Team:Calgary/Outreach/Spark

From 2012.igem.org

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<h2>Sharing Synthetic Biology</h2>
<h2>Sharing Synthetic Biology</h2>
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<p>Telus Spark has given us the amazing opportunity to share and engage with the general public to demonstrate through hands on activities what biology is and how we can use synthetic biology to solve problems. The Science Centre brings together a huge range of people, from young children and their parents, to adults of all ages at their monthly Adults Only Nights. We have shown off our work and an exhibit meant to demonstrate the cool factor of synthetic biology.  The first event we ran was Bacterial Art, and the second was an  public beta test of our video game.
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<p>The Telus Spark gave our team the incredible opportunity to share synthetic biology with the general public. Through hands-on activities, we introduced participants to the field of syn bio, and we discussed how this emerging technology can solve problems. Our audience was diverse, ranging from young children and their parents, to adults at the Spark's Adults Only Nights.</p>
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<h2>Bacterial Art</h2>
<h2>Bacterial Art</h2>
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<p>We have been able to let hundreds of people try their hand at making magnificent art by drawing bacteria containing different fluorescent biobricks onto agar plates. Stocks of bacteria with various colors of fluorescent protein plasmids were prepared. Visitors were got to use their imaginations and 'draw' the bacteria onto agar plates to make pieces of art.  These agar plates contained a antibiotic to ensure the plasmid containing the fluorescent marker was not shed by the bacteria.  These plates were then incubated overnight, before being photographed under a UV light and being posted to Telus Spark's <a href=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152086146370538.896423.24253660537>facebook page</a> for the public to tag as theirs.
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<p>We let hundreds of people try their own hand at making magnificent art by drawing with fluorescent bacteria "paints" agar plate "canvases." Cultures were prepared with different fluorescent genes from the parts registry. Visitors were given free reign to use their imagination to draw the bacteria onto agar plates.  We incubated the plates overnight at our laboratory. Staff from the Telus Spark photographed the plates and posted them to their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152086146370538.896423.24253660537">Facebook page</a> so that participants could enjoy the results of their labour.</p>
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<p>As participants prepared their artwork, we discussed synthetic biology, explained how we manipulated the bacteria, and told them how fluorescent proteins work. Through this event, we made synthetic biology accessible to the public, and in return, they gave us feedback on their conceptions of this technology.</p>
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<p>This event let us go hands on with the public with bacteria that we use everyday in our lab. We got to explain what the bacteria were, how we changed them, and a bit of the biology on how biobricks coding for fluorescent proteins work.  Not only that we got to challenge some of the negative press that bacteria have by showing people that there are bacteria out their that do not cause disease and that can do amazing things.
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<h2>Lab Escape: Video game debut</h2>
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<p>Our second major event was a public beta test of the <a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Calgary/Outreach/VideoGame">Lab Escape video game</a>. We spent the weekend of September 29th running a kiosk at the Spark where the public could try our video game. Players told us what they learned about synthetic biology and gave us valuable feedback on improvements for the game. We hope they had as much fun as we had sharing the game!</p>
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<h2>LAB ESCAPE Video Game Premiere</h2>
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<h2>Synthetic Biology Survey</h2>
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<p>Our team conducted a synthetic biology survey during one of the bacteria art workshops on Adult's Night at the Spark.  We wanted to evaluate the general public’s impressions of synthetic biology. A significant number of Spark visitors have a limited understanding of synthetic biology and feel  genetic engineering will be useful into the future. Although feedback for genetic engineering in the future was generally positive, the majority of respondents would only give conditional support to commercial enterprise in genetic engineering. This highlights the responsibility shouldered by iGEM teams; we must take a proactive approach to ethical concerns surrounding the deployment of syn bio so that the public will be supportive of these technologies. Please check out the survey results below:</p>
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<p>Our second major event was the first public beta test of the <a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Calgary/Outreach/VideoGame">video game</a> we have been developing throughout the summer.  We spent two days on a weekend (September 29-30, 2012) letting the general public try out our video game and learn a thing or two about synthetic biology. Players of the game gave us valuable feedback on places where we could improve the game, make it more clear, and most importantly how to make it more fun!
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Latest revision as of 02:25, 4 October 2012

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Telus Spark Science Centre

Sharing Synthetic Biology

The Telus Spark gave our team the incredible opportunity to share synthetic biology with the general public. Through hands-on activities, we introduced participants to the field of syn bio, and we discussed how this emerging technology can solve problems. Our audience was diverse, ranging from young children and their parents, to adults at the Spark's Adults Only Nights.


IGEMCalgary-Telus-Spark-Header.jpg

Bacterial Art

We let hundreds of people try their own hand at making magnificent art by drawing with fluorescent bacteria "paints" agar plate "canvases." Cultures were prepared with different fluorescent genes from the parts registry. Visitors were given free reign to use their imagination to draw the bacteria onto agar plates. We incubated the plates overnight at our laboratory. Staff from the Telus Spark photographed the plates and posted them to their Facebook page so that participants could enjoy the results of their labour.

As participants prepared their artwork, we discussed synthetic biology, explained how we manipulated the bacteria, and told them how fluorescent proteins work. Through this event, we made synthetic biology accessible to the public, and in return, they gave us feedback on their conceptions of this technology.


Lab Escape: Video game debut

Our second major event was a public beta test of the Lab Escape video game. We spent the weekend of September 29th running a kiosk at the Spark where the public could try our video game. Players told us what they learned about synthetic biology and gave us valuable feedback on improvements for the game. We hope they had as much fun as we had sharing the game!

Synthetic Biology Survey

Our team conducted a synthetic biology survey during one of the bacteria art workshops on Adult's Night at the Spark. We wanted to evaluate the general public’s impressions of synthetic biology. A significant number of Spark visitors have a limited understanding of synthetic biology and feel genetic engineering will be useful into the future. Although feedback for genetic engineering in the future was generally positive, the majority of respondents would only give conditional support to commercial enterprise in genetic engineering. This highlights the responsibility shouldered by iGEM teams; we must take a proactive approach to ethical concerns surrounding the deployment of syn bio so that the public will be supportive of these technologies. Please check out the survey results below:

UCalgary2012 SurveyQuestion 1 (new).PNG
UCalgary2012 SurveyQuestion 2 (graph 1) (new).PNG

UCalgary2012 SurveyQuestion 3(new1).PNG

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