1. Teaching Synthetic Biology to High School Students
On 31 March 2023, the Human Practice and the Wet Lab divisions of iGEM UGM 2023 joined hands in teaching highschool students at MAN Insan Cendekia Serpong about synthetic biology and molecular biology in general through an interactive lecture and discussion. The session was in tandem with the preparation for the City/Regency level of the National Science Olympiad (Olimpiade Sains Nasional (OSN)), thus the session was expected to enrich the students with essential knowledge in the field and excite them about opportunities and challenges in synthetic biology. Pre-test and post-test surveys were conducted in order to measure the students’ knowledge before and after our educational “intervention”. To make it a two-way teaching process, oral quizzes were done in between the lectures, ensuring the students are keeping up with the learning materials and understanding them well enough
2. Advanced Science Training - Synthetic Biology
On 13 May 2023, the Human Practice division and the Wet Lab division of iGEM UGM 2023 joined hands in teaching medical and nutrition students at Universitas Gadjah Mada about synthetic biology through an interactive lecture. Essentially, these medical and nutrition students had insufficient exposure to synthetic biology despite having the interest to learn more about it. Thus, the Advanced Science Training - Synthetic Biology allowed them to explore deeper into the field of synthetic biology. Pre-test and post-test surveys were conducted in order to measure the students’ knowledge before and after our educational “intervention”. To make it a two-way teaching process, oral quizzes were done in between the lectures, ensuring the students are keeping up with the learning materials and understanding them well enough.
3. Swaragama Radio Program
On 6 July 2023, the iGEM UGM 2023 team collaborated with Radio Swaragama F.M. to conduct an educational radio segment as part of the “Local Heroes” program. The aim was to introduce the general public to iGEM UGM and our research outcome that will be applied to the community. Through this educational radio broadcast, we intended to introduce our project, which is based on the principle of “local people solving local problems”. The “Local Heroes” event, in the form of a broadcast consisting of three segments, each lasting approximately 7 minutes. In the first segment, the conversation revolved around introducing iGEM, synthetic biology, and our project, ColDBlu (Colorectal Cancer Screening bioDevice by aeBlue chromoprotein). Moving on to the second segment, the discussion delved deeper into the iGEM UGM team itself, starting from the purpose of establishing the iGEM team, the system of the iGEM Competition, the team members’s roles, the discovery and development of ideas, and the iGEM 2023 Grand Jamboree preparations. Finally, in the third session, there was further discussion about the categorization of medals in the iGEM Competition, followed by personal questions addressed to the speaker.
4. iGEM Goes to Rural Areas: Know and Understand Colorectal Cancer Early Symptoms through Early Screening (General Public Edition)
On the evening of 26 August 2023, the Human Practice division team members went to the Batur Village in the Sleman Regency of Yogyakarta. 12 people managed to allocated some time to attend our lecture excitedly on “Know and Understand Colorectal Cancer Early Symptoms through Early Screening”, which was started off by disseminating educational leaflets on colorectal cancer awareness and holding a pre-test survey, continued with a presentation of the main topic, and ended with conducting a post-test survey.
During the question and answer session of the lecture, participants were keenly intrigued on the concepts and mechanisms of our ColDBlu innovation project hence several queries were raised, such as: 1) What is the next step that should be done after observing the color change of our feces into blue? 2) After consuming ColDBlu once, will the color change appear right away or do we have to wait for several days? 3) Does the darkness degree of the feces indicate the severity of the colorectal cancer? So on and so forth, which contributed to strengthening the concepts and mechanisms of ColDBlu.
5. iGEM Goes to Rural Areas: Getting to Know Genetics (Elementary School Edition)
On 27 July 2023, one of iGEM UGM 2023 Human Practice division’s team members went to Malangrejo Public Elementary School, which is located in the Jetis Village (Wedomartani) of the Sleman Regency in Yogyakarta. She introduced the concept of genetics to the elementary schoolers in a fun and easy way. She started off the class by giving a colorful lecture interactively on the definition of genetics, nature vs. nurture, and an example of how the environment affects genetics.
Following the lecture, self-drafted booklets were distributed to each of the students. These booklets contain activities that sharpen the students’ understanding and knowledge on the difference of nature (genetics) and nurture (environment); the genetic traits that they, themselves, have; and the genetic characteristic similarities and differences that each of the students have compared to their seatmate. The students were accompanied throughout the whole process of filling out the booklets, to ensure that they had fully understood the materials.
As a result, the students have attained more insights on genetics, with proof on how they managed to get all answers correct for the difference of nature and nurture quiz and brainstormed correct answers for the personal genetic traits activity as well as the genetic characteristic similarities and differences activity. Some of the students also presented their activity book results in front of the class to be listened to by their classmates. At the end, an oral quiz was conducted to help the students recollect their memory and review the materials on genetics that was/were delivered that morning.
6. iGEM Goes to Rural Areas: The Basics of the Digestive System (Kindergarten Edition)
On 20-21 July 2023, a representative of the UGM iGEM team provided simple digestive system education to kindergarten children of Tunas Elok Kindergarten in Kadirojo II (Purwomartani) Village of the Sleman Regency in Yogyakarta. The digestive system is one of the human body systems that is important to be known, because it functions to digest food and absorb the nutrients needed by the body. Kindergarten children need to be introduced to a simple digestive system so they can recognize the organs involved in the digestive process, as well as maintain the health of their digestive system. This program was attended by 18 children, by providing interactive learning by arranging and pasting stickers, remembering through songs and stories briefly related to how food can be digested by the body.
7. Biology National Science Olympiad 2023 Laboratory Research Workshop
In August 2023, the iGEM UGM 2023 team collaborated with the UGM Biotechnology Study Center to hold a training workshop named the ”Biology National Science Olympiad 2023 Laboratory Research Workshop (Workshop Praktikum Biologi Olimpiade Sains Nasional 2023)” in preparation for high school students participating in the 2023 Biology National Science Olympiad on 27 August 2023. This training was conducted both onsite from 5-6 August 2023 and online from 12-13 August 2023 with a total of 76 participants. The onsite workshop took place at the Genetic Engineering Laboratory and Lecture Room on the 3rd floor of the UGM Biotechnology Study Center. The onsite workshop included practical learning in the main areas of biochemistry, covering topics such as protein measurement, molecular biology with a focus on PCR and electrophoresis, vertebrate histology, animal anatomy and physiology, and plant anatomy and physiology, specifically leaf and stem anatomies. On the other hand, the online workshop was divided into two fields: bioinformatics, covering topics related to the introduction to bioinformatics tools, and biostatistics, covering descriptive and inferential statistics.
The aim was that through this workshop, participants would gain sufficient knowledge and experience to achieve the best results in the National Science Olympiad. Furthermore, this activity also offered students the opportunity to gain exposure and experience in the field of molecular biology that they might not have had encountered at the high school level. In addition to providing training through biology laboratory practices, both online and onsite, to high school students preparing for the National Science Olympiad, this workshop also served as an opportunity to disseminate information about iGEM activities and support the aspects of human practice. In the iGEM competition, human practice is a vital aspect that involves interaction with the community. By organizing workshops for high school students, the iGEM UGM 2023 team could introduce them to iGEM activities and discuss the benefits and impacts of synthetic biology technology as well as encourage their participation in human practices. This provided students with insights and an understanding of the broader context of their research and enhances their awareness of the social implications and ethics in the development of biological technology.
8. Social Media (Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn)
On iGEM UGM’s social media (Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts), we have spread awareness on colorectal cancer and its current situation, currently-available screening tools, and our innovative project. As we utilized 3 different platforms, we expect that we were able to reach as many audiences as possible and from diverse backgrounds, acknowledging that almost all people are now users of social media. Boasting 790 followers on Instagram, 89 followers on Twitter, and 40 followers on LinkedIn, making it 919 followers in total; we believe that sharing knowledge on colorectal cancer and the importance of screening as well as our ColDBlu project through these platforms is immensely effective. We also used our social media to disseminate our colorectal cancer educational posters in universal languages (referring to the Inclusivity page).
