Education
Misinformation is a frequent source of misconceptions about synthetic biology. This can be counteracted by adequate and sufficient education. By interacting with the local community, the scientific community, and via social media, we followed a diversified approach to educate as many different groups of people as possible. By educating students of different educational levels about synthetic biology and conducting experimenting with students in our laboratory, we showed that students are able to understand the theory behind synthetic biology and are interested to learn about more it.
Botanical Garden: Exploring Views on Genetic Engineering in Our Community
Synthetic biology involves heavily debated, controversial topics such as GMOs and their applications. There is still a narrative about bad GMOs and an aversion towards any type of genetic engineering in our society, especially in the EU. So we wanted to start a dialogue with the public and see how people feel about genetic engineering, how much they know about it and what they expect from scientists.
Our Plan
We reached out to our local botanical garden, a beloved and frequented place here in Braunschweig which is visited by people of all ages, stages of life and backgrounds. It seemed like the perfect place to get a good understanding of how people feel about GMOs.
What we Learned
Research in hand we went to the botanical garden multiple times and had very interesting talks with a wide variety of people. We engaged in conversations in both German and English, conversing with individuals of all age groups. We started by asking them about their thoughts on genetic engineering. During our first visit in the botanical garden, we wanted to know whether they would consume genetically engineered food, yes or no, and to vote with a test tube that they could place in corresponding beakers.
We were curious to know where their concerns or fears come from while also giving them an overview on what modern genetic engineering encompasses and the possible applications. Furthermore, we asked for their input on how scientists like us could contribute to creating greater public understanding of the topic. People wished for transparency and access to information about genetic engineering.
We realized that there is already a lot of good educational material on genetic engineering available for everyone with access to the internet, but that people would have to actively search for it. So, we decided to design a handout for our next visits. It contained basic information about modern genetic engineering, and we provided links to mentioned material and a link to our website. It was also interesting to know whether we could change people’s minds on the topic. So we created posters where people could position themselves on the topic before and after talking to us.
As you can see, we were able to impact at least some people with the discussion. So we assume that a lot of the concerns may stem from a lack of knowledge in the field.
Our Final Thoughts
We established an open discussion where people could freely express their opinion, concerns and fears. We would tell them about our point of view and offer them more in-depth information in the form of our knowledge and our handout. And we dare to claim that the discussions were thought-provoking for both sides. A lot of the people we talked to oppose any type of genetic engineering, are fearful of what it means for us and the environment or what it could lead to if we started implementing it on a larger scale. But we also had interesting discussions with people that were indifferent or enthusiastic about genetic engineering. We received feedback via email as well, saying they were glad that we contributed to the public debate about GMOs.
We were able to learn a lot from our talks not just about the fears and concerns about GMOs but how to discuss such a controversial topic with people whose opinion might differ from ours. We think the debate on genetic engineering must be kept alive for the narrative to change. And we hope that we could contribute to the discussion on a local level.
At the Botanical Garden, we noticed that many concerns about genetic engineering seemed to arise from a limited understanding of the basic concepts of synthetic biology. That’s why our next mission was to bring people closer to the field.
Sharing Synthetic Biology with Our University and Beyond
As part of our initiative to reach a broader audience, we arranged a presentation at the university about our project, iGEM, and synthetic biology. An invite was sent to everyone in our faculty, the HZI Braunschweig (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research), various research groups and anyone who was interested. In addition to that, we published articles in out local newspaper, our universities magazine, and a scientific journal.
Reaching a Local Audience - Article in the Braunschweiger Zeitung
The Braunschweiger Zeitung is a daily local newspaper, and we had the chance to have an article written about us and our project. A journalist from the newspaper visited us at the institute where we showed our laboratory and gave a short presentation about our project. He was eager to know more and asked several questions. The article was published in print and digitally. It helped us to reach a local audience of readers relatively early on in our iGEM journey.
Sharing Synthetic Biology with Our University and Beyond: Project Presentation and TU Magazine
As part of our initiative to reach a broader audience, we arranged a presentation at the university about our project, iGEM, and synthetic biology. An invite was sent to everyone in our faculty, the HZI Braunschweig (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research), various research groups and anyone who was interested. We were happy to be joined by various scientists: students, professors, scientists from the HZI, JKI (Julius Kühn-Institut), Leibniz Institute DSMZ (German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH) and local businesses, but also by students from other subjects and family members of our team.
During our presentation held at the BRICS building (Braunschweig Integrated Centre of Systems Biology), conducted in English, we conveyed our project idea to both individuals with a scientific background and those without, ensuring that it resonated with everyone in the audience.
We had a lively discussion round after our talk and received very interesting feedback that helped us on our journey as well. Over drinks and snacks we were able to network with our audience after the presentation.
We also wrote an article for our online university magazine ‘TU Magazin’ about our talk at the BRICS, our project and synthetic biology. The article was written in German and in English.
Engaging with the scientific community: VAAM Conference and BIOspektrum Article
We have reached a wide range of people, but we also wanted to engage with the scientific community to discuss synthetic biology and our project. We had the chance to publish an article in the German science magazine ‘BIOspektrum’ and present our project at the annual VAAM conference in Göttingen.
VAAM - Association for General and Applied Microbiology
VAAM is the Association for General and Applied Microbiology which encourages the exchange and collaboration between scientists. At the conference we were able to present our project, receive feedback and have interesting discussions.
BIOspektrum
The article about our project was published digitally and in print. With approximately 13.000 readers (Biospektrum, n.d., https://www.biospektrum.de/ueber-biospektrum) this allowed us to reach the science community nationwide.
It was most important to us to establish a direct conversation with our audience and engage with them. Our team also learned a lot along the way, from our conversations, school visits and online presence. We were inspired by the will and excitement to learn of the students we worked with. We could see that starting early with education, having productive discussions or educating in a fun way can have a great impact on the perception of synthetic biology.
Social Media: Expanding the Reach of Synthetic Biology Education
How can we make education about synthetic biology accessible to everyone and ensure it reaches the widest possible audience? In today’s digital age, where virtually everyone is on social media, harnessing the power of these platforms to communicate about synthetic biology opens up exciting possibilities for sharing knowledge and sparking discussions. We recognized the significance of this during our conversations at the botanical garden. So we are active on the main platforms Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok, Facebook and X. We use these accounts to share the wonders of synthetic biology with the world.
Instagram and TikTok
Our main focus regarding the education about synthetic biology on social media was Instagram where we did at least three weekly uploads. One of our post series was called ‘…of the week’ in which we explained different methods, reporters, and organisms. As a way of interacting with our followers we also established a quiz series ‘True or False’ where they could take their guess on a scientific fact. We were able to see how many people guessed right or wrong by using the poll-function on Instagram stories. We also invited our followers to comment on our posts by asking them questions in the caption.
For our posts to have a high recognition value we created a fun template for each post series with colors from our color scheme and the font that we are using. We aimed to be inclusive by using an accessible color palette and font. To expand our educational influence as an account with quite a small following we needed to take advantage of the rise in popularity of video content. So as to reach more people and engage a younger audience, we posted a ‘Reel’ each week. These ‘Reels’ were mostly fun videos about working in the laboratory or about activities that we did.
We also posted videos in which we showed how we perform certain methods that were explained in our ‘…of the week’ posts. This was also a possibility to give our followers an insight into the work we do in the laboratory. Many of us know the experience where people, even our closest friends or parents, don’t actually know what we do all day. And this was our way of showing that in an entertaining way. These educational videos can also be shared and saved, so people can use them as a guide when working in the lab.
Because no one can deny the popularity of TikTok within the younger generation, we wanted to take advantage of that and the infamous TikTok algorithm, which is why we also posted our videos there.
Collaborations
To increase our outreach, we also collaborated with multiple iGEM Teams through educational post series and creative challenges. You can read more about our collaborations here.
We also collaborated with our university’s instagram account on two occasions. In March, they featured our team along with a caption about us and iGEM. We also prepared a ‘Day in the Life’ reel that they posted on their account. With their over 20,000 followers this significantly enhanced our visibility.
We were able to engage with multiple people from different countries with our content on social media. Some people interacted by taking part in our weekly quizzes, others by commenting on our posts or watching, saving and sharing our videos. By using the ‘Insights’ function on Instagram and looking at likes, views and comments we were able to gather what formats work best for our education purposes. We also saw that our fun posts and videos about synthetic biology often gained the most interaction. When people associate learning with entertainment, education can be very productive.
Synthetic Biology in Education
Nowadays misinformation spreads quickly and often overshadows the voices of scientists. We addressed this point by educating students of different educational levels about synthetic biology. We wanted to find out if the students are able to understand the concept of synthetic biology, and more importantly, if they are interested in learning about it.
Elementary School: Journey into the World of Microscopy
For our educational approach, we wanted to reach people of all ages - including the youngest among us. That’s why we visited the class of an elementary school to give an insight into the world of synthetic biology and show them how scientists approach their research by conducting an experiment with them.
We started our visit by asking the students if they know what "biology" means. To our surprise, most students didn't even know the term itself. But with a little brainstorming and references to daily life, we were able to explain bacteria, viruses, and the work with the environment. As the regular elementary student only knows scientists from TV, we broke down this barrier by showing pictures of our laboratory work (including glowing colonies of our reporters). We are proud to announce that most of them now understand why some food has to be stored in the fridge.
As the students are not old enough to understand synthetic biology, we focused on educating them about scientific thinking:
We prepared a child friendly experiment in which ink coloured water is filtered by coal. To confirm that the coal is the decisive factor for the filtration, we also performed the experiment without a filtering ingredient and with sand. The students enjoyed the experiment and took an active part in noting down their observations. They demonstrated impressive abilities in interpreting their results and thinking of a possible explanation for the filtering ability of coal. The experiment enabled us to demonstrate that, just as in synthetic biology, some explanations often lie beyond what the naked eye can see. We closed the discussion by showing a microscopic image of the coal and the students were able to draw their own version of the coals structure into their protocol. By looking at the cell structure of onion skin and the movement of fat particles in milk through the microscope, we showed that coal is not the only substance of daily life with a surprising structure.
We enjoyed spending the day with the class and were also able to learn from the students. They demonstrated that everyone, even at an early age, has the potential to make scientific conclusions and to understand complex topics, if they are explained with an appropriate level of abstraction and vocabulary.
High Level Biology Course: Bridging the Gap in Synthetic Biology Education with BioBits® Kits
In cooperation with the German Association for Synthetic Biology (GASB) we organized visits to high level education biology courses at high schools. As the overall curriculum of the courses includes only the theory of a few methods used in synthetic biology, and no education about synthetic biology itself, we wanted to provide the students with the opportunity to learn more about synthetic biology and to be able to conduct their own experiments.
GASB supported our initiative by providing BioBits®: Central Dogma cell-free classroom kits for our visits. To provide the students with the appropriate knowledge, we did a short review of the central dogma of biology. The students were able to pipette their own reactions and observe the flow of genetic information in the following reaction. After pipetting the reactions, a green fluorescent mRNA indicates a successful transcription and a red fluorescent protein a successful translation. The students were directly able to observe the reactions and the differences between them, as also a negative control and two reactions where the translation is disrupted. We prepared a handbook where the students conducted comprehension questions before and after the experiment. During the experiment, the students noted down their observations, and thought of possible explanations why some reactions were disrupted. By discussing the differences between the reactions, the students were able to get a detailed insight on how the central dogma of biology works.
We were happy to see that the students were motivated and demonstrated a high interest in conducting the experiment with us. Our cooperation with GASB included recording material that can be used in future advertisements, as the kits should be made available to teachers cost-free to conduct the experiments in their classroom. We think that the initiative of GASB is a first step in the right direction to integrate synthetic biology into education, as we received positive feedback from the teacher and the students. Our survey showed that most students enjoyed our visit, were able to understand the theory behind the experiment and the experiment itself, and want to learn more about synthetic biology.
Take a look at our survey results
During our lessons we were able to engage with the students by asking them questions and having discussions. By doing quizzes, performing experiments and filling out question sheets they could actively take part in the lessons. The surveys enabled us to see how well our approaches to education worked and what we could improve.
Inspiring the Youth
Engaging young students in the world of synthetic biology and inspiring them to pursue a future in the field is a mission close to our hearts. Many students in school have never had the opportunity to step foot in an actual laboratory or even heard of synthetic biology. So, how can we capture their curiosity and inspire these young minds? In this next section it was important for us to create a lasting impact.
iGEM x ‘Jugend Forscht’: Inspiring Young Minds Beyond the Classroom
We invited science enthusiastic students from a local high school to visit us in our laboratory. Much like us the two students are part of a team competing in a science competition called ‘Jugend Forscht’ with their own project. We thought it would be great for these students to get to know synthetic biology and to work in an actual laboratory themselves! They were also looking for a new project idea and were hoping to find some inspiration.
Intro to Synthetic Biology
We kicked things off with a brief introduction to synthetic biology, unravelling its fascinating concepts and potential applications. We delved into the basics of molecular biology, covering everything from the structure of DNA to the concept of translation, transcription, and the extraction of plasmid DNA—areas not yet explored in their curriculum. In Germany the natural sciences are taught alternately and at that time they did not have biology class. We think that is unfortunate, but we were glad that we could give them a glimpse into the field and get them excited for their next biology lesson.
Experiments in our Lab
With their newfound knowledge the students performed a plasmid preparation with us. They were very excited as it was their first time working in an actual laboratory. We prepared a protocol with pictograms to visualize the steps for easier understanding. By the end they were experts in pipetting and using the centrifuge. After finishing the plasmid preparation, they even measured the concentration of their DNA at the nanodrop.
To gauge how well they understood everything in a playful manner we prepared a ‘Kahoot’ quiz. They had a lot of fun and even outsmarted one of our team members! We were happy to spend an afternoon with these students and see how excited they were.
iGEM x Seminar Course: Experiencing Synthetic Biology in Detail
To provide students with the ability to get a detailed insight into synthetic biology, we cooperated with a seminar course of a local high school that focuses on experimental biology. In a seminar course, the students conduct research on a specific topic over two years. At the end of the course, the students write an exam paper about their research topic. The goal of a seminar course is to train students in scientific research and writing. That fits well with our goal is to provide students with the ability to experience synthetic biology themselves and the theory behind it.
The cooperation was divided into two phases. In the first phase, we educated the students about methods that are frequently used in synthetic biology. Over the school year, the students will utilize this knowledge to conduct research and plan their own synthetic biology experiment, which will present their exam paper for the course. The second phase will start in the summer of next year, when the students will carry out their experiments under our guidance in our iGEM lab.
In the first phase, we designed a seminar about the workflow we used to clone, transform, and express our own constructs for the Li+onSwitch project in E. coli. In that way, we were able to include experimental results from our notebook into the presentation, which we evaluated together with the students. With this practical approach, we guided them through the workflow and explained PCT, gel electrophoresis, cloning and transformation, colony PCR, and cultivating and expression of our constructs. For a better understanding of the methods, we brought material needed for the experiments with us. This included a gel electrophoresis gel, pipettes, and agar plates. The seminar course kept the agar plates and performed a growth experiment with them.
The students showed a high interest in our project and the methods we explained. Our surveys showed that most of the students found the understanding of the methods challenging, but were able to understand everything and want to learn more about synthetic biology. Some students want to conduct their own synthetic biology research in our lab next summer and we are looking forward to supporting them in the process.
Take a look at our survey results
The Fun Approach: Our Card Game
As students ourselves we know we learn best when having fun. This is why we created a card game based on the ‘Dobble’ aka ‘Spot it’ game. It is a fast-paced game where you have to find a matching symbol on the cards. And there is always a matching symbol! We created our own synthetic biology symbols and crafted a card deck of 31 cards. We showed our game to high school students and people who are not from the field.
First, they struggled to find the words for some of the symbols which is why we created a guide. On this guide we provided the scientifically correct word and an alternative. This made the game more accessible to different age groups and people from different backgrounds. We wanted to pique interest by having fun and we think it worked. For instance, we were asked what phages or riboswitches are or why we work with bacteria. We asked for more feedback and received positive impressions of our game.
‘Cool game that also teaches you about the topic’
-High School Student that tested our game
We also invited fellow biology students from university to play a round of our game and they enjoyed recognizing a lot of the things we learn about in our lectures.
We don’t want you to miss out on the fun either so you can download the game here.
During our lessons we were able to engage with the students by asking them questions and having discussions. By doing quizzes, performing experiments and filling out question sheets they could actively take part in the lessons. The surveys enabled us to see how well our approaches to education worked and what we could improve.