Human practice overview

Because we deem gamification to be a very interesting concept when considering human practice in synthetic biology we wanted to analyze how games and synthetic biology can go together. We studied examples where games were used to proof new principles and games used as active research tool. Right from the start Colisweeper has been envisioned to be able to be used without the need of any particular biological know how or complex instrument. Following this prospective we chose simple agar plates that can be easily produced and manipulated, paired with chromogenic reporters, readable by naked eye. These characteristics make Colisweeper a perfect tool to introduce students of different school grades, from the younger to the high schools, to concept of Biology, Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology in different level of details. The younger students can just learn the general concept about bacteria, microscopic life and enjoy the game, while more advanced classes can dive into the intricacy of biological regulation and circuit design. Intuitive GUI based modeling system can be developed to allow students to easily play around with the system design and experience in first person its requirements. In addition we plan to push this gamification process even further and describe an idea of how Colisweeper could be set up as a web-based game to educate people about synthetic biology all over the world.

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