Tick Bite Triage
This year, our team focused on the education of tick safety specifically education for children. We taught practices including how to prevent ticks bites, how to properly remove ticks, and what symptoms to look out for. This was primarily accomplished via our produced children’s story "Tick Bite Triage" through readings to different classrooms and events around the US. "Tick Bite Triage" follows three different children and how they handled getting a tick, with each character demonstrating the importance of checking and removing ticks correctly.
Click on the picture below to access the book. Please contact us on Instagram for different versions if needed!
We were able to reach approximately 100 children through our preliminary readings and plan to do more as we work toward our goal of preventing Lyme disease. Children enjoyed the book as did administrators. From our first reading, this is what listeners had to say.
The book also included printable pages to serve as educational handouts to the public. "Tick Bite Triage" is a free resource for everyone passionate about tick education to use. We encourage those interested to reach out for a pdf source and to use these downloads!
Pikes Peak Area Leaders in Science (PALS)
Another event our team lead was a teaching event for the Pikes Peak Area Leaders in Science (PALS). At this event middle and high school teachers were shown tools for bring synthetic biology into their own classrooms. We were able to reach almost 70 local teachers and provide them the tools to continue education efforts.
Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad hosts middle and high schools for a science fair type competition. Our team participates annually as we did this year as supervisors for the event helping to judge children's projects. This is a recurring event and something that our team regularly aids with.
Summer Biotech Bootcamp
Moving to the education of synthetic biology, our team did educational work in the field of bioengineering to middle and high school teachers. The program put together focused on immersing teachers the new fields in biotechnology and how to incorporate or teach kids about these new fields and concepts. This program is annual program and has plans to continue for years to come. Over the course of this year we were able to reach 12 teachers and 33 local students.
The Cool Science Event
The Cool Science Event is a reoccurring local event each year where children are invited to explore STEAM topics and demonstrations by different schools and organizations to promote STEAM topics. Our team this year participated with a booth including posters and discussions on synthetic biology, reading "Tick Bite Triage", general tick education, a tick removal operation game, and general Q&A. The event hosted approximately 6,000 children and their parents and our team was able to reach several hundred of them.
The Tutt Boys and Girls Club
The Tutt Boys and Girls Club is a local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club in Colorado Springs. Our team reached out in conjunction with other USAFA outreach groups to discuss a lasting relationship and providing time and effort into their pre-existing STEM programs. If your iGEM team is looking to collaborate with the Boys and Girls Club, the organization is always looking for volunteers and people to help with events. Look up the club in your area and reach out today!
How to Create Educational Materials
In making our education materials, our team documented our processes so that other iGEM teams would have a starting point in the future.
"Tick Bite Triage" was the start for our tick education ideas. As an iGEM team, the book was brainstormed by asking different members of our team their experiences with ticks. Our team is comprised of members who are from vastly different places across the US thereby providing us with a dialogue of what people who were unfamiliar with ticks did not know. Drawing on this source of knowledge, we talked to parents and asked them if the contents of the book was something their children would be able to comprehend and what type of pictures or diagrams would be helpful. After the text was written, the drawings were done graphically using the Good Notes app and text was added using a pdf editor. This process to create an educational tool was successful for our team and a process that other iGEM teams can build off of for education and outreach to children regarding a lesser-known issue.
Next we moved into materials that would also be helpful to children's learning such as simple handouts and games. We kept the handouts consistent with the style of "Tick Bite Triage" so that our message was clear and still kid-friendly. Additionally we created a coloring page from illustrations in "Tick Bite Triage" so that kids would be able to remember and take home a piece of what they learned from our team. Lastly, our team modified an Operation game to educate on how to properly remove ticks. We removed the organs provided with the game and 3D printed small ticks to use instead. The game taught that ticks can be anywhere, they are small, and that tweezers are the correct tool to use to remove ticks.
We welcome other teams to use our book and follow our process to make their own materials to support their specific efforts!