Difference between revisions of "Team:Groningen/Communication"
Jan Vuckovic (Talk | contribs) |
Jan Vuckovic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 84: | Line 84: | ||
border: none; | border: none; | ||
box-shadow: inset 0 -1.2em 0 -1px #fbc2b1; | box-shadow: inset 0 -1.2em 0 -1px #fbc2b1; | ||
| + | } | ||
| + | |||
| + | /*The */ | ||
| + | .active>h3, .collapsible_img:hover>h3 { | ||
| + | transform: scale(1.2); | ||
| + | } | ||
| + | |||
| + | button.collapsible_img img { | ||
| + | width: 30%; | ||
} | } | ||
| Line 415: | Line 424: | ||
<h2 class="headline">Distribution strategy</h2> | <h2 class="headline">Distribution strategy</h2> | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
| − | <button type="button" class=" | + | <button type="button" class="collapsible_w_img"> |
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/a/a4/T--Groningen--Education_icon4.png"> | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/a/a4/T--Groningen--Education_icon4.png"> | ||
<h3>Schools</h3> | <h3>Schools</h3> | ||
| Line 461: | Line 470: | ||
<script> | <script> | ||
var coll = document.getElementsByClassName("collapsible"); | var coll = document.getElementsByClassName("collapsible"); | ||
| + | var i; | ||
| + | |||
| + | for (i = 0; i < coll.length; i++) { | ||
| + | coll[i].addEventListener("click", function () { | ||
| + | this.classList.toggle("active"); | ||
| + | var collapsible_content = this.nextElementSibling; | ||
| + | if (collapsible_content.style.display === "block") { | ||
| + | collapsible_content.style.display = "none"; | ||
| + | } else { | ||
| + | collapsible_content.style.display = "block"; | ||
| + | } | ||
| + | }); | ||
| + | } | ||
| + | |||
| + | var coll = document.getElementsByClassName("collapsible_img"); | ||
var i; | var i; | ||
Revision as of 20:20, 21 October 2021
Education
Introduction
For scientists, having an impact on society can be really hard. Mainly due to the lack of scientific communication, the broad public can’t understand what scientists do in the lab. iGEM opens doors for making a real impact on communities, sharing knowledge and raising awareness about synthetic biology. We wanted to use this opportunity to make a change!
The possibilities of how to achieve such a goal are incredibly broad, we started brainstorming to narrow them down based on our knowledge and limitations. We finally decided to focus mainly on the youth, children aged 6 to 12. At the same time, we decided to create some additional material for teenagers and older audiences that would like to know what is the idea behind synthetic biology; by using real-life samples. Follow-up activities are proposed to not only learn the concepts but also apply them.
The biggest gap between the general public and scientists is created when heavy scientific terminology is used. In that sense, we strongly believe that making science accessible can only be possible by making it entertaining and easilyunderstandable.
That is what motivated us to create a series of comics that could explain the principle idea behind synthetic biology in a simple manner. We first came up with characters inspired by actual microorganisms and their background stories, so that children's interest will be obtained. After each chapter, the science behind the protagonist of the chapter and its importance in synthetic biology is explained in a simple manner. After using our materials, we have found out that not only children were interested in the stories, but that the comics also helped adults with no scientific background to look at synthetic biology from a different perspective.
Our education team consists of students from different fields, from science to design. This allowed us to find the middle ground between scientific rigorously and understandability.
The materials are accessible online, additionally, we also contacted schools from all over Europe. Eventually, more than 270 kids from 4 different countries cover the comics and preformed the activities in the classroom. Cultural institutions and online platforms that spread scientific knowledge were also contacted. This way we tried to ensure that more people could have access to science. By providing society with real-life examples of synthetic biology and stepping away from the sensationalism that characterizes social media and traditional press, we wanted to empower people to create informed opinions about synthetic biology.
Materials
Essentially, our materials can be divided into two areas, a comic addressed to children from 6-12, and the explanation of the science behind the comic, targeting a broader audience. Additionally, the materials can be found mainly in English, Dutch, Croatian and Bulgarian.
The comic
We linked the comics to our project by making all the stories happen in a farm. The trigger of the comic is that the farmer has gone on vacation and a crew of different microorganisms are left in charge of the farm. The comic strips include six different types of microorganisms as the main characters. All the stories follow the same plot, the microorganisms are faced with a problem and only one of them has the right “superpower” to solve it. That microorganism then shares its “superpower” with the other microorganisms and they then solve the problem together. All the superpowers are inspired by the actual characteristics of microorganisms and the act of sharing the superpowers is inspired by the fundamental principle behind synthetic biology.
In the chapters, we focus on bioluminescence by bacteria, fermentation by yeast and spore formation by spore-forming bacteria. With these examples, we aim to use real life biological features from actual microorganisms and make them relevant into a story.
The different chapters and introduction of the characters can be found below:
Musoke
Family name: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Profession: Chef
Hobbies: Nobody can cook better and faster than Musoke. She is a specialist in baking bread, making wine, beer and cheese. Most importantly, she is a really humble and trustworthy friend.
Favourite food: Homemade pizza
Residence/Origin: She was born in a mango tree, but lived in many fruit plants (she loves the sugars on them) until she moved to the farm.
Superpower: She can bake bread very fast.
Armin
Family name: Penicillium chrysogenum
Profession: Comedian
Hobbies: If you want to have fun, call Armin, he will always make you laugh. Although sometimes he can be a bit clumsy and slow, he is very loyal and will always stick to his promises.
Favourite food: Salty biscuits, salty popcorn and basically anything with salt on it.
Residence/Origin: Born in a water plant in Iran, he came to the Netherlands looking for a more watery environment.
Superpower: Armin has sticky proteins surrounding his body, that is how he stands up.
Javi
Family name: Bacillus subtilis
Profession: Pharmacist
Hobbies: Javi is all about the underground music scene.
Favourite food: Potatoes, carrots, and anything grown underground.
Residence/Origin: He’s been all over the world and every place feels like home to him.
Superpower: Javi can produce medicines.
Mark
Family name: Vibrio harveyi
Profession: Fisherman
Hobbies: Mark is passionate about fishing and there is no fish too big for him to catch.
Favourite food: Seafood
Residence/Origin: He was born in the Caribbean Sea where he lived inside of different fish species.
Superpower: Mark is bioluminescent, he can shine in the dark!
Marylin
Family name: Clostridiaceae
Profession: Marketing agency manager
Hobbies: When the environment is hostile and everything gets tough, it’s time for Marilyn to show her power by making spores. She is strong and resilient, as well as very opportunistic.
Favourite food: Potatoes, carrots, and anything grown underground.
Residence/Origin: He’s been all over the world and every place feels like home to him.
Superpower: Marylin can produce spores to survive difficult times.
Yuli
Family name: Amoeba Proteus family
Profession: Micro-Olympic swimmer
Hobbies: Yuli is super competitive and loves spending her free time doing sports. Her favourite sports include yoga and surfing.
Favourite food: Other amoebae and algae
Residence/Origin: Thingvallavatn lake in Iceland.
Superpower:Yuli can move really smoothly and she is the best swimmer.
The science behind the comic
Accompanying the introduction and the chapters of the comic, a series of what we have called the Science Behind the Comic comes into play. By creating this we aim to provide the reader with information about the feature that the organism is using and an example of it significance in the world of synthetic biology. The thinking scheme we follow introduces the reader to the concepts smoothly by providing simple and entertaining stories (comic chapters). Then, once the general idea is presented, biological explanations of the features and more detailed samples are given. Introducing the reader gently to the difficult concepts ensures engagement and comprehensibility of the message that we want to deliver.
We used the “Introduction to the Science Behind the Comic” to introduce to the reader the basics of synthetic biology, iGEM and our team. In the rest of the “Science Behind the Comic” we focus on explaining the concept presented in the comic chapters, bioluminescence, fermentation and spore-forming.
The “Science Behind the comic” series can be found in Figures 11 to 14.
“Science Behind the comic” can be found below:
All the materials can be reachable easily from the landing page of the comic.
Distribution strategy
Designing a distribution strategy is important in order to be able to spread the materials to more people. As we were focusing mainly on primary schools we made a contact list of local elementary schools and BSOs (outside-school care), as well as non-local schools. We then prepared an e-mail script in which we clearly explained who we were, what we created and how to implement it. Standardizing the process helped us to contact as many schools as possible and be consistent with the information that we provide.
While contacting, we always made sure that we were clear and honest in our intentions and that we were open to suggestions, questions and criticisms. Children are vulnerable subjects and we ensured we were not violating their rights and privacy by providing them with accurate information. We ensured that the teachers that implemented our materials understood the concepts that we wanted to educate about. Thanks to the work of our human practice team, we learnt how to treat sensitive data, so that schools or individual children can not be identifiable.
The e-mail template that we used to contact schools and BSOs can be found in Figure 15.