Team:Vilnius-Lithuania/Education
EDUCATION
Introduction
Education along with science communication was of utmost importance for us. There are many reasons for that - emerging fake news, flawed and unequipped formal school education, the increasing significance of the life sciences to society, and political decision-making. Therefore, we dedicated our time to create comprehensive and inclusive tools (and activities) to encourage dialogue about synthetic biology and amebiasis.
We decided on what topics and formats to work on by conducting research, gathering the experts’ insights, and acknowledging experience from previous Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM teams. The main directions of our education activities were synthetic biology and arts’ relation, innovative and interactive augmented reality platform, contribution to formal education of life sciences. Consequently, we fostered participation in synthetic biology in various ways - through workshops, discussions, degustation, concert, educational installation, augmented reality, policy proposals, lectures, and educational guidelines. New fruitful partnerships were formed with expert educators, students, fellow iGEM teams, governmental institutions, and our own institution’s personnel. Our consultations are presented in greater detail on Integrated Human Practices page.
Our workflow of the educational activities throughout the iGEM cycle:
Sense Lab
This year our human practices squad explored the relationship between art and science and created an interdisciplinary project "Sense Lab". Although these disciplines might seem like polar opposites, creative minds, endless questions, and possibilities to explore the surrounding world connect them.
We saw a great interest in synthetic biology and the science field overall during our conversations with various artists. They saw it as a source of inspiration that would allow them to create something new. Our team looked at art as a way to communicate complex ideas in a way that would be easy to grasp for the common public. This outlook came after encountering research claiming that art can make science more inclusive, comprehensible, and relevant to broader audiences [1]. Thus, we teamed up with creatives and worked together to reach our goal - to educate people about synthetic biology in an engaging, artistic way.
The first task was to involve creatives in our educational activities. Thus, we explained the basics of synthetic biology to our fellow artists from different fields. Then together we looked for the best way to educate people that would evenly cover both art and science disciplines.
As we saw a need to involve the public from different age groups and levels of understanding, we faced the challenge of making our educational content easy to understand but interesting enough. That is how we decided to use human senses as a connecting point for our activities. In a series of five events, our team members gave lectures on various sides of synthetic biology and artists expanded participants’ understanding of artistic practices. This helped to narrow each event to a specific art category and to create education around that discipline.
While implementing the project, we aimed to create a dialogue with our audiences, and it was crucial that artists we worked with, the general public, and our team would learn something new. To ensure this, we reflected on each event from different perspectives and tried to find ways to improve. Mutual learning and exchanging ideas and practices was truly inspiring in a month-long celebration of art and science.
Touch
A bread mask workshop with intermedia artist Kamilė Krasauskaitė was our first event. It was a part of the Baltic Triennial 14 education program. It was an enormous opportunity for us, as this is one of the most important contemporary art events in the Baltic States. The topic of the triennial was “Endless frontiers” and various artists explored the social issues related to ideology, ecology, and economy. Synthetic biology fit here perfectly due to polar opinions on the topic coming from different social groups - although it solves ecological and economic problems, it raises many ethical questions. Thus, both the artists and we believed that encouraging a dialogue on the topic is crucial. The artistic input consisted of two parts - mixing colorful dough and forming bread masks. Our input was educational material introducing participants to the life sciences, synbio included. In part one, we invited participants to imagine creating DNA from various sourdough ingredients like flour, beets, matcha, etc. Different recipes and proportions resulted in unique features of dough. We also educated participants about yeast, life formation, and the human-microorganism relationship from the scientific view. This fundamental knowledge allowed us to move to the second part of the event. Part two was focused on forming characters from different types of dough. This activity invited participants to focus on their touch sense and imagine that they are scientists changing DNA with their hands. Our team member also gave a speech about synthetic biology and humans' ability to alter genetic information.
Reflection and further improvement
Public: Feedback after the workshop was positive. People coming from non-scientific backgrounds stated that the information we presented was clear and easy to understand. It was nice to see children participating in a workshop with grown-ups equally. In the beginning, we feared that the material we presented would be too complicated for them, but participants reassured us that it was easy to grasp. However, reviews from people coming from the science field were slightly different. They enjoyed the artistic part but stated that more scientific information would've been good.
Artists: Kamilė Krasauskaitė claimed that our team gave a scientific basis to some of her ideas or hypotheses. As her artistic practice is intertwined with scientific concepts and she often teams up with scientists from different backgrounds, Kamilė was happy to work with us and thinks our workshop was dynamic and informative. She enjoyed unexpected and new facts about yeast and its use in synthetic biology. The artist mentioned that the scientific articles that we sent her in the preparation process significantly improved her knowledge on the subject. Kamilė added that this workshop demystified synthetic biology.
Our team: As this was the first of our events, it was hard to foresee the knowledge levels of the public. We believe that the education part could’ve been more abundant. Although two presentations elaborated on the main ideas about microorganisms, their similarities to humans, and their use in synthetic biology, we did not connect the information enough. However, it was an unexpected and new way to educate people about science. We also enjoyed seeing participants communicating with each other, discussing both science and art in an informal way, and asking questions that matter to them.
Taste
We continued our cycle with an event focused on taste. It took place at a sustainable restaurant and community space “City laboratory”. Here we created an actual laboratory using standard equipment like test tubes or Petri dishes to serve kombucha and cheese. The decorations and eating process itself brought artistic elements to the activity. The whole event was inspired by an artist Rirkrit Tiravanija [2], who promotes relational aesthetics, where art is not a specific object, like food in our case, but an experience. Here we focused on creating an atmosphere where people could experience something new, exchange ideas and share the moment with others. The scientific part of the event started by presenting genetically engineered organisms, their creation, and applications in the food industry. We based this presentation on the general structure of lessons (you can find it described below) and adapted to the topics mentioned above. Afterward, a lawyer specializing in life sciences, Rūta Pumputienė, explored synthetic biology from the bioethical perspective and elaborated on GMO’s legal regulation - the pathway from laboratory to consumer’s plate. Sensory experiences in the event were rich with foods made using microorganisms. Participants were able to taste pastry, kombucha, and goat cheese from niche cheesemakers. After discussing the GMO topic from life sciences and legal perspectives, we could all enjoy cheese degustation led by cheese expert Vytautas Vaga. We presented Petri plates with microorganism cultures sampled from the same cheese types we were eating during the degustation.
Interestingly, due to this event, a friendship with the cheesemakers community began. Several days later, we went to a festival at a homestead “Paskui saulę ir ožkas” to present synthetic biology applications in the cheese industry. We had a lively discussion on the connection between natural and biotechnologically advanced cheese and came to a consensus that it is not an opposition but cooperation.
Reflection and further improvement
Public: We made a feedback form and sent it to the participants the day after the event. We asked how their opinion on GMOs changed during the event. Before the event, opinions ranged from 1 (very unfavorable, 16 percent of respondents) to 4 (a bit favorable, 50 percent of respondents), and after the event, all of the respondents unanimously chose 5 (very favorable). Participants noted informative presentations, lively discussions with the audience, and a beautiful environment as advantages.
Artists: Our artist - cheese expert Vytautas Vaga, was very excited after hearing our presentation and synthetic biology applications in the food industry. Later we got in touch again and talked more about what is currently being done in Lithuania regarding synthetic cheese proteins.
Our team: We learned a lot about the legislation of GMOs. It was enriching to hear the lawyer’s honest opinion. We were glad that the legal-bioethical presentation had raised so many questions in the audience, and a quality discussion had emerged. We also noticed that during presentations, we are using field-specific words whose meaning might be not entirely understood. This inspired improvements in our activities, and we decided to create dictionaries for other events. However, we reflected that a professor would be a more suitable speaker for the science part as it was hard to coordinate both the event and the preparation for the presentation. Moreover, a person working in the field for many years could enrich such discussions more meaningfully. What is more, we assured that it is vital to have a plan B because initially, we aimed to serve flavors made using synthetic biology methods. However, after several months of trying to contact biotech companies, we received only negative responses.
Smell
We dived into the art of olfactory senses with a well-known Lithuanian niche perfumer Aistis Mickevičius. He explored the art of perfume making and the impact on perfumery that synthetic materials bring. Synthetic molecules expand the variety of smells that can be created, enhance the maintenance of the scent, and are a more ecological alternative. Participants were very involved as the presentation was followed by a half an hour questions and answers session. Afterward, we had an interactive break. The audience could perform a sniffing test [3] and evaluate their olfactory sensitivity, try smelling vanillin in different forms (vanilla sugar, vanilla essence, vanilla pod, waffles with vanilla, Aistis Mickevičius perfume “Drama queen”). After the break, we presented what synthetic biology has already done in perfumery and the future perspectives. We used vanillin as the primary example to show the potential of synthetic biology. During the event, our team member explained the idea of genetic engineering through the same example, based on actual vanillin synthesis in bacteria. Learning from the “Sense Lab: Taste” event, we handed out small dictionaries for the people, explaining the most fundamental concepts used in the presentation.
Reflection and further improvement
Public: We also sent feedback forms for the participants the day after the event. Before the event, opinion on synthetic perfume usage was widely distributed, from 1 (very unfavorable, 11 percent of respondents) to 5 (very favorable, 44 percent of respondents). After the event, 20 percent of respondents chose 4 (favorable), and 80 percent chose 5 (very favorable). People enjoyed the interactive break, the atmosphere, and that the perfumes were presented from different perspectives. Some expressed that they would have enjoyed a more comprehensive presentation from a synthetic biology perspective.
Artist: As a perfumer himself, A. Mickevičius knew many subtleties about molecular perfumery, therefore, he was interested in learning the molecular biological background and how it could help in perfume manufacturing. He also really enjoyed meeting and presenting to a new audience - people interested in life sciences.
Our team: We were happy that many people had joined the event. We assume that this was due to promoting the event for specific groups, like perfume lovers. The perfumer drew on interesting relations to synthetic biology, which brought food for thoughts. Also, the interactive break was a success, and everyone had a blast. For improvement, we would devote more time to explain synthetic biology and its significance for reducing the scale of ecological and ethical problems.
Hearing
We teamed up with contemporary music ensemble “Artisans” to explore life sciences through the sense of hearing. Composers Matas Linkauskas, Liepa Vozgirdaitė, Matas Beržinskas, and Lukas Butkus created four unique compositions that unravel synthetic biology-related topics. Their creations were born after a series of meets where we explained the basics of this scientific field. Although there are many examples of scientific topics explored in the music field, such an approach has never been applied in the Lithuanian music scene. Artists chose to reinterpret such topics as insulin synthesis, the SELEX method we are using in our project, bioethical problems relating to synthetic biology, and prospects of in vitro organs. Later on, each artist had individual consultations based on their topic. We presented our collaboration during a “Sense Lab: hearing” and educated the public by preparing flyers explaining the compositions and giving scientific context to the music.
The musical compositions can be listened on Spotify (click here). To listen to a short excerpt from “SLX” composed by Matas Beržinskas click here.
Reflection and further improvement
Public: Visitors were impressed with the concept of the event and the unexpected way to merge science and art. Those who had a scientific background were impressed the most. Our team even received a request from the Vilnius University Center of Culture director to advise them on creating something similar. However, we received several opinions that more guidance during the event would have been favorable for those lacking knowledge.
Artists: Composers were genuinely interested in learning new information and even did additional research on chosen topics after our meetings. According to them, this collaboration inspired unexpected thoughts and innovative ways to create music.
Our team: We were surprised by the musical compositions as they genuinely had different feelings connected to them. Some were easier to comprehend than others, but overall, we were fascinated to observe topics that are so close to us from a completely different perspective. Although the concert format was not convenient for the education of the wider public, the flyers we presented were sufficient enough as they gave our listeners a perspective on both science and art. However, if we would create such an event again, we would discuss ways to educate the public with the help of artists more thoroughly.
Vision
The final event of our project was dedicated to vision. We invited a well-known Lithuanian visual artist Jolita Vaitkutė who works with non-traditional media, like food or medical tools. Together with an artist, we decided to reflect on the main synthetic biology tools - microorganisms and create what has never been created before - a live installation out of more than 500 environmental samples. We chose to collect them from our closest environment - various Vilnius city places - and to show the spectators an invisible moment of microbial life. That is how the “MicroMoment” installation was born. It was based right in the city center, in the Vilnius museum, for two weeks. Visitors had an opportunity to come close and examine each Petri dish or to stand further away and experience a visual illusion created by the artist - a word MOMENT formed from the variety of plates. It symbolizes a glimpse into a long synthetic biology timeline because just as microorganisms in the installation, synthetic biology as a discipline is also very dynamic and ever-changing.
As this was the last event of the Sense lab cycle, we used all the experience we had gained in other events. We prepared informative, easy to understand extensive educational material (click here):
- poster, explaining the concept of synthetic biology, the benefits of using microorganisms in this scientific field, application examples, and ethical issues;
- information about several specific microorganisms that we identified after sequencing the samples.
We also met every entering visitor with a short introduction to the exhibition, iGEM contest, and synthetic biology. This was a very rewarding experience, as many discussions about science and future perspectives have evolved from that.
With this event, we have reached a vast audience: kindergarteners, pupils, students, people from the scientific field, art lovers, historians, social media influencers, etc. Visitors had a chance to learn about synthetic biology and microorganisms' value while experiencing an inspiring art phenomenon.
Reflection and further improvement
Public: We gained highly positive feedback on the project - people from all age groups enjoyed marveling at microworlds present in each petri dish. Children were most interested in the visual part and the locations of each sample, while grown-ups put more focus on educational material present in the installation. Visitors were engaged in the installation - many came back, bringing their friends. We were delighted that people had a lot of questions regarding the synthetic biology applications and that we could have very thought-provoking discussions. We have also received a lot of mentions and positive comments on media and people’s personal social media profiles.
Artist: Jolita Vaitkutė claimed that work with our team was inspiring as we were highly initiative and willing to learn. She gained experience in new ways of working - it was her first time creating from an ever-changing medium. Jolita mentioned that she enjoyed learning about microorganisms and their growth from a scientific perspective. The collaboration gave her new perspectives on the surrounding world that she will definitely use in day-to-day life.
Our team: The “Sense Lab: vision” was the most challenging part of the project - it included many organizational tasks. However, our HP squad members learned a lot of new things about microorganisms, work in the laboratory, exhibition design, and installation making. Moreover, this activity included several laboratory members and invited them to look at science from new perspectives. From our experience, we learned that it is crucial to plan more thoroughly, prepare for worst-case scenarios (e.g., Petri dishes falling during the installation), and improvise. However, the overall experience allowed us to grow immensely.
Conclusion
To sum up, the “Sense Lab” project was highly successful - we reached 1000 people with our activities. Due to the focus on different senses and areas of interest, we had a chance to engage with a broad spectrum of participants - from cheesemakers, perfume, contemporary art, and music lovers to the general public that encountered our events by chance.
While reflecting on each event, we found, both our team and artists gained invaluable experience. Together, we had an opportunity to dive deeper into interdisciplinary work and learn how to merge seemingly opposite fields.
We believe that our created educational content, the discussions we held, and the experiences offered by artists had a substantial impact on the public’s understanding of synthetic biology. We hope that participants built an evidence-based and critical opinion on the topic and will continue building their knowledge.
6th SynBio Sense
To expand our education activities even more, we followed good practices from team 2020 and decided to continue their project “6th SynBio sense” (find 2020 edition of the project here). It is an innovative educational tool inviting people to discover synthetic biology concepts and relevant topics based on interactive augmented reality (AR) technology. Studies show that AR technology is an attractive approach to educate and can improve learning outcomes, promote the formation of long-term knowledge, and increase motivation for learning [4]. What is more, even though the pandemic has been in our lives for almost two years now, there is no significant progress in terms of the availability of digital learning tools, electronic notes and didactic content for quality remote education.
Having this in mind, we decided to continue the project’s development, focusing on broader promotion, the project’s integration in formal education, and general improvement.
Content
To update the project properly, we needed to find the flaws and advantages that the initial project contained. Firstly, we, as a team, discussed the prospects of the project development. Then, we received suggestions from the previous team on possible improvements and mistakes to avoid. As all our team members come from the scientific field, it was difficult to evaluate if the chosen topics of the models were relevant and understandable for the general public. Therefore, we also conducted a public survey.
The results of the survey can be viewed below.
Choosing topics for the models
We created the Coronavirus and Vaccines models as these were the most relevant topics for survey respondents. Also, we as citizens felt the responsibility to spread scientific information and bring more rational arguments to the pandemic debate.
CRISPR-Cas9, GMO and their creation, antibiotic resistance were other popular topics according to the survey which we included by default. Synthetic biology and Bioinformatics were included because the main purpose of the platform was to share knowledge on synthetic biology and to reveal the interdisciplinarity and different sides of the discipline.
We kept and improved DNA, RNA, Protein synthesis models as these topics are included in the high school education curriculum, and one of our objectives while creating the project was to implement it in formal education.
Current models
Through the visual part of the models, we aimed to reflect the molecular mechanisms that are impossible to see via the naked eye. This way, we could explain not only the significance of the presented topic but give a more reasonable explanation of its working mechanisms.
Models that we kept from the year 2020 platform and updated:
- Synthetic biology - we changed the model from explaining Green fluorescent protein via fluorescent lamp to explaining 4-level abstraction via insulin synthesis process.
- RNA - model presents mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA structures which were detailed compared with the previous version.
- DNA - we made the model more detailed, reflecting all of the structural components, added labels.
- Synthesis of proteins - translation is presented visually and in the text whole synthesis is explained. The main change was adding labels.
- Coronavirus - exact coronavirus structure with specific proteins.
- Gene scissors - CRISPR-Cas9 is explained. From the previous year, we added labels, highlighted the programmable sequence.
- GMO - shows the idea of the process of GMO creation. We changed this model a lot since previously it was focused more on explaining the significance of GMO with GMO-enhanced banana.
New models:
- Resistance to antibiotics - the model depicts three horizontal gene transfer mechanisms.
- Bioinformatics - explains the idea of translating biological data into programmable and understandable code.
- Vaccines - composition of mRNA and viral vector vaccines is presented with a touch of how immunity works in the text.
Information accuracy and attractiveness
We felt a great responsibility to present only righteous and evidence-based information. Therefore we based our models on scientific articles, respectable educational resources. In addition, we asked professionals in the field to edit and give feedback on the visual and textual information of the models. They were proofread by professors of the Life Sciences Center of the Vilnius University Aurelija Žvirblienė, Virginijus Šikšnys, Daumantas Matulis, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University Vika Gabė, and acknowledged biology teacher Paulius Sungaila. These professionals have presented the topics many times and know exactly what aspects to highlight and how to make the information more understandable and exciting for the listener.
Another characteristic that might bring more attraction to the platform is hearing a familiar and reliable voice. Vilnius University professor, immunologist Aurelija Žvirblienė has recorded sound descriptions of the Coronavirus and Vaccines models. She is the main spokesperson on the topic of the Covid-19 pandemic in Lithuanian media. We are very glad that the professor could join us in the making of this educational platform.
Usage and functions
The usage of “6th SynBio sense” is simple. The project is based on stickers with QR codes and monochromic AR markers. All the person has to do is to scan the QR code, open the suggested website, allow them to use the phone’s camera, point it directly to the marker and enjoy the augmented reality model shown on the screen. The platform has several additional functions to help users better understand the content. To ensure a more pleasant user experience, we improved those functions according to the public's feedback.
Below you can take a look at a video instruction:
Accessibility
Web adaptation
As a way to make “6th SynBio sense” platform more inclusive, we set several goals. First, we applied accessibility tools to the platform’s web page. We made sure that the website is accessible for color blind people by choosing the right color palette and keeping the right contrast ratio between text, models, and background.
What is more, as the website contains a lot of written information, it was essential for us that it is readable for everyone. We applied a font changing function for people with dyslexia. We also made sound recordings of the provided information for users who have vision deficiency.
In general, we tried to keep the design of the website minimalistic and with as few distractions as possible to keep the main focus on the augmented reality models and provided information. Special pedagogue Ana Povilovič-Janič, working at the National Agency for Education Inclusivity department, reflected that the simplicity of our website is very suitable for children with special educational needs.
Adaptation for people with the vision deficiency
We also sought to make 3D models accessible for the blind. This led to a collaboration with Gintaras Nenartavičius, an expert biology teacher from the Lithuanian Center for the Development of the Blind and Visually Impaired (LASUC). In the beginning it was hard for us to imagine the problems that students and teachers face in the educational process. The meetings added to our knowledge on inclusive education and allowed us to offer thoughtfully designed materials for the students. We made 6 tactile models printed with a heat-sensitive paper explaining topics of synthetic biology, genetic scissors, DNA and RNA, protein synthesis, and coronavirus. Moreover, we prepared protein synthesis and coronavirus models for 3D printing, but the school did not manage to print them before Wiki freeze and they will be used in the learning process later.
It is worth mentioning that we tested tactile models in a lesson at LASUC to see if they are comprehensible and usable during the learning process and saw that our implementation strategy was successful. Photographs below depicts tactile and 3D models.
Adaptation for people with intellectual impairments
However, we wanted to extend the inclusiveness of our platform and make it usable for people with intellectual impairments like autism. That is why we decided to make simplified versions of each model description. The idea came after encountering an article focusing on augmented reality use in special education. We found that AR technology, in fact, is highly beneficial in educating students with special needs. It is reported that it catches attention, raises motivation, and makes the studying process easier [5].
Another source for inspiration was adapted versions of official documents like the Istanbul Convention. To reach the goal we consulted with special pedagogue Ana Povilovič-Janič. She gave us the general rules for adapting the texts and proofread the adapted versions. In the end, the specialist claimed that our texts are properly prepared and comprehensible. Unfortunately, the descriptions are only available in Lithuanian, and we did not have a chance to gain insights from the people this adaptation was aimed at.
Read more about our inclusive approach on Inclusivity page.
Target audience
While updating the project, our team put great effort into inviting a broad spectrum of people to acquaint themselves with the world of life sciences, especially – synthetic biology. We provided careful consideration into adapting the educational material to four target audiences.
Detalized target audiences:
Implementation
We believe that “6th SynBio sense” has a huge potential as an education tool and reliable information source about synthetic biology. Therefore our main focus this year was to introduce the project to a broader audience. After we singled out our target groups, we searched for ways to reach them. Below we discuss how we succeeded.
Vilnius city
As our team is based in Vilnius city, naturally, we felt a need to implement the “6th SynBio sense” there. We aimed at public places and reached 6 cafes & restaurants, 2 major libraries and public transport, to ensure a variety of people reached. We held a campaign with Vilnius Public Transport company - our AR stickers were available in 50 buses for 4 months. As thousands of people commute with public transport daily, [6] we had a chance to reach a broad audience. This allowed people to learn something new while waiting for food, commuting, or taking a rest. We believe that implementing the project in public places allowed us to reach one of our target audiences - the general public.
Other municipalities
There is no secret that people living in bigger cities, often have more opportunities to educate themselves on various topics while provincial cities often get forgotten. Therefore, we followed a good practice of a previous team to bring Synthetic biology to smaller towns. We successfully reached out to 8 additional municipalities and implemented our project there by installing metal tables or stickers with AR markers in the most popular places of the cities.
Formal education
We put a lot of effort into implementing the 6th SynBio Sense in the formal education setting as this idea was bolstered by our consultants. Below we present several directions of action while implementing the project.
We created additional content for teachers so they could more easily use the platform. Firstly, we generated an Infopack for schools. For each model, we described their textual and visual contents and suggested topics from the School Curriculum where the models could be integrated. Instruction on how to use the platform was included. Secondly, we allocated all of the models into three topics - lessons, for which we created a lesson plan prepared in accordance with School Curriculum:
- DNA and RNA Role in Protein Synthesis lesson plan included DNA, RNA, Protein Synthesis models.
- Immunity and Biotechnology lesson plan included Resistance to antibiotics, Coronavirus, Vaccines models.
- Introduction to Synthetic Biology lesson plan included GMO, Synthetic biology, Gene scissors, Bioinformatics models.
To briefly describe, the structure of plans consisted of such parts: target grade; aims of the lesson and skills, the knowledge that will be developed; duration of the lesson; tools (augmented reality models); recommended course of the lesson with specific points and additional illustrations, context from synthetic biology perspective; feedback questions for teachers and students to reflect and a form to leave feedback for us; additional resources to explore the topics.
Synthetic biology is a new topic for schools and the current arrangement of biotechnologies topics in the curriculum are fragmented. Therefore we put additional efforts to make the “Introduction to Synthetic Biology” topic (and lesson) more applicable. We created lesson notes according to the lesson plans for teachers to prepare and for school students to familiarize themselves more in-depth if interested. We also described a possible workshop for applying the theoretical new information into practice. The workshop is based on 4 level of Synthetic biology abstraction and aims to solve the relevant problems using synthetic biology methods. Like a little iGEM simulation!
Finally, we partnered with Go Vilnius - a tourism and business agency in Vilnius - and executed the “Introduction to Synthetic Biology” lesson plan in practice. During a festival “Erdvėlaivis žemė” we presented “Synthetic biology: programming organisms” lesson with three augmented reality models included, sli.do questions and tasks. 231 viewers watched the broadcast on YouTube on the day of the event. Some of the previews were streamed to students during a class. Therefore the actual number of reached people should be more significant. After the lesson, we e-mailed the feedback form to registered participants. We were happy that 100 percent of those who have succeeded to observe augmented reality models stated that they helped to understand lesson content better. However, due to broadcasting technical issues, not everyone managed to scan models. Therefore we repeated the recording of the lesson. As a result, it is more suitable for long-term use because there are no irrelevant live interactions, the presentation slides are visible. We included this video in the “Introduction to Synthetic biology” lesson plan. The recording is uploaded to YouTube and is reachable to any teacher and student and can be used as an exemplary lesson about synthetic biology or as a video tool for the lesson itself. Finally, we created a Google form for receiving feedback from teachers and students about augmented reality models and additional content for implementation. This way we ensure constant improvement of the platform and its relevance to users. Therefore we expect that this will be a great enhancement for lessons and relevant, useful for years after our project.
All the materials are in Lithuanian and can be accessed via this page. In each of the steps, we consulted with our advisor Paulius Sungaila.
iGEM communities
We have not left out the iGEM community! The IISER TVM, Bonn-Rheinbach, Stony_Brook, and Stanford teams responded to our invitation to collaborate and implement “6th SynBio sense” in their cities. We shared all sticker files with them, which they printed and pasted in their environment for everyone to use. Moreover, we participated in the postcard project organized by iGEM Düsseldorf and added several QR stickers to share the project with 90 teams from all over the world.
Promotion
To ensure broad reach of “6th SynBio sense”, we put a strong focus on communication about the project. We spread our messages in local and national news channels, television, and social media to reach various audiences.
First, we aimed social media communication at our current followers and their social bubbles. Our team prepared a promotional video and a set of visuals to share with the public. This way we involved those who are already interested in science and reached those who might be interested by receiving shares on our posts. It was the most organic way to connect with the target audience.
We also prepared a press release on the project and spread it on several media sites: National broadcaster LRT and Vilnius University news, BNS. Moreover, we presented the project live during the National Broadcaster’s morning show. This was our way to reach the general public that might not have heard about the project from social media.
Lastly, we extensively promoted the platform for the education community. Our platform became a digital educational tool at ”Emokykla” - an official educational resource administered by the National Agency for Education. It was also implemented in our advisor’s Paulius Sungaila’s educational website “Biologija.online” . Additional information about lesson plans was sent to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania, National Agency for Education, Vilnius Center for Education Progress. We have also participated in various events, conferences (presented below in "Activities for formal education" segment) and talked about synthetic biology. We included synthetic biology and other related augmented reality models for more interactive information presentation.
We believe that this approach ensured a wide spread of the “6th SynBio sense” and aroused curiosity for the public. You can read more about our communication approach here.
Technical implementation
We believe that over two years of project development, we gained some valuable experience on the technical side of the project. We are glad to share it with other iGEM teams in case anyone wants to do anything similar. There are several aspects, which need to be taken into account:
3D models
All 3D models were created using an open-source 3D modeling platform - Blender. The software allows static or moving animations. To implement models on the web, the exporting file type has to be Graphics Language Transmission Binary Format (glTF binary or glb). The file size should not be larger than 2,5 megabytes. Otherwise, it will load the model for too long. In order to reduce the size of the model, decimate and boolean modifiers (to reduce the number of vertices) were applied along with file compression in Blender.
The mistakes to avoid:
- Do not make too small details, as they will seem even smaller on the phone. It may be difficult to distinguish them from the environment.
- Be careful with color-changing animations. glb files do not support this kind of animations implemented with built-in Blender tools. Nevertheless, it is possible to realize the color shift by adding rescaled duplicate objects and it looks okay in the gltf viewer.
Web implementation
We used Three.JS - JavaScript library that creates and displays 3D graphics and its extension threex-artoolkit that builds Augmented Reality scenes.
Some phones (e.g., Huawei) browsers usually do not support augmented reality models at first. To fix that, the user has to clear cookies (browser settings - privacy and security - clear browsing data - cookies and site data - clear).
Augmented reality markers
Markers are a sort of simplified QR-code. When the camera recognizes a marker, the web app shows the 3D model on top of it.
Key points to remember when creating a marker:
- They have to be asymmetrical.
- They have to be monochromic (black & white). It is essential to keep the white border around the marker in order to maintain high contrast between marker and environment.
- The picture can contain any graphics, as long as they are kept simple.
- The maximum resolution of a marker is 16x16 pixels.
- They must be square in shape.
To create a marker, at first, it is essential to have an inner illustration. Then markers can be generated using AR.js Marker Training. At first, the illustration should be imported, set the border, and download the marker itself (for coding) and marker image (for printing).
Results
To evaluate our progress and continue the improvement of the project, it is vital to get feedback from the end-users. We have asked all our target audiences how they feel about the project. We discuss the results below:
Improvement
We believe that there is always room for improvement. Therefore we singled out areas where further development is needed. One of the goals could be to make more realistic and detailed 3D models while keeping loading time the same or shorter. While talking about the content, simplified descriptions could be translated to English, as well. The website itself could be translated into other languages. For implementation, people in the survey mentioned that it would be beneficial to integrate the project in health care clinics, airport waiting rooms, more museums, and student libraries. We did not manage to do this, therefore we believe it is a great chance for further development.
Activities for formal education
Despite “Sense Lab” and “6th SynBio sense” being a great way to educate the wide public, we saw the demand for activities for formal education. Thus, we aimed to create valuable learning tools and to influence the foundations of the Formal Education System – School Curriculum.
Prepositions for School Education Programmes
Currently, the curriculum that is taught in every school in Lithuania is being renewed and the National Agency for Education announced an invitation to propose improvements for current projects. We accumulated our own education experience and from previous teams, consulted experts in the Life Sciences education field, inquired school students, researched scientific literature and prepared a proposal for the creators of the new School Curriculum.
| Stakeholder | Input |
|---|---|
| dr. Paulius Lukas Tamošiūnas | The central dogma of molecular biology was removed comparing the current projects with the previous but it is important to study further molecular, therefore – synthetic, biology. |
| Paulius Sungaila | Drew attention to the teachers’ competencies and knowledge of modern biology inventions and biotechnology. Therefore it is vital to talk about teacher training in the context of the renewal of the curriculum. |
| Kauno tvirtovės VII fortas | Advanced synthetic biology teaching is needed, suggested practical experiments that would be possible to execute in a school laboratory setting. |
| Lithuanian School Students Union | The proposal is relevant for today. The school students were positive about the fact that our proposals could increase the current learning load. |
We considered the insights of each stakeholder and adapted our proposal. As a result, we decided to base our proposal on the quality education of Life sciences and its integration to STE(A)M subjects. In addition to this, we emphasized the need for education on topics of synthetic biology that are relevant to society (click here to download). We are happy that there were no conflicting thoughts on the education of synthetic biology between stakeholders and we are all on the same page. This gives us more confidence in advocating our perception about synthetic biology education in the further decision-making processes.
After the submission of the proposal, we reached out to the Education NGO network, exchanged our views on the topic, and decided to cooperate on related matters further on.
The overall result of consideration of our propositions: 1 out of 9 propositions was accepted, 8 out of 9 propositions were accepted partially. Follow this link for full list of the suggestions, our team submitted the first 9 suggestions.
Structure of Synthetic biology presentations
Talking about Synthetic biology becomes a routine in iGEMer’s practice. Presentations are often simple due to limited resources, but it does not mean they have to be dull! We tried to follow this idea in our activities as during the iGEM cycle we were invited to present synthetic biology and our project numerous times by various partners and organizations. We tried to be consistent, and prepared a solid presentation plan for the first presentation but kept improving it. Each event was adapted to a particular audience based on its context and knowledge of life science subjects.
The initial structure of the presentation:
We explain the basis of this structure in the document below:
Through this link, you can download an exemplary slide presentation. This is based on evolved structure and differs from the document
This is consistent with the knowledge of 11-12th grade school students that kept biology as a study object. This plan evolved with every event, below there are briefly described main events and how we improved, adapted to the context and other target groups.
| Activity | Target audience | Context | Improvements or adaptations | How many participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture at National School Students Academy | 11 - 12 grades | The audience is already interested in life sciences | Bioinformatics practice exercises | 30 |
| Lecture at Study Fair | 11 - 12 grades | Event goal is to inform potential students and present opportunities for students | Presentation included iGEM cycle and workflow to draw interest of potential team members. | 20 |
| ASYV lesson | 16 - 21 years old | Participants were biology or Python students | Greatly focused on probiotics | 16 |
| Lecture at the Academy of Lithuanian Children of the Millenium | 7 - 12 grades | Summer camp for various age school students | Changed the course of lesson: switched to the significance of SynBio with cloning. AR models used live for the first time. | 100 |
| Sense Lab: taste | Various | Event topic about GMO | Applications from the food industry presented more broadly and GMO’s creation process added. | 30 |
| Meeting with "Students in Government" participants | 11 - 12 grade | Students from various backgrounds familiarizing with the government’s areas of competences | Focus on Lithuania and Vilnius’ potential in the biotech sector. The example for cloning here and in further lessons changed from GFP to insulin. | 3 |
| "Synthetic biology: programming organisms" at "Erdvėlaivis žemė" festival | 9 - 12 grade | Science festival for school students | Focus on Lithuania and Vilnius’ potential in the biotech sector. More recap of the lesson questions. | 231 at the day of the event, 430+ after a month |
| Lesson at LASUC | 11 - 12 grade | Students with visual impairments | Tactile models were used during the lesson. | 6 |
| Lesson at Junior chemists school “Cognition” | 10 - 11 grade | The audience is already interested in life sciences | No major adaptations | 40 |
Further we describe several more exceptional lectures to give a border context of our workflow:
Lecture at National School Students Academy
National School Students Academy (NMA) is a non-formal education institution designed for enabling school students to learn subjects in greater depth than the school curriculum requires. We were invited to deliver a lecture for the Biochemistry section students, therefore the knowledge of the audience was advanced. In order to achieve this, our team cooperated to create an interdisciplinary lecture plan itself.
We included exceptional practice exercises because they were heavily based on bioinformatics. The long duration of our presentation required hands-on experience for students. Our IT team members prepared a splendid presentation followed by practical activities presented in Google Colab notebook, which enabled mutual learning and hands-on experience with basic Python scripting.
At the end of the activity, participants completed a lecture recap quiz and provided feedback. The latter was highly positive, and the overall evaluation of the lecture reached 9.3 out of 10 stars. Students liked the animated slides, opportunities to get involved with sli.do, new ways to use programming from school. One review struck us: “someone finally explained programming so that I understand, and it is cool”.
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village collaboration
TAU (Tel Aviv University) iGem team proposed a unique collaborative HP initiative - a SynBio club for biology and Python high school students at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda. ASYV is a youth village for vulnerable orphans from all over Rwanda.
The lesson was focused more on probiotics, amebiasis, and our prevention part of the project. As an interactive element, we invited students to participate in the process of our probiotic development. We asked to give some ideas about microorganisms we should use, substances that can kill our target, etc.
After the lecture, the students stated they enjoyed getting involved in the synthetic biology process we were introducing. It was a rich cultural exchange and mutual learning between our team and the students. From our perspective, time planning should be improved because we had free time in the end. We decided to prepare more content for further activities, differentiate it by the importance, and decide on the spot while presenting when to skip and when to elaborate.
More information can be found in initiative guidebook, click here.
Lecture at the Academy of Lithuanian Children of the Millenium
Academy of Millenium Children is an interactive, interdisciplinary training camp for school students. Various topics have been explained by well-known Lithuanian politics, artists, scientists, and public figures.
As the audience was diverse in age, we included a more detailed explanation of central molecular biology dogma. Also, this lecture was the first when we used augmented reality models. We showed Protein Synthesis and Synthetic biology models to recap and strengthen the concepts presented. The attempt was not very successful as there were problems with scanning QR codes due to a large gap between the audience and the screen. It was also the first time when we presented “AmeBye” to the general public. We included our prevention tool as an example of synthetic biology applications in medicine.
Several engaged listeners came to us with questions regarding the lecture content and studies in the life sciences field. While self-reflecting, we felt that we intended to grasp too much information and we need to shorten the presentation for further events.
Meeting with "Students in Government" participants
"Students in Government" is an annual project for distinguished final school year students organized by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Every year 30 school students get familiarized with a particular ministry and the workflow of the public sector. We were invited by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania to present the synthetic biology field, our work, and our context in Lithuania.
Students had little background in life sciences, therefore we appointed more time to protein synthesis. We excluded some of the application examples and added information about the biotechnology sector in Lithuania. As for practice exercises, students had to create a scientific poster analyzing proteins and their DNA sequences. The aim was to practically understand bioinformatics and scientists’ routine - constant presentations of their work. We changed the example in the cloning segment from GFP to insulin as it seemed more relatable for the general public.
The students expressed that the presentation was simple and comprehensive. We again poorly evaluated our presentation planning skills, as we have not managed to finish executing the practice exercise and part of it was left for the students to complete at home.
Lessons about immunity with VII fortress
VII fortress is a non-formal education school with a heavy focus on life sciences education. Last year they even created a synthetic biology program for 11-12 grade school students. This time they have invited us to cooperate on creating content for schools about immunity, vaccines, and SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. VII prepared the slides with notes and we proofread them.
As a result, four video lessons were released. Click here for examplary lesson about COVID-19 vaccines.
Our friendship with the VII fortress continued later on. They implemented “6th SynBio Sense” in their school and in November we will have a meeting with students from life sciences related clubs.
Education about amebiasis
As we approached the main project idea from a societal perspective, we noticed little knowledge regarding the disease. During the talks with fellow iGEM teams, they emphasized that more awareness should be raised and encouraged us to contribute here. Consequently, we came up with an educational poster idea - it is easy and fast to comprehend, and quickly reaches many people. Experts working in the tropical regions, a social scientist exploring Latin America, advised on the details of the informational content: the poster should contain as little text as possible, core information should be presented with illustrations, the waterborne path of infection should be reflected, and most common prevention strategies presented.
We created the poster according to recommendations and shared it in several ways. First, FCB-UANL, AFCM-Egypt, IISER Berhampur iGEM teams translated the content into their native language and shared the information with their communities through social media or during events. We also shared the poster on social media and with our crowdfunding sponsors.
More education was included in other activities. Whenever we presented our team, we also described amebiasis to justify and explain the reasoning behind lab work. Another opportunity to present amebiasis was during our presentations about synthetic biology. We used “AmeBye” as an example of synthetic biology’s applications. A lecture at ASYV collaboration is worth mentioning as it was significantly based on “AmeBye” prevention.
Click to read posters in English, Lithuanian, Spanish, Arabic, Odia, Marathi, Hindi.
Conclusion
To conclude, this year we invited different audiences to engage in dialogue about synthetic biology. In our activities, we aimed to teach others and learn new things ourselves by diving deeper into different contexts and understanding problems from various perspectives. We sought to implement every activity thoughtfully and gained many insights from external sources - stakeholders, literature, etc. As a result, we created lasting tools and influential activities. We hope that our experiences will be inspiring and applicable to other teams. We have several key takeaways for anyone aiming to make an impact through education in iGEM:
- meet as much as possible people from various institutions and organizations - half of the meetings might be irrelevant, but there will be essential and enriching among them;
- keep in touch with partners from previous years - you might establish new and lasting activities that other teams did not employ;
- think outside the box - impressive activities can happen by merging seemingly unrelated fields;
- know your audience - when organizing an event or giving a presentation, consider your target audience preferences. Find ways to reach the audience through various channels.