Team:BYU Provo/Outreach

From 2013.igem.org

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Revision as of 00:45, 26 September 2013

Human Practices

A big hurdle for getting many synthetic biology parts into use (especially into public use) is the general public's fear of genetically modified anything. We wanted to create an early education program that may one day lead to a deeper public understanding and acceptance of products like ours (such as our bacteriophage library for pharmaceutical delivery or E. coli modified to kill cholera in drinking water). We created a children's book "The Adventures of Baxter Bacteria" that has a fun fantasy story followed by an educational parents guide, including information about bacteriophage and plasmids. In addition, we conducted pre- and post- tests to see if reading our book improved basic understanding of synthetic biology concepts. We are currently talking with publishers agents to get this book distributed on a larger scale.

Visit to the Orem Public Library

The Adventure of Baxtor Bacteria

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-ADD Basic Description of Outreach: Library + Baxtor and how it promotes synthetic biology
+A big hurdle for getting many synthetic biology parts into use (especially into public use) is the general public's fear of genetically modified anything.   We wanted to create an early education program that may one day lead to a deeper public understanding and acceptance of products like ours (such as our bacteriophage library for pharmaceutical delivery or E. coli modified to kill cholera in drinking water).  We created a children's book "The Adventures of Baxter Bacteria" that has a fun fantasy story followed by an educational parents guide, including information about bacteriophage and plasmids.  In addition, we conducted pre- and post- tests to see if reading our book improved basic understanding of synthetic biology concepts.  We are currently talking with publishers agents to get this book distributed on a larger scale.
-In hopes of creating a lasting impact on not only our community, but also the public in general, we decided to educate both children and their parents about the wonders of synthetic biology. The Adventures of Baxter Bacteria is a book we developed to tell a fun story while allowing children to become familiar with areas of science that have been seen in the past as scary. To supplement their reading, we came up with a parental guide so parents can learn along with their kids. In order to see our impact we had several parents and their children take pre and post-test surveys asking them questions about their views on sythetic biology. TALK ABOUT SURVEY RESULTS HERE?
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