Team:Bolivia/Communication

Bolivia | Excellence

Bolivia has a major issue with science communication and therefore, most citizens lack science culture. This was our main reason to start different activities that would engage and inform the public in general about biotechnology and synthetic biology. Here we present a summary of the different activities carried out by the iGEM Bolivia team.

Visual Identity

Faced with the need for a visual renovation for our social networks and in order to have a more sophisticated representation. Our iGEM team received intensive training in visual identity and graphic design from interested graphic designers interested in iGEM Bolivia. We acquired intermediate level skills in graphic design and visual identity platforms. This is the product of the complete renovation of our visual identity in May of this year, created by iGEMers: Beatriz Medrano, Franz Quiroga, Gabriela Ayala and Sol Llanos.

The new visual identity has been well received by our followers as it has more harmony in its design and use of colors. In our Facebook profile, you can appreciate the old design we used in 2020

Social Media Content

This was our core activity ever since we formed the group in 2020. During quarantine, we started understanding how social networks operate and finally we built a publications calendar. First, the topics were random but around a year ago, we workedwork with a defined topic per month. We have covered from basic biotechnology concepts to specific ones about our project: biotechnology classification, microorganisms, bioreactors, biosensors and even a period talking about vaccines to educate our public given the situation.

Main Content:

News
Infographics
Images (anniversary, did you know?)
Review of Scientific Articles

Here we present some examples of the main areas we covered during our daily publications:

Statistics

Graphs and data of the scope in social networks (Facebook and Instagram):

PDF

PODCAST: CONCIENCIA

What is CONCIENCIA?

As members of iGEM Bolivia in the field of Science Communication, we created around October 2020 the Podcast ConCiencia. Our goal is to familiarize people with scientific research, genetic engineering and biotechnology. We discovered that there was a problem: scientific podcasts are not very popular in Bolivia. Our target audience is public in general but especially young people, so we found that the best way to achieve our main goal is to share authentic experiences of inspiring Bolivian professionals and students related to the biotechnology fields. Until now, we have more than a dozen interviews published and other special episodes. We are very satisfied that this project has acquired an international impact, having reproductions in different countries. With this initiative, we have been able to develop leadership, collaboration and communication skills, while creating a close-knit team. We are currently working on our second season with the mid-term goals of expanding to Latin America and becoming one of the leading Biotechnology podcasts in Bolivia.

Impact

ConCiencia Podcast with the aim of reaching the general public and generate interest in the area of biotechnology was well received not only in Bolivia, but also in other countries such as: Chile, United States, Belgium, Portugal and Mexico. We can define this as the beginning of a journey in which Bolivia is being taken into account as a country that knows about biotechnology and has biotechnologists around the world as reflected in some of our podcasts. Therefore, we are very motivated to continue with this work

Episodes

BIOTECHNOLOGY INTRODUCTION TEXTBOOK

As the first Bolivian team to participate in the iGEM competition, we encourage young people to learn about Biology, Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology. Therefore, we developed an educational guide for high school students to learn the basics of different topics in biology and biotechnology, in addition to offering different practical experiments with simple materials and freely available to enjoy and marvel at science.

The development of this educational guide was extraordinary as it allowed us to work closer with our tutors, with which, our main contributions to education are:

Develop a guide to transmit scientific information in a practical way.
Encouraging young people in science, biotechnology and synthetic biology. And we are sure that in the future there will be more teams representing Bolivia in the iGEM competition.
Develop relationships with young high school students and learn about their interest in science.

DIVULGATION IN PRESS AND SOCIAL EXPOSURE

We were able to manage the communication of our progress in different media in order to publicize the work being done by the team and invite the population to support us. The advantage of reaching mass media such as television and newspapers is that we were able to reach a wider audience.

Last year we had the opportunity to be interviewed on the television program "Jaque Mate" of the university channel of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) - TVU, because we won the 3rd prize in the university fair "INVESTIGA UMSA 2020", where we presented our project as "Development of an arsenic biosensor through synthetic biology".

Interview on UMSA TVU channel

Another opportunity we had, was to publish 4 articles in the magazine "LIBRE EMPRESA" on various topics related to biotechnology.

In September 2021, the scientific newspaper RESPUESTA Digital, interviewed our team and wrote an article about us entitled "Innovative project under construction: "ARSENITO" arsenic biosensor with genetic circuits to detect arsenic in water".

Publication in the scientific journal Respuesta digital

A second participation in mass media was in mid-September, in which we were invited to an interview in the television program "Enfoque universitario" of the TV channel of the Universidad Mayor de San Simón of Cochabamba (UMSS) to talk about our project.

Interview in the program "Enfoque Universitario".

All this presence in the media allowed more people to get to know our project and support us in social networks. This also attracted more volunteers and members to join the iGEM Bolivia team.

Social Exposure

We had a very active participation in various spaces and with several initiatives inviting us to present our project. This allowed us to make ourselves known to society as a multidisciplinary team, while presenting our goals and what we are achieving as a team. It also allowed us to make scientific communication about the advantages of biotechnology and the great potential of synthetic biology. It should be noted that the latter is a term not well known in Bolivia

Since it is the first time that our country would be participating in the iGEM competition, we started the work of science outreach in 2020, with the creation of our networks and establishing alliance networks. We have received different invitations to share about our project, such as:

“Festival de voluntarios Vol.1” invited by EduServer Bolivia. May 2020
“El concurso iGEM y el equipo iGEM-Bolivia”, presentation done at the 22do Congreso Internacional de Biotecnología Bolivia Innova. August 2020. In this event, our team members also presented workshops and posters such as: Biosafety Workshop, Vision of GMOs in Bolivia, Methods of detection and treatment of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Mercury: advantages, disadvantages and their application for Bolivia; and Thriving crops towards a promising future: the nutraceutical potential of superfoods in Bolivia.
“La competencia iGEM: impulsando la biología sintética en Bolivia” invitados por la Sociedad Científica de Estudiantes de Biología (SOCEB-UMSS)”. (Fecha) ?Septemb
“Conversatorio Biotecnología Industrial 2021” invitados por “AIChE-UAGRM (Instituto Americano de Ingenieros Químicos) Universidad Gabriel René Moreno”. Septiembre del 2020.
“Introducción a la Biotecnología” y “Biología Sintética” invited by “MUNDO EPIX”. September 2020.
4 online book reviews on synthetic biology and biotechnology in the space named “Science book movement”, invited by Book movement, between October and Russia.
“Biosensor Biológico para la detección de arsénico” invited by “Futura Feria de ciencia, tecnología, innovación y emprendimiento”. Done in November 2020.
“Desarrollo de un biosensor para la detección de arsénico mediante el uso de la biología sintética”invited to the event named “Rol del Bioquímico en el medio ambiente”. Organized by Carrera de Bioquímica de la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz. November 2020.
“Mi perfil favorito: divulgación científica en América Latina” invitados como parte de las charlas ”Ciencia hablada” de Biotec Latina. December 2020.

A participation that we can highlight is about our project ideas and our progress so far in the Virtual Fair of Research, Innovation and Social Interaction "INVESTIGA UMSA 2020" with the talk "Development of an arsenic biosensor through synthetic biology" held in September 2020. As a result of this presentation we were able to obtain a recognition: Third place in the category TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION. UMSA is one of the most prestigious state universities in the country and several members of iGEM Bolivia are students of that university.