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Outreach to the Community
Overview
In our project “Outreach to the Community,” we decided to find out how much the public understands the concept of synthetic biology. To do this we went back to the basics at a farmers market. There are 61,000 farms in Indiana many of which make a profit selling their produce at farmers markets. These farmers are being directly influenced by synthetic biology as more and more seed companies rely on synthetic biology to create hardy, robust seeds. Whether or not these vendors use GMO’s in their products or grow them, we hypothesized that they would have felt the trend moving in this direction. It was astonishing to find out that while many people had heard of GMOs, many did not understand the concept or know the connection with synthetic biology. 75% of people said that they would not use a product that contained genetically modified E. coli. We found that there is a gap in what is being used as hybridization and GMOs now and what synthetic biology. In the future we need to work towards educating the public on the potential of our budding field.
Impact
What we found from this research is that although we spend every summer striving to achieve a project where we show that synthetic biology can and will have a positive impact on our lives in the future either through medical, environmental, communication, or a wide range of applications, if we cannot communicate our research to the public there will not be a market for the products we create. If people right now are negative towards using bacteria as a way to improve their lives, we, as synthetic biologists, need to evaluate the way that we carry out our applications or how we can educate the public so that they will be more receptive to our innovations.
Outreach to High School
Overview
“New Biology” is the term that has been coined for the revolution of the biological sciences that is emerging. This revolution includes a biological field that is incorporating collaboration with other fields including chemistry, physics, engineering, statistics, and computer science. We, as synthetic biologists, have seen this trend for years now. Synthetic biology couples engineering with the basics of biology and genetics. Other similar fields have also started to emerge such as systems biology. In an effort to help with the transition of younger students to accepting this new idea of biology, we worked with high school AP biology teachers in ways to incorporate modeling in the class room. Through this effort we hope to encourage the next generation of scientists to appreciate the interdisciplinary aspects of biology.
Impact
As the next generation of students advance through high school and college, we are hoping to see a group of biologists focusing more on the applications of biology research as well as interdisciplinary research collaboration. iGEM leads the way with this idea; allowing for undergraduate students to work in groups on projects that have potentially applications that will benefit the lives of people everywhere. It is important to continue to educate high school students to help them grow to be successful in these up and coming fields.
Biomaker Bench
Overview
The Biomaker Bench is a non-profit opportunity established to promote innovative education and discovery. The organization’s efforts are focused within the Indianapolis metropolitan area and other life-science hubs (ex: Warsaw, IN) to coordinate, facilitate and provide tailored and low-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) K-12 outreach while promoting life-science based entrepreneurship and innovation. Indiana has been repeatedly ranked a top-five national setting for Life Science Sectors. Innovative community engagement is needed to maximize the potential of Indiana’s students, workforce, citizens, corporations and academic institutions.
Impact
We will organize and provide innovative outreach efforts in STEM education for Indiana k-12 students by collaborating with industry, academia and citizen scientist . Through these initiatives we hope to educate and equip communities with the milieu and resources needed to develop life science based discoveries in order to enrich the lives of citizens as scientists.
Girl Scout Biotechnology Badge
Overview
Our Girls Scouts initiative began as a conversation between Rebecca Shini, a Greenfield high school teacher, and Tamara Payton, the Central Indiana membership development manager. In their conversation both parties expressed a concern for incorporating Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) into the Girl Scouts curriculum based on the then recent “Generation STEM Report” released by the Girl Scouts Research Institute. In particular, Ms. Payton wanted to organize a Biotechnology workshop for her Scouts in Central Indiana but was not sure how to do so. Aware of our enthusiasm and desire to engage budding scientist, Mrs. Schini referred Ms. Payton to the Purdue iGEM team. Together we organized the implemented the a biotechnology workshop with 6 Girl Scouts ages 9-11 on May 18th 2013.
Impact
We were able to train and inspire 6 Girl Scouts directly! Based on community interest and feedback we plan on implementing workshops every semester for years to come. Talks to reach other sectors of indiana are underway. One day we hope to be adopted into the national program!
Characterization Collaboration
Overview
The creation of standardized datasheets to facilitate a uniform format within the Parts Registry could only go so far without teamwork. We took the concept of teamwork to new heights by reaching out into the iGEM community to achieve the largest collaboration in the history of iGEM. By working with iGEM teams that span the globe, we set out to create a versatile formatting mechanism for submitting and presenting genetic part information on the Registry. Although Purdue organized the development of the standardized datasheets, the end result could not have been achieved without the collective knowledge of all those involved.
Impact
All of the feedback collected about standardizing the genetic part information in the Registry underscores the importance of applying standardization not only to the engineering of genetic parts, but also to the presentation of each part's information. Beyond establishing the need for increased organization in the Parts Registry, we offer a viable solution to create the necessary standardization.
