biology education and language instruction.

The Offline Summer Camp was conducted on the campus of Nazarbayev University. Our team members, invited professors from our university, as well as our colleagues from NU ACS (Nazarbayev University American Chemical Society International Student Chapter) that delivered informative presentations on topics of cancer biology, innovative treatment methods and introduction to scientific research during the program. Additionally, besides lectures, in order to maintain the interactive and joyful environment for students we conducted quiz mode games (kahoot) and debates on the topic of ethics in medicine. Students were also given an information session from our university's enrollment office and career advising center on topics of further professional prospects in biology and medicine. These workshops not only provided academic insights but also revealed the several job paths available within the biological sciences, creating in the students a strong desire to seek additional study in these fields.

Access the schedule of the offline Summer Camp via this link

Figure 3.Photos from the offline camp


We expanded the Summer Camp's reach with an innovative Online Summer Camp, which was key to our inclusive concept. This digital version was a lifeline for individuals who were unable to participate in the offline edition. Especially for our online participants we invited other iGEM teams to conduct lectures on the topic of cancer treatment, also, teams gave tasks for our students and were able to communicate and give valuable feedback.

We are highly grateful and we would like to express our sincere gratitude for iGEM Teams from all around the world at the Online Summer Camp, including powerful competitors like iGEM Eindhoven, iGEM MIT, and King's College London. You can find more on cooperation in our Collaboration page.

Figure 4.Photos from the online camp

Table 1. Differences in camp formats

These virtual lectures, masterfully prepared by academics, notable speakers, and iGEM team members, transcended geographical boundaries, broadening the intellectual horizons of the students. Our goal was to democratize access to synthetic biology information for all high school students, removing obstacles and enabling equitable learning.
The joint research projects done by student cohorts were the highlight of our Summer Camp experience. Participants were divided into groups and chose the project topics suggested by us focusing on cancer and bioethics issues. Every day the camp groups were working on their projects, they started from literature review, project design to writing and making a presentation. On the final day of the program, they presented their results in engaging presentations. We were evaluating presentations on the criteria showed in the following table:
Table 2. Rubrics for teams' projects evaluation

With an eye to increase students' motivation and active participation in project writing we decided to make final presentations in competition mode similarly to iGEM, where best projects were given special awards and prizes.

This five-day immersion method provided students with the ability to acquire, examine, and understand research materials. They also obtained a thorough comprehension of the complex tapestry that is research paper drafting.

Figure 5. Photos from the final day of the online camp


Figure 6. Best project award winners in the both formats of the camp


Knowledge estimation

To estimate the efficiency of our work during the camp we asked participants to go through surveys before and after the camp. Beforehand, we took consent for participation in surveys from students, as well as consent of parents approval in camp participation. Overall, high schoolers safety was taken into high consideration, all students were under supervision of our team members, had access to medical help and security in case of emergency.

Coming back to survey results, surprisingly, results did not show any significant changes since students showed a proficient knowledge in cancer education even before the camp, among 68 answers more than 50% of students answered correctly the questions, which made us quite happy as it means that younger generations are much more aware of cancer related issues and importance of early diagnostics.
Figure 7. Results from the knowledge estimation poll taken among participants before and after the Summer camp

Nevertheless, another quality indicator was the feedback that we got directly from students: most of the students were satisfied with the camp and gave positive comments. However, the most important and valuable feedback was that most of the students highlighted that they acquired a desire to develop and progress in the field of biology, some even indicated that we were able to bring back the love for biology as it was lost in schools. Nothing was more precious for us than knowing that our hard work fueled a passion for science among young and emerging minds.

Tedx

This year our team has been invited to give TEDx talks by TedxNazarbayev University club to share our research, experiences, and insights with a broader audience of our university's community. Our team leader Anel Umirbaeva gave her speech on the topic Rewriting Cancer: How Bacteria Revolutionize Cancer Treatment" . Throughout her performance she was introducing to the public the ability of synthetic biology in making a unique and specific way of cancer treatment. Moreover, touched upon the problems of cancer by discussing the limitations of common cancer treatments and cancer education. These talks have helped us promote awareness about synthetic biology and the potential of our project Cellcare.

Figure 8. TEDx presentation at Nazarbayev University

Brochures

During the events that we conducted we simultaneously asked people to take surveys in order to evaluate the level of cancer awareness among our local people. According to our results, people showed a lack of knowledge on immunotherapy or any other novel treatment existing methods. In that way we decided to create brochures that educate about immunotherapy and cancer problems.





Graph 1. Results of the knwoledge estimation surveys
One of the major aims of CellCare is raising cancer education and awareness of early diagnostics and screening among our local community. Educational brochures could be used as effective tools that will be able to improve patients understanding and engagement in their well healthcare.
We prepared 100 brochures, in 3 languages (English, Kazakh and Russian) and distributed them among local UMC. Brochures included information about the influence that cancer and the immune system has on each other, immunotherapy, methods of reducing cancer risk, as well as the relationship between emotional wellbeing and cancer. Find our brochures in 3 languages using the following link.

Within university

1) Science Day
Our colleagues from the Bioexplorer club invited us to the Science Day event they organized. There we shared the activities of our team and iGEM. Also, we were making a DNA extraction workshop for all interested students, as well as playing Kahoot on the topic of synthetic biology.

Figure 9. Photos taken during the science day at Nazarbayev University for all students


2) Club fair
This fall, as part of the beginning of the new academic year, our university held a Club Fair event where we were able to introduce our team and iGEM competition. We made an interactive game where students had to recognize the final word by translating and transcribing the genetic code sequence. Furthermore, we made a presentation on topics of synthetic biology and its application in cancer after which students had to play Kahoot and win special prizes. In addition we asked students to take a survey to estimate the cancer education of our university's community.
With the help of the club fair we were able to raise cancer awareness among students, as well as attract new students to the activity of iGEM and even raised the interest of future iGEM NU-Kazakhstan team members for upcoming years.

Figure 10. Our team during the club fair at NU


3)Braille workshop
In last year's competition our team worked hard on the inclusive Remisee project that was supporting biology education among children with visual impairments and those living in rural areas. As continuation of work within this project, we conducted a Braille writing workshop where participants were able to acquire new skills from the experts of a social fund Dara Foundation with which we have been working for the last two years on the topic of inclusive education for visually impaired school students. Most of the participants of our workshop were graduate students majoring in inclusive education. You can find more details regarding this workshop on the Inclusivity page.

Outside university

GenomiX Academy
This summer we were invited to collaborate with the GenomiX Academy which promotes biology among children and high school students, as well as helps with the preparation for admission into medical universities. You can find out more about them and other cooperations in our Collaboration page.
Another activity of Genomix was a summer camp for teenagers where they asked us to collaborate and make a tour inside a microbiology laboratory. Our teammates were happy to present the fascinating world of working in a lab for high school students, as well as instructing them on safety regulations inside and highlighting its importance.

Figure 11. Students from the Genomix school are having a laboratory tour directed by our TA Nurtilek


Local High School's Science Fair event
Four members of our team had the opportunity to visit Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Astana during their annual Science Fair. We were thrilled to give a talk about our upcoming project for this year, as well as exploring engineering tools to optimize targeted drug delivery. Besides, we tried to dive deep into the fascinating world of synthetic biology and make students interested in that field. Finally, we had the pleasure of discussing the opportunities for the prospective high school students to establish the team and present a project in IGEM Grand Jamboree next year.

Figure 12. Our team members on the Science Fair event at Nazarbayev Intelectual School.


Video lectures

One more additional activity within the Remisee project was a prepared video lectures by our team members on various topics of synthetic biology. The uniqueness of these lectures is that they were recorded in 3 languages - Kazakh, English, Russian. The diversity of materials in different languages is highly significant for our country as lots of students suffer from lack of information in their suitable language of instruction. Especially in biology there is a high shortage of materials in the Kazakh language. Our team was happy to translate all the lecture materials and record them in an interactive way for students, thus making science accessible to everyone. We sent the lecture to schools in rural areas for them to show and share it with students. Video lectures can be found in this link.

BioArt

Through one of our team's major annual events - BioArt exhibition - we were able to demonstrate and deliver the idea of awareness in cancer education. With the help of art and mesmerizing installations we introduced the power of synthetic biology in solving problems of cancer and its treatment methods to the larger audience. More about the exhibition can be found in the BioArt page.

Conclusion

Throughout this year we tried our best in making science and biology as interesting, accessible and approachable as possible. We engaged with different kinds of public starting from various ages and occupations. The primary goal of our team was to increase public engagement towards science and synthetic biology through fascinating education materials, as well as we wanted to raise awareness of cancer education among our local society. We want to believe that all those activities helped: