Team:IISER Kolkata/Education
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Education, in itself, is not merely the formal delivery of ideas and thoughts in the form of formalised packets of information. Rather, it dives deep into the exchange of information and ideas between different classes of people, communities and individuals which results in mutual development and the synergistic evolution of thought processes of all the parties involved in the process of interaction.
This is the central idea and notion on which our team laid the groundwork to execute a number of initiatives for imparting scientific education to people, involving individuals of diverse backgrounds, age-groups and educational levels. We have worked towards involving people and shaping their minds with regard to synthetic biology, with the principal objective of our initiatives being the establishment of a dialogue between different groups of people about synthetic biology and its various aspects.
With the help of constructive input and feedback and a collective team spirit, we have conducted workshops on synthetic biology, designed informative and educational graphical illustrations, conducted in-person interactions and collaborated with different organisations to publish material, organise competitions and conduct programs on science in general and synthetic biology in particular. Through our initiatives, we have tried to address issues beyond the task of imparting and exchanging knowledge of science and synthetic biology by trying to integrate under-represented communities and disadvantaged individuals who are likely to have less access to science education.
With the dairy industry being the core arena of focus of our project, it was inevitable that we work towards involving the dairy industry community and persons who are directly and indirectly associated with it in the conversation of the rising dynamic significance of synthetic biology and a general sense of awareness about it. We worked towards educating and inculcating a basic level of understanding among small dairy farmers who form the major fraction of the dairy industry in an agriculture-intensive country like India. The aim of our in-person visits and virtual interactions was to initiate a dialogue between different stakeholders of our project in the context of our project.
We conducted in-person interviews, meetings and virtual interaction sessions with dairy farmers, veterinary doctors and managers of dairy companies to establish a dialogue on understanding the issue of bovine mastitis and its various aspects of importance with regard to different communities. For the small scale dairy farmer, the general understanding of the disease and ways to prevent it as well as the consequences of antibiotic overuse are all matters of significance where awareness and dissemination of scientific information is a necessary prerequisite to establish a foundational basis for dealing with the issue of bovine mastitis. On the other hand, managerial officials of dairy companies are more interested in the scaling of production options and the managing of large scale dairy farms. We worked towards making people aware of the issues pertaining to AMR and its future ramifications. We also extensively discussed the issue of bovine mastitis, its impact on the dairy industry and the many issues it causes as well as the prevention techniques of mastitis.
We understood the need of awareness of bovine mastitis amongst small scale dairy farmers in India from our interaction with the dairy farmers, veterinarian doctors and scientists. A proper awareness will be extremely instrumental in controlling the transmission of the disease and reducing its occurrence.
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Visiting and interviewing small scale dairy farmers
Our team visited some scale small dairy farmers who aren't aware of the risks of antibiotics. We discussed their level of awareness of subclinical bovine mastitis, what they think are its causes and the treatment procedures they have adapted to over time. The aim was to educate them about bovine mastitis as well as the risks related to antibiotic overuse. We educated them on the prevention techniques of bovine mastitis and the importance of hygiene in dairy farms for the same. Keeping in mind the current limitations posed to public gatherings due to the pandemic, all such awareness programs were conducted in person to avoid any gathering following the COVID protocol officiated by the state government of West Bengal. By interacting with them we came to know of their perspectives on bovine mastitis. The interaction between us was productive and we explained various aspects of AMR, bovine mastitis and the scope of Synthetic Biology in treating bovine mastitis!
Our team member Sourin Chatterjee interacting with and interviewing local dairy farmers! 
Poster01 for farmer awareness 
Poster02 for farmer awareness 
Poster03 for farmer awareness -
Interacting with vets
In our several interactions with vets, we extensively discussed the the problem of antibiotic resistance and the need of our project. We also explained the importance of moving out of antibiotic to vets we met in-person. We had an amazing and productive session of discussion with everyone we interacted with !
Sourin Chatterjee and Udit Ghosh interviewing Basudev Sil, a vet.
As of 2020, almost a third of girls from the poorest strata have never seen a class room whereas upto 40% of adolescent girls are not attending school, as per a report of the Right to Education Forum and Centre for Budget Policy Studies ( supported by the world bank & UNICEF). Coupled with a poor compliance of the Right to education Act ( almost a decade after it was enacted ), the dripping finances spent in the sector of primary education has been primarily underscored as a central factor causing a rather less encouraging scenario when it comes to the hinterlands and the poorest pockets of India. Home to a substantial number of children ( girls accounting for a major chunk)who are out of school, studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between public investment in primary education and the overall development of children. [1] However , among the brighter points to mention, the percentage of Indian women who graduate in STEM is higher than many nations such as the US, Germany, UK and France, as per the information disseminated by the Union Minister of Education in the lower house of parliament[2].
This is indeed an optimistic scenario and one that needs to be built upon. The number of Indian women opting STEM for higher education has consistently increased in the past few years, although challenges remain. In order to ensure the holistic development of STEM as a sector which attracts women equivocally, it is important to focus on the aspects of job creation for women which continues to be a problem, as a higher percentage of women in STEM higher education may not necessarily translate into jobs. [3]. As a matter of fact, the development of an environment ensuring equitable job opportunities representation for women would inspire female students to take up STEM for higher studies which shall encourage young girls to inquire about different scientific ideas and cultivate their scientific temper. This would not just bolster female representation in science but contribute to the overall development of a society guided by scientific notions and principles, without neglecting anyone.
overview
Within the purview of the aforementioned context, the team collaborated with Team iGEM IISER Tirupati for a 5-day online workshop exclusively meant for female students pursuing high-school education. Simply titled ‘GENE GALA’, the workshop was an integrated effort on the part of the two teams to shape young minds and contribute to the repertoire of their knowledge on the fundamentals of synthetic biology.
Our team acknowledges the need for an inclusive and interactive modus operandi for the purpose of reaching out to students in order to understand science and cultivate critical thinking in a holistic manner. The workshop lasted for 5 days, from the 12th to 16th of July and registered the attendance of upto 90 female students from a number of schools run by the Directorate of Education, Delhi as well as their school teachers. Cultivating the fundamentals of synthetic biology in the minds of young students is quintessential for initiating or establishing a dialogue among communities regarding how synthetic biology works in real life. Our workshop was designed keeping in mind the curriculum and the level of understanding of high school students in general in the Indian educational system, elucidating on the pedagogy of high school and senior secondary schooling. We ensured that the collaboration was not merely a rudimentary extrapolation of what one would learn in the classroom but extended beyond the horizon by incorporating everyday activities on a range of topics from basic molecular biology to genetic engineering and puzzles involving elements of biology. Each day, essentially, was a session of about an hour or more which involved lectures by the team members on a specific topic assigned on that day, followed by a small session on a daily activity which would be solved by the team members the next day, thereby providing ample time to the attendees to solve the problem on their own!
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The 5-day workshop, conducted as a crash course on the fundamentals of synthetic biology, entailed multiple components which could be conveniently used to educate students via an online platform and can also serve as potential tools of improvisation to educators in the context of teaching high school students the basics of synthetic biology. A brochure (created by IISER Tirupati with inputs from IISER Kolkata) to provide an overview of our workshop to interested students who wish to join, was circulated among them We go on to describe in detail the multitude of modules as well as the structure and execution of the collaborative event between the two teams in the following section.
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The entire duration of 5days was planned in a way so that one could cover the essentials of molecular biology and advance onto the stepping stone to synthetic biology. The comprehensive and integrated approach of the designed lesson plan was possible due to the fruitful collaboration between the two teams. The first day dealt with the basics of biomolecular structures, the central dogma and how codons are read during translation. This was followed with the second day where we discussed bacterial genetics with a specific focus on operons. The third day heralded the beginning of synthetic biology, starting from the fundamentals. We discussed about plasmids along with a brief introduction to how experiments in molecular cloning are done. The fourth day covered crucial themes as we discussed the applications of synthetic biology, an introduction to genetic circuits, the significance of ethics in synthetic biology followed by an introduction to what iGEM is, and henceforth imparting the flavour of interdisciplinary science to the students with a brief discussion on chemical kinetics and molecular modelling. The two teams also described their iGEM projects to the attendees during the lecture session. The last day was a brainstorming session where we asked students to come up with interesting ideas to solve real-world problems!
Here is our brochure that we circulated for the event. We have also attached the day wise lecture content designed by the two teams!
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If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
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The lectures were delivered each of the 4 days ( excluding the ideathon at the end ) by a pair of students , one from each team, with the content being prepared focusing on the need for learning with illustrations and explanation rather than monotonous lines of text in the slides. The lecture was usually delivered in a time frame of about 40 minutes, following which the students were assigned breakout rooms where they could interact with the mentors ( one team member of each team being assigned a breakout room, thereby 2 mentors per room).. We had a holistic session of interaction with the students at a personal level each day, as the mentors helped them clarify their doubts and undertake the everyday task. The slides for each day have been duly prepared by the two teams with inputs from each other.
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If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
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The activities and quizzes accompanying each day’s lecture,were designed in order to inculcate critical thinking in the minds of the students by assigning them interesting tasks and questions every day. The mentors, during the discussion, discussed the activities and provided a hint to the students following which they were expected to answer the activity question by the next activity session. The activity questions for each day can be found at the end of each lecture slide. We also circulated a handbook among the students after every session everyday summarising the lecture content. (Activities were designed by both the teams and the handbooks were created by IISER Tirupati)
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Finally, in order to assess the efficiency of our skills to educate young minds, we circulated a feedback form among the students as well as their teachers who attended our workshop. We have received both commendation and suggestions both from the students as well as the teachers, which helped us to understand the finer details of where we could have done better in this collaborative event. In a nutshell, this workshop has been a learning experience for the teams as well as the students, as we educated the students and the students taught us how to improvise our methods and tools of teaching!
Feedback from students :
Feedback from school teachers who attended our event :
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We are delighted to have received a letter of appreciation from the directorate of education of Delhi, acknowledging our active participation in their programme “ STEM power for DoE girls” through this collaboration of ours . The directorate has underscored the positive reception from the guide and student attendees of our event, thereby recognising the efforts of the two teams to help the female students of Delhi achieve academic excellence.
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- We are extremely grateful to the team of IISER Tirupati and the attendees of this event for making this event a satisfactory one. We have shared memorable moments with all of our student attendees and the team of IISER Tirupati as we planned very part of thus event together and it was a cherishing experience for all of us !
Our team conducted a one-day webinar for high school students in the Bengali language on the basics of molecular and synthetic biology. We witnessed an attendance of upto 43 students from various schools and circulated a feedback form amongst the attendees. The reviews were mostly positive with suggestions.
With the Indian constitution officially recognising 22 languages, the Indian linguistic space is supplemented by several other languages and dialects giving rise to a complex and diverse network of linguistic networks operating throughout the country. With many children growing up in a usually bilingual or trilingual environment at home, English education is mostly imparted at the primary level in private schools. Public schools usually adopt the vernacular medium, although there has been consistent efforts to incorporate more of English at the primary level in the public education sector. [4]
In a linguistically diverse country like India, the holistic cultivation of scientific temper is not possible if the need for linguistically diverse scientific education is not acknowledged or addressed. It is only when the dissemination of educational material is pursued in multiple languages without any preformed bias that we can ensure the cultivation of scientific temper without any barriers of language or identity. Our team was enthusiastic about the prospects of conducting a one-day webinar for students across schools in the state of West Bengal. We circulated the details of our events and witnessed an attendance of upto 43 students. The webinar was conducted on the 6th of August completely in Bengali. The webinar went on for about 3 hours where the team members fluent in Bengali delivered the lecture content to enthusiastic high school students.
Feedback is an essential part of assessing one's efficiency in conducting any event. For SynKTBio, we circulated a feedback form to the participants asking if they have learnt anything from our webinar and whether it motivated them to pursue science as a career in higher education. We also inquired about suggestions from the students in the feedback form and asked them to rate our webinar. Most of our attendees are currently in their 9th and 10th standards. We have received mostly positive feedback for the event with almost 80 % of the responses rating our webinar 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 with another 14% rating it 4 out of 5. A sound majority of about 62.8 % responses were in the positive when asked if the webinar motivated them to pursue scientific research as a career option!
We have had an amazing experience with all the student attendees of our webinar and are happy to receive their enthusiastic responses to our feedback form. We have put a special response from the feedback form below !
We have also attached some interesting suggestions put forth by our student attendees !
Finally, we designed certificates for all the attendees signed by our PI, affirming their participation in our science webinar on synthetic biology !
We have attached a sample certificate below which was for one of the many students who attended our event.
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We are grateful to every participant who made this event a great success !
An exciting illustrative story to ignite the youngest of minds and an innovative tool for educators/ parents/ guardians to cultivate scientific temper in the minds of children
Research has shown that the use of cartoons in educational practice positively affects academic outcomes. The use of cartoons in education leads to an increased level of knowledge retention in the minds of children. In a nutshell, both academic achievements and knowledge retention are positively influenced by the inclusion of cartoons in educational activities.[5]. They inevitably make the process of learning easier and more engaging for children. A single cartoon can substitute for several pages of text, making learning not just engaging but efficient, convenient and comprehensible for students.[6]
Our team has designed a picture storybook for children for the ages of 10 years and younger. We have designed and developed this storybook as a preliminary introduction for young children to the concept of science and the ability to imagine and think about exciting ideas! We acknowledge the significance of visually attractive illustrations in cultivating different ideas right from one’s childhood and this storybook is a step in the same direction.
This storybook can be used in different ways by different persons. It can act as educational material at the primary or kindergarten level of schooling. Teachers and instructors can help the students understand the meaning of any word or concept they find hard to understand. We have tried to represent everyday science in the form of illustrations to spark interest in the minds of children at the grass-root level. The picture book can also be used by parents or guardians and can be read it out to their children. As children read our storybook, they would also exchange ideas they got from our book with other children, thereby sparking the same interest and curiosity in their minds as well!
Our storybook, titled “Jerry and the Glowing Potion”, brings Tom and Jerry, unarguably the most famous cartoon characters of one’s childhood. The story is about Jerry being given a Green fluorescent potion by Merry and his subsequent ability to glow. We have tried to emphasise how GFP works at a very preliminary level without going into the intricate details of the science behind it by crafting the element of the green fluorescent potion. By means of this storybook, we have emphasised our message that advances in science should happen primarily for the benefit of society and not to give rise to some sort of adverse circumstances or conflict or the other.
For the purpose of feedback, we have attached a feedback form at the very beginning of the storybook where readers can let us know their feedback and suggestions for possible improvements. We have incorporated some lovely feedback from children who read our storybook and the storybook itself right below !
And this is our picture storybook !
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And some lovely feedback!
In order to spread the word of synthetic biology and involve more people in the discussion of its ideas and inculcate the same in the minds of those who aren’t aware of it, we employed two unconventional educational tools, music and literature, with an interesting twist!
Syn-Chrome
We collaborated with the music club of our institute, IISER Kolkata, to conduct an event named “Syn-Chrome”. Syn-Chrome was a unique competition aimed at expressing the beauty of science through music. In the event, participants had to choose any popular song and modify it with their own lyrics to create a song of their own on the theme of “synthetic biology”. It was an enthusiastic venture undertaken to popularise the various ideas and concepts of synthetic biology among people who are not or less aware of the same. The usage of tools such as music and other forms of art in the process of education or learning has always been an interesting approach. By collaborating with the cultural clubs of our institute, we have attempted to utilise some of the various alternative tools that can be used as an effective means of disseminating information and educating people about synthetic biology. Participants could also compose a completely original song and set it to music. We circulated the posters, rulebook and registration form for this event among the student community of IISER Kolkata and received some amazing entries from the participants, one of which we are happy to put on our page here. It's called Demons Parodification, by Arghya Maity (Vocalist) and Shruti Santosh Sail (Lyricist).
We have also received a beautiful painting on the theme of biology by one of our students, Sanchari Ray, titled “A beautiful life”, that we have put right below !
Bio-katha & Ink-Life
Our next collaboration was with the literary club of IISER Kolkata. We collaborated for two events, titled “Bio-Katha” and “Ink-Life’. The objective of these competitions was to combine one’s enthusiasm for research with their knack for writing , providing an opportunity for students to explore the world of biology, which itself was the theme.
In Bio-Katha, participants were required to submit a fictional story and let their imagination and originality run amok. Ink-life ( non-fiction) was a creative essay writing contest where the participants had to put their own spin on the narrative while still remaining scientifically accurate. We have received amazing submissions from the IISER Kolkata student community and we are delighted to put them here!
Our team organised visits to disseminate scientific information and inculcate awareness in people who are underprivileged to have proper access to scientific knowledge and information. Our team members visited a nearby old-age home and an orphanage to raise awareness on a range of issues, from the importance of not missing one’s antibiotic doses to how antibiotics work and the use of basic scientific instruments. Our aim has been to reach out to every possible section of society and in doing so, impart scientific information to people who haven’t been able to get access to such information and enhance their arena of awareness in order to build a better society for the future. Due to the pandemic, we have ensured that all physical meetups are undertaken with the utmost caution keeping in mind proper measures of social distancing and a limited number of persons.
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Sending posters to an old-age home
Our team got in contact with and distributed educational and informative posters at old age homes where we aimed to educate the people about the importance of taking one’s antibiotic doses on time. The elderly population commonly are prescribed antibiotics quite frequently and they sometimes do not complete their doses which can have a serious impact on their health. Due to prevailing restrictions due to COVID-19, we couldn’t conduct in-person visits there. We designed an illustrative poster in English, Marathi and Bengali, highlighting what antibiotics are, how they work and what can possibly happen when antibiotic doses can be missed. The posters have been designed such that the information in them can be conveyed easily without the use of much jargon. The aim of the distribution of the posters was to inculcate scientific awareness in the minds of the people residing there with regard to antibiotics at a very preliminary level. We have attached the posters that we have designed right below!
English Poster 
Bengali Poster -
A visit to an orphanage
Our visit to an orphanage was full of enthusiasm and delight as we demonstrated to the children there the usage of foldscope, the origami based paper microscope developed with the aim to make science more accessible. The children at the orphanage were enthusiastic to learn the technicalities of using the foldscope microscope which we taught them to use to view objects. The aim of this visit was to spark the curiosity and interest to learn new things in the young minds at the orphanage who have been less fortunate than many others with proper access to quality education. This was a small initiative on our part to promote scientific education in the context of the bigger task of working for the ones who have the zeal but not the predicament to pursue their interests. We have put below some photographs of the delightful interaction our team had with the children. More information on this can be found on our Inclusivity page!
Our team members Shreyash Borkar and Sourin Chatterjee interacting with kids at a local orphanage and demonstrating the use of the foldscope. For the convenience of the kids and the caretakers present the orphanage we also prepared a short manual on how to use the fold scope in Bengali which we have attached right below !
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We collaborated with The Qrius Rhino, a science blog run by students of our institute, to publish articles about the journey of our team in iGEM since its inception in 2018, the intricate details of our project and the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance. We aimed to increase awareness of these issues amongst the public and also ignite the interest of people in synthetic biology by explaining our project to them.The blogs published by us will spread the message of synthetic biology and impart education to the audience of the Qrius Rhino. Our blog entries can be found at the following links :
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We teamed up with NGSF ( next gen scientists foundation) to provide a detailed overview of our project and opined our perspectives on the growing interests of the scientific community in the arena of synthetic biology and its various potential effects and consequences. The interview mainly centering on the general idea of synthetic biology and its aspects through the lens of our project, we documented the practical implications of our idea and how it can be realised. We expect that this blog entry by us will enhance awareness among people regarding the aspects, applications and potential of synthetic biology both in the present as well as the future. Our responses have been documented in the form of a conversation. Check out our interview with NGSF here!
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In collaboration with the ASPIC club of Yuvaraja's college, Mysuru , we organised a video podcast on the issue of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic Stewardship and Prevention of Infection in Communities (ASPIC) Clubs Network promote social awareness among people on antimicrobial resistance through different modes. In the podcast, we talked about the growing risk of antibiotic resistance and the irrational use of antibiotics, among other topics, in reference to our project. We also gave a brief overview of our project and majorly focused on how subclinical bovine mastitis is adding to the burden of AMR. We discussed the various potential reasons why farmers resort to the usage of antibiotics. We also discussed how synthetic biology can be utilised to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance. We had a delightful discussion with the ASPIC club and we are hopeful that our discussion will help inculcate awareness and educate many people about the risks of antibiotic overuse within the reach of the ASPIC club of Yuvaraja's College. Our podcast session has been uploaded by ASPIC Club in their YouTube channel. The session has been serialized as episode 1 , episode 2 , and episode 3.
We are grateful to everyone who made this delightful interactive podcast with the ASPIC CLUB possible!
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Our team member, Sourin Chatterjee penned an article for the Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha. It is the largest science organisation in India and is an important part of the field of science popularisation in West Bengal and India. Started in 1986, it is a grassroots science movement by the people and for the people. We submitted a Bengali article detailing the issue of bovine mastitis and its different aspects. By means of this article, we aim to inculcate awareness regarding bovine mastitis and its problems and how synthetic biology can be used to deal with it, among the people within the outreach of PBVM through the Bengali language. By reading our article, small scale dairy farmers who haven’t had access to adequate scientific information in Bengali will also come to know about the issues caused by the overuse of antibiotics The article will be published shortly by PBVM in their bimonthly Bengali periodical “Kishore Vigyani”. We have attached an image of the opening lines of our article right below.
Our team undertook many activities which couldn’t be filtered into a specific category although they have the same purpose of initiating a discussion or dialogue and establish scientific awareness among different sections of people.
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We collaborated with team iGEM Crete who were working on creating a global database of braille language books of biology related texts. We submitted an excerpt on how synthetic biology can be a transformational element in the fight against superbugs in English and Bengali which was translated to Bengali braille by the team of iGEM crete. Our excerpt on the role of synthetic biology in dealing with superbugs in English and Bengali can be found right below !
English Excerpt If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
Translated Bengali Excerpt If you can not view above PDF: DOWNLOAD PDF
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We collaborated with team iGEM IISER Berhampur by presenting our project in the iGEM global CRISPR Conference. This conference was meant for teams who were working with CRISPR in their projects and we managed to ensure the involvement of more people in the conversation of synthetic biology and the use of CRISPR. We spoke on the problem of bovine mastitis and the major issues it causes in the dairy industry, following it up with how our project aims to deal with it, emphasising on the technical aspects of our project. Below is the content we presented at the conference.
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In our interview with Genscript, we focused on the various aspects of our project, paving the way for a discussion and sharing of ideas by means of our conversation! Our discussion with Genscript can be found right here!
We had an amazing session with Genscript ! -
At the All India iGEM Meet, we presented our project as well as with other Indian iGEM teams, interacting with the attendees of the event. We had a holistic discussion with the other teams about their projects and we spoke about the different aspects of our project as well. We had an amazing time with everyone at the meet. The discussion not just elaborated on the application of synthetic biology in the form of various iGEM project ideas but also critically evaluated the feasibility of these ideas. The All India iGEM meet had the perfect ethos to strike an interesting and comprehensive conversation on the various ways in which synthetic biology can be used for solving different problems !
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In collaboration with Cogito137, a web-based science communication platform based at IISER Kolkata, we conducted a webinar where we presented our project and discussed its various aspects. The presentation was a part of Biology Week, IISER Kolkata chapter, a showcase event of the Royal Society of Biology. Our team member Shreyash Borkar presented our project, elaborated on how Bovine mastitis is harming the dairy industry and how our project can prevent it. We extensively discussed our project and its implications for the dairy industry, the issue of antibiotic resistance and the ways in which our project aims to tackle it. We also elaborated on the possible issues and perceptions affecting people when it comes to mainstreaming GMO-based products and how we are effectively employing different measures to ensure our product is safe and trustworthy for the market. It was a very productive discussion and we hope that it will inculcate awareness and educate people about synbio and its applications among those in Cogito 137’s target audience. Our webinar with Cogito137 is available here!
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We regularly posted educational and informative posts on our social media handles. On Instagram, we posted a series of questions, with each set of questions discussing a specific topic. We periodically posted these questions along with their answers as general facts to inculcate awareness and educate our social media followers on basic themes in biology in relation to our project. The questions and statements were designed on background templates with illustrations in accordance with the topic that was being discussed. Each question-answer set was accompanied by a voiceover which helps in efficient conveying of the questions and statements. We put altered text in our posts and audio in our stories to communicate effectively with people with poor visibility too. We have put our informative Instagram posts that we posted right below!
One of our informative Instagram posts on antibiotics. -
Team CCU Taiwan designed an exciting parent-child picture storybook on the topic of superbugs. Titled “The War on Germs”, the purpose of the picturebook is to increase awareness on the issue of superbugs. In order to achieve this without any linguistic barriers, CCU Taiwan got their book translated into different languages. We are happy to have collaborated with the team on this initiative by getting their storybook translated to Assamese, which is one of the languages officially recognised by the Indian Constitution and the official language of the Indian state of Assam. Through this initiative, Assamese-speaking students of North-east India will be greatly benefitted. They will gain insight into the topic of bacteria/superbugs and it will be instrumental in shaping their scientific thought process from a very young age. The translated Assamese version of CCU Taiwan’s storybook can be found right below.
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We had a delightful opportunity to collaborate with iGEM Guelph on their initiative to document and compile short excerpts on the iGEM projects pursued by different iGEM teams across the globe. These excerpts are being posted on their website for public access and credited to the respective teams. For the purpose of this documentation, we filled an interview form sent by Team Guelph to us with the details of our project. We also sent additional material in the form of an illustrative presentation regarding different aspects of our projects. The responses sent were compiled as educational resources for Canadian high school students of 14 to 18 years of age. We answered a variety of questions pertaining to the design, experimental set up and real world applications of our project. The educational material collected and delivered to students will be beneficial in the process of inculcating interest in the minds of students regarding the ways in which science can be used to solve different real-life problems. It will also let them think about different issues and how they can be solved by their own minds. We are happy to have participated in this initiative by Team Guelph in educating high school students by collecting information from different iGEM teams across the world.
References
- 40% of girls aged 15-18 not attending school: Report . Manash Pratim Gohain (2020). India News - Times of India
- Percentage of STEM women graduates in India higher compared to US, UK: Govt. India. Press Trust of India (2021).
- Which Languages Are Spoken In India? (2021).
- Eker C., Karadeniz O.,2014, The effects of educational practice with cartoons on learning outcomes, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol 4 No 14
- Cartoons in Teaching | Importance | Catch Attention | Inexpensive.