Team:NCKU Tainan/Public Engagement
Overview
This year, our team wanted to truly diversify our Human Practice activities and engage with more members of our community. As a result, we analyzed many amazing projects from the past and highlighted the key aspects of a successful Human Practice activity and distinguish our activities from the rest. Generally, when you think of Human Practice, we usually think of just communicating with society, for example: introducing our projects to people. However, to have an effective engagement activity, we realized that it has to be two-sided. We have to talk to them. So, with this principle in mind and a motivation to maximize our impact and reach, we focused on planning activities where a lot of one-to-one interaction can be held. We also had to think a lot about how to engage with scientists and non-scientists alike. Thus, we came up with a well thought out plan that can successfully achieve our goal of popularizing synthetic biology and introducing our project to the public.
Despite the huge role synthetic biology plays in the improvements and solutions of issues nowadays, it is also one of the most controversial in the public’s opinion. A major part of that is due to the lack of accessibility - whether it be due to the amount of technical knowledge required or the sky-high cost of the required technologies. The many common misconceptions or myths caused by the lack of engagement and education poses a huge barrier to the acceptance of the general public. Not only that, we knew that just planning and putting it into practice will not be enough to persuade society to listen to us. We need to show them that we are doing this because we care. We care for not only chronic kidney disease patients, but society as a whole. Thus, our aim is to slowly chip down these barriers, to close the gap between science and society and increase knowledge and acceptance when it comes to synthetic biology. What exactly are the concerns people may have regarding genetic engineering? How can our society be more informed about such an important topic, when this technology is advancing at such a rapid speed? Why should society be informed about these things? And most importantly, why care?
With so many questions unanswered, we decided to focus on engaging with our community to inform them about gene editing and understand why they are so concerned and afraid of it. Through public education and engagement, we gained an understanding of people’s attitudes to it and thus, we can shift our focus to addressing those concerns.
Engagement
Education
2020 NCKU iGEM Special Project
2019.03.02
NCKU Bike Festival
Open house event of National Cheng Kung University to increase exposure of iGEM and also synthetic biology.
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2019.03.05
Club Festival
Promoted iGEM NCKU to college students and explained why we are using synthetic biology to solve problems and our vision for our projects.
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2019.03.18
iGEM Topic Presentation
Presented our 3 potential research topics to gain feedbacks and advices from professors and other students.
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2019.04.08
President Meetup
Met up with the President of NCKU to talk about our experiences and shared why we wanted to join iGEM in the first place.
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2019.05.23
Nanke International Experimental School
Inspire elementary students' interests in science and biology through hands-on learning experience.
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2019.05.29
Tainan First Senior High School
Stimulated thinking of high school students to apply synthetic biology in real life situations.
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Promoted our project through newspapers to allow more people to understand the importance of our project.
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Promoted our project through newspapers to allow more people to understand the importance of our project.
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Promoted our project through newspapers to allow more people to understand the importance of our project.
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Met up with College X to facilitate future cooperation and talk about how we are able to promote interdisciplinary research.
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Invited to a radio interview to talk about our project and promote the issue of chronic kidney disease.
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2019.08.05~06
Taiwan Conference
Participated in the Taiwan conference and exchange ideas with other iGEMers who gave our team different feedbacks and guidance.
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2019.08.11
Charity Work
Participated in charity work and worked with professional caregivers to help facilitate our understanding of patients’ needs.
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2019.08.21
Indonesia Kemurnian ll Senior High School
Helped students to realize the potential for future biological and engineering development.
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2019.08.27
NCKU Creative Forum
Met with other students who are working on different projects, and exchanged thoughts on each other’s projects.
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2019.09.07~08
Escape Room
Held an Escape Room that mirrors our project where players of all ages and backgrounds are able to learn through an interactive and hands-on experience.
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Engagement
We firmly believe engagement with society is a fundamental pillar for Human Practices, a way to build bridges to link science to society. Despite the efforts and sacrifices scientists and researchers have made in the name of science, we realized there is still so much misunderstanding and knowledge gap from the public. As fellow researchers, we felt it our responsibility to engage with the society and show them first-hand, be it through introducing synthetic biology or our project, the reason we are doing this.
NCKU Bike Festival
NCKU Bike Festival is the open house event of National Cheng Kung University, where high school students from all parts of Taiwan came to visit and understand the different majors offered at NCKU. Seizing the opportunity to be able to meet the high school students and understand the level of understanding and support for synthetic biology, our team decided to set up a stand at the festival. Unsurprisingly, despite most high school students knowing a lot about high school biology, they are not very knowledgeable about synthetic biology nor its application in daily lives. They were also able to participate in voting for 9 possible topics that we had chosen beforehand and also receive feedback as to which particular area they are most concerned about. We also met several people who were against gene editing, claiming that we don’t know what happens when consuming GMOs despite the plethora of research claiming that it is safe for human consumption. Their lack of knowledge about the application of biology in daily lives inspired us to begin designing activities for spreading awareness about it.
iGEM Topic Presentation
After we had finished our first round of brainstorming, we selected three possible topics and assigned them to three different groups. After a couple months of progress and improving each topic, we presented it to other students and professors at our university. They also had the opportunity to vote which one out of three ideas they were most interested in. Our three topics this year were: synthetic production of erythropoietin, degrading uremic toxins in CKD patients and microfiber trapping and degrading. Each group had twenty minutes to present their idea, and 10 minutes for the audience to ask questions. The questions asked allowed each group to understand more about the problems they are facing and also blind spots so they can improve the project.
In addition, we met members from CCU iGEM after the presentation. We talked about how our iGEM teams operate, how we recruit members and how we will eventually choose our final topic for the competition. This conversation, albeit short, was very enlightening and we all learned a lot from each other.
NCKU Creative Forum
Our intention of joining this forum is mainly focused on promoting our project, along with broadening our perspectives. The students that are involved in this activity are much different than usual, with each having their own expertise and projects they are working on. Hence, we are able to speak more about synthetic biology, our project and also the competition itself. With their expertise in different fields, we received wonderful feedback from them, including the probability of incorporating AI into our project, using machine learning and also the importance of education for students and also the public on genetically modified organisms.
NCKU Club Festival
Every semester, NCKU will hold a Club festival to introduce and promote all the clubs in the school to all freshmen students. iGEM NCKU participated in this festival to share about our upcoming iGEM event which was our topic presentation. We realized that despite being in university, there are still many people who are not aware of the importance of synthetic biology in real life. Thus, we shared to other students why we are using synthetic biology to solve problems and our vision for our projects. Instead of having a fixed booth, we decided to roam the entire area of the activity, having one-on-one conversations with other participants. This allowed us to get plenty of comments and feedback from many different people, which contributed greatly to our project.
Taiwan Conference
This year, National Chung Hsing University hosted the Taiwan Conference in Taichung. Taiwan Conference only lasted two days, but in those two days, teams from all over Taiwan are able to meet and communicate with each other, exchanging feedback and generating new ideas. We are also able to present our project via presentation and poster to the other teams and also a few other professors. Through that, we are able to receive a lot of constructive criticism from not only teachers but also other students, enabling us to identify some issues in our project and also improve our presentation style. We also were able to listen to other iGEM teams’ presentation and were deeply amazed by what the other teams were doing. We also promoted our team by handing out our specially designed folder to other iGEMers present during the conference.
NCKU President Meetup
We were ecstatic to have lunch with the President of National Cheng Kung University, Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su. The president has always been very supportive of iGEM and has been rooting for us ever since iGEM NCKU first started in 2016. We talked briefly about the reason we joined the competition and what we hoped to gain through this once-in-a-lifetime experience. She reminded us of all the hardships and obstacles that lay ahead of us but also encouraged us to keep moving forward despite it.
Charity Work
Through an activity hosted by Taiwan Chronic Kidney Disease Foundation and Chia-Yi Chang Gung Hospital in Yunlin, we helped with the blood screening and also health examination of the public. Through this activity, we were able to meet and interact with some CKD patients and understand more about the symptoms of CKD and the inconvenience the disease has on their lifestyle.
Education
From our previous engagements, we began to realize that society, especially the older generations, tend to think twice when it comes to synthetic biology and gene editing. The many misconceptions and myths surrounding science is proof that not a lot of people understand it. And with lack of knowledge, fear and rejection also come along. In an effort to prevent this negative cycle from repeating, we decided to start from the beginning - by educating the new generation. We hoped by challenging their thoughts and encouraging them to begin thinking outside the box, they are able to break away from this negative cycle and drive a positive change in the future. To quote Oprah Winfrey, “Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world.”
Podcast
Podcasts are one new outlet that offers a fantastic way to communicate with our audiences. Podcasts are on the rise in popularity and are predicted to continue to expand as time goes on. Even the most mundane subjects can turn podcasts into fascinating learning opportunities that people want to know more about.
We held a small brainstorming activity for them, guiding them to think of a way to solve problems using synthetic biology. They were very interested and engaged in this particular session, throwing out countless amazing ideas. We hope to have kindled some interest in their young minds to join the next generation of iGEMers.
Indonesia Kemurnian II High School
We visited Kemurnian II High School, Jakarta to teach 10th graders as Indonesians students are not really aware of what synthetic biology is, nor what it can be applied to in real life. We taught them about gene editing and gave them some real-life applications, like gene-modified tomato, GM salmon and insulin. We grabbed the opportunity to share our project, proving that you don’t have to be scientists or researchers in professional labs to be able to apply synthetic biology in real life. Thus, we then gave the students an opportunity to brainstorm on their own, thinking of problems they would like to solve using synthetic biology.
We were very surprised and delighted by their work. One team wanted to get create nicotine-free cannabis plants to use as a cure for epilepsy. One team wanted to make a non-toxic pesticide to save the environment, as they are aware that Indonesia is a massive agriculture country that requires heavy usage of pesticides. One team was inspired by the dengue fever epidemic in Indonesia and proposed a bacteria that can get rid of yellow fever mosquito. From this visitation, we realized that having synthetic biology lessons in high school can be interesting, and is able to allow students to think critically and have more awareness of problems in the world.
2019 NCKU iGEM Special Project
OMG Escape Room
This year, in an effort to combine all three facets of Human Practices - engagement, education and publicity outreach, we launched our very first and original Escape Room Activity. An innovative and fun way of learning, this activity proved to be a hit! Players are able to learn more about synthetic biology and also our project through an interactive and hands-on experience. Part adventure, part intriguing storyline, and an assemblage of puzzles and readers, players will resort to critical thinking to be able to make their escape - in a fun way of course. Science has shown that when having fun, not only does time fly, but we are able to retain more of what we learn too. In addition, iGEM NCKU Tainan also worked with Taiwan Chronic Kidney Disease Foundation (TCKDF) before, so we decided to donate all the benefits (4200 NTD) to the largest CKD charity organization in Taiwan. Not only could players have fun learning, but they are also able to do charity for chronic kidney disease patients.
One of our goals when designing our Escape Game was to make it completely open-source and customizable for everyone to use. Therefore, we will provide a full guide explaining our game setup and all the details. Our Escape Game is simple in design and only requires a limited budget due to the use of DIY equipment. Through the simplicity of the game, we also ensured that players of all ages are able to play our game and still have fun. We had players ranging from elementary school students to university professors, and they all had a blast.
We only unveiled our OMG Escape Game for a limited two-day event, and has received many positive responses. Since its creation, we have presented our game 13 times inside the Department of Biotechnology, NCKU, to a total of 55 players. In total, we had over 13 hours of game time.
OMG Escape Room Design
Inspired by our Oh My Gut project, OMG Escape Room is an interactive and hands-on way to learn about our project. By allowing the players to explore their surroundings and piece together our project via the clues we had left them, they are able to gain a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and also our project.
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In the year 1995, the King contracted a serious disease that is untreatable. The Queen issued a plea far and wide, hoping to cure her beloved, and offers a humongous reward in return. She pleaded to all scientists around the world, to find the mystery cure to save her beloved husband. But just when Professor K.O was about to finalize the cure, he was found dead. The fate of the kingdom is in the hands of all players. They need to hurry and find the cure to this mysterious disease and save the King and give the kingdom the peace it deserves.
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In two separate classrooms, players are able to fully immerse themselves into the story plot and finish the mission they had been given. OMG Escape Room consists of three stages, each with a specific task they have to accomplish before they are able to continue to the next stage. Players are given a total of 60 minutes, 20 minutes per stage to finish the task. Even if they are unable to finish the task in time, they need to move on to the next stage.
We created a map of the game, with a short description of all of the stages, to get a visual representation of our OMG Escape Room:
Stage 1: Find the cure ingredients!
The first stage is set in Professor KO’s office, where they have to sort through and find four clues scattered around the messy room. There will also be Professor KO’s notebook located there, which includes several details that players might need to finish the game. It is here that players find out that the ‘mysterious’ disease is Chronic Kidney Disease. Players will need to solve the clues to find the right combination for the safe that holds the cure ingredients. The safe holds many ingredients (unlabeled tubes filled with colored liquid), which the players will have to bring to the next stage and determine the correct ingredients for the cure.
Stage 2: Make the cure!
The second stage is set in Professor KO’s laboratory, which is located just beside his office. Players must find a hidden USB that contains all the ingredient’s information, and determine which tubes correspond to which ingredient. There will also be clues scattered around the room that will guide players to choose the 4 correct ingredients needed to make the cure. They also need to find the correct incubator in which they should place the correct ingredients and show them to the game master in order to escape this stage.
Stage 3: Save the King!
The final stage is a game of reasoning to find out the real murderer who killed Professor KO that is set in a hospital’s patient room. There are 4 patients lying in that room, and players have to use the clues located around the room to find out which patient is the King. And with all the clues they have seen in the previous two stages, players can find out who exactly killed Professor KO.
For more information on how to reproduce our OMG Escape Room, remember to check out our guide!!
