Team:RHIT/Outreach

BioPioneer: Synthetic Biology

Overview

With goal of education in mind, the RHIT team developed a board game that teaches its participants as they play it. The game is called BioPioneer: Synthetic Biology. Players try to solve major world problems by selecting one of five laboratories, each having a special laboratory technique. Every player has to meet the world problem’s requirements while obtaining the correct DNA sequence that will code for the solution to the problem. Players take turns hiring people, buying equipment, and producing papers to help grow the knowledge pool and capabilities of the lab. The game was designed to incorporate actual procedures, resources, and equipment that are used in synthetic biology, creating a realistic laboratory experience.

Educational Ties

The main focus of the board game is education through fun. The game was designed to be intriguing and interactive, but still involve a large portion of strategy. Through the wide array of techniques, equipment, and paper combinations, players can find a play style that fits their personality. This will link to players to the game and will lead players not familiar with synthetic biology to search deeper about what it is. To help facilitate this, an educational pamphlet with simple descriptions will be included with the board game that has simple descriptions of terms and processes and how they apply to synthetic biology.

What makes this game different from many other games out there is how realistic the gameplay is to the actual science. The creation of sequence is analogous to the actual process that biologists use for plasmid design. The shapes signify different DNA sequences that code for different functional units, whereas the colors represent the different choices between the available units with similar function. For example, there are many different types of restriction sites that can be used, but in order to follow certain protocols a specialized site is selected for use.

In addition, the idea of limited resources plays a vital role in teaching players about how research is done. Actions are determined by the number of people in your lab, but become useless when there is nothing to spend the actions on. Following the same lines, a player can have all of the pieces of equipment with no one in the lab to work them. These both show the importance of keeping the size of laboratories manageable to optimize production of advancements. Finally, papers in the game help players to obtain pieces of equipment and lab members, showing that the knowledge pool of the laboratory must be kept up to date in order to be successful.

Gameplay

The goal of Bio-Pioneer is to solve the World Problem through the use of synthetic biology. To do so, your lab must achieve all prerequisites of the World Problem, synthesize your DNA sequence, and reach the Knowledge Pool Requirement of the World Problem.

Each player selects the lab of their choice. Every lab has a unique technique found in synthetic biology. Each player then collects the starting resources found on their Lab Play Mat and places their Lab token on the start location of the game board.

A turn consists of the following phases:

1. Movement and Shape Card Selection Phase
2. Lab Personnel and Equipment Phase
3. World Problem Phase

Players acquire cards during the first phase, modify them and add to their lab during the second, and try to win during their third. The key to winning the game is using the equipment, techniques, and actions to their fullest capability.

Sample Game Pieces