Team:TU-Delft/HP

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Human Practice

Our team focused on several part of the category called human practise. We were in a very good collaboration with a MSc student in Educational studies named Amalia Ephrat. During the brainstorm sessions the team helped her to observe collaborative learning activities.

We are also part of a documentary called Lab-Life, which is filmed by Frank Theys. In this documentary he follows the daily life of the scientific research project of our team. For this documentary an embedded humanist, Daan Schuurbiers was partly involved with our project. His professional view on social sciences helped this team a lot.

Furthermore during the European jamboree this team will organize together with the Rathenau Institute a debate called Meeting of Young Minds. The subject of this debate will be the H5N1 virus and weather the research manuscript should have been published. This will be a very interesting debate with different experts, the team and of course the audience!

Collaborative learning
During the brainstorm sessions a MSc student in Educational studies, Amalia Ephrat had recorded the way this team came to their final topic Snifferomyces! The team helped her to study the collaborative learning activities between students with different international backgrounds within the learning context of the University.

Who is Amalia Ephrat?

Amalia Ephrat is a MSc student in Educational studies at Leiden, she did a short internship focused on collaborative learning activities between students with an international background within the learning context of the university.

When students of diverse backgrounds participate in a project where collaborative learning is important, the individual differences can pose a series of challenges to the group processes. This is a well- known challenge for many Dutch universities, which makes it a relevant topic for educational research to investigate the means for intervention and the effects of those interventions on collaborative learning processes and outcomes.

Her plan is to improve collaborative learning amongst students of different backgrounds, by designing research and conduct measurement during the brainstorming phase of the project. Research shall consist of qualitative exploratory methods using observational methods and interviews and quantitative research using several questionnaires, including collaborative skills, empathy and intercultural conflict management.

The main focus of her research is the collaborative process in the iGEM group and the efficacy of the interventions of the supervisors to support the collaborative process in a culturally diverse group of students.

Documentary Lab-Life
The TU Delft 2012 team will be on seen on Belgian, Dutch and German television next year! During this project a Flemish documentary film director, Frank Theys was filming the team for his documentary Lab-Life. This full-length documentary is focused on how modern scientific research is being carried out, from the idea-conception through research, to results and publication. This documentary will become a real international scope on research, including multicultural aspects. Frank Theys started to record the team from the very beginning. The film director recorded many brainstorm sessions, and followed us till the final topic, Snifferomyces! Knowing what this project will be about, he started to film the amazing lab team while preforming experiments, but also the modellers who explain the importance of their contribution in the scientific world. And will film the final presentation at the Jamboree. Furthermore another interesting part of this documentary will be the focus on societal implications. The problems what comes with scientific research and the solutions and breakthroughs will be shown to a very brought audience on the television senders NOS, VRT and ZDF next year. By participating in this documentary this team will let a broad audience know about the daily life in the laboratory in the fields of the new technologies (NBIC). The team will inform people about what scientific research is about today. This means more than just doing lab work. Also other daily aspects that are connected to the research were filmed by Frank, like funding, public relations, social events, the team’s expectations of the research and possible applications, basically the whole biotope around a modern research team. This team had extra help from an embedded humanist, named Daan Schuurbiers, who followed the research as a midstream modulation project. Including Daan to the project, the team became also aware of the social sciences of the research. ‘’Midstream modulation asks how research is to be carried out, which is the main business of research, rather than whether a research project should be carried out, which is an upstream policy question. It is a means to evaluate and adjust research decisions in light of societal factors while the research process is taking place.’’. There are 3 different stages in the governance of science and technology, upstream, downstream and midstream modulation, see figure 1. So by thinking about midstream modulation, this project is connected with the scientific research as well as to the social issues. In this documentary you will see how science will meet the human interest in many ways. [D. Schuurbiers, E. Fisher (2009), Lab-scale intervention. Science & Society Series on Convergence Research, EMBO reports VOL 10 NO 5]
Who is Frank Theys?
Frank Theys is a film and theatre director and visual artist. His work has been shown worldwide and belongs to the collections of a.o. the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Centre National de la Cinématographie (Paris). He received several international awards and the honourable title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. Currently he works on a documentary film called 'Lab-Life' in which he follows the daily life around a few scientific research projects. One of these projects is the iGEM team of TUDelft that he considers as an ideal project to introduce the world of science to a broad audience. Frank Theys has an MD in Philosophy and is currently doing a PhD in the Arts at the KULeuven. He teaches media art at the St-Lucas Art Academy in Ghent and art philosophy at the ArtScience Interfaculty at the Royal Art Academy in Den Hague.

Who is Daan Schuurbiers?

Daan Schuurbiers is director of the Pilot Plant (De Proeffabriek), consultancy for responsible innovation. Daan studied chemistry and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and has a PhD in ethics of technology from Delft University of Technology. His work centers on the social and ethical dimensions of newly emerging science and technologies. Daan's research efforts have focused on the design of new forms of dialogue between social and natural scientists, enhancing socio-ethical reflection in early stages of research. In addition to teaching and research, Daan has extensive experience in project management and consultancy, particularly in the area of dialogue and engagement with science and technology. He has published in academic journals as well as the popular press and has been involved in the organization of a range of teaching courses, master classes, competitions, workshops and other events throughout Europe. He now combines his writing, teaching, research and management skills in his work for the Pilot Plant, advising on ways to encourage reflection in research and to strengthen stakeholder engagement.