Team:Oxford/Events
From 2014.igem.org
(Difference between revisions)
Line 139: | Line 139: | ||
<div id='activity' style="display:none;"> | <div id='activity' style="display:none;"> | ||
+ | <h1 class='modal-heading'>Can you give our cells new instructions? Drop-in Activity</h1> | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>Venue:</h2> A table in the centre of the University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, on a Saturday afternoon. Entrance to the museum is free and members of the public were could approach us and our activities on a drop-in basis.<br><br> | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>Audience:</h2> Anyone of any age (babies to pensioners) with a whole range of previous biology experience from none to Biochemistry post docs!<br><br> | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'></h2>How did we draw them in? Colourful table display, museum specimens of coral and insects that could be handled by the public, smells people were invited to smell. We also had our table under the T-rex which has a high footfall in the museum.<br><br> | ||
+ | PHOTOS – Drop-in all three of us talking – LAUGHING; Drop-in T-rex | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>Activities: </h2> | ||
+ | - <strong>Can you give our cell new instructions?</strong> | ||
+ | Activity inviting people to put ‘when’ and ‘what’ cards together to make ‘new instructions’ for a cell – e.g. putting together ‘LIGHT’ and ‘PINK’ cards to tell a cell express a pink chromoprotein when it senses light. The cards could then be turned over to reveal that this simple genetic circuit was made up of genes/parts of genes from very different kinds of living things e.g. Synechocystis (cyanobacterium), E.coli and Smooth cauliflower coral. | ||
+ | PHOTO – Drop-in title on table cloth | ||
+ | |||
+ | - <strong>Handling specimens and objects</strong> | ||
+ | Strong smells such as Wintergreen essential oil and vanilla essence invited discussion about using synthetic biology to produce naturally occurring odorants. Coral, firefly and meal worm specimens from the musuem’s collection started discussion about the possible applications of making colourful cells, electricity-free light and antifreeze proteins respectively. | ||
+ | PHOTO – Drop-in table 4 | ||
+ | |||
+ | - <strong>Bacteria Combat card game</strong> | ||
+ | A Top Trumps style card game developed and generously donated by Carla Brown (Glasgow University). The simple game involves cards with information about many different kinds of pathogenic and beneficial bacteria. | ||
+ | PHOTO - Drop-in bacteria combat<br><br> | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>Challenge:</h2> A lot of concepts in synthetic biology rely on an understanding of other concepts i.e. DNA, genes and cells, because we had to cater for a range of levels of previous understanding we had to be able to explain these concepts to people (especially children) who had never heard the terms before. <stong>Our Solution: </strong> | ||
+ | 1. Simplify the concept of synthetic biology to exclude a detailed knowledge of genetics – introduce it as moving ‘instructions’ from different living things into other living things in new combinations. E.g. ‘We can take the instruction that makes this coral pink and put it into completely different living thing, a bacterial cell. Now the bacterial cell, which is normally colourless, is the same colour as the coral.’ This could be extended to think about two kinds of instructions; ‘when’ i.e. regulatory components, and ‘what’ i.e. an instruction that tells a cell what to do or what to look like. | ||
+ | 2. Have ways of introducing these concepts e.g. describing what bacteria are using the Bacteria Combat card game.<br><br> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>How were we informed by the survey and focus groups?</h2> | ||
+ | - Addressing the concern raised in our focus group that the possibilities presented about synthetic biology are ‘over-hyped’ we specifically only used examples of ‘instructions’ that have been submitted as BioBricks to the iGEM registry. | ||
+ | - As anyone could come up to our table we were able to engage older people, a group which our survey shows is more likely to have a lower level of previous knowledge about synthetic biology.<br><br> | ||
+ | <h2 class='modal-heading'>What did we improve for our second go?</h2> | ||
+ | We found that people were more interested in the objects and having a discussion than necessarily the ‘Can you give our cells new instructions?’ activity. Instead this became a good demonstration tool during discussion rather than a starting point for it. For our second event we were also publicised on the museum’s website. | ||
+ | PHOTO – Screenshot of museum website<br><br> | ||
+ | |||
</div> | </div> | ||
Revision as of 22:42, 13 October 2014
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/ec/OxigemsidebarBlue.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/a/a5/OxigemDotsDCMation.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/06/OxigemDotsinterlab.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/ee/OxigemDotsP%26P.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/ca/OxigemDotsTeam.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f5/OxigemDotsModelling.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/8/87/OxigemDotsAchievements.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/7/7b/OxigemDotsiGEMcomm.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/0e/OxigemDotsSafety.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/a/a4/Oxigemsidebarlogo.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/3/37/OxigemDotModelling.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/05/OxigemDotAchievements.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/7/77/OxigemDotiGEMcomm.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/2/27/OxigemDotSafety.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e7/OxigemDotDCMation.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/9/94/OxigemDotInterlab.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/19/OxigemDotP%26P.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/cc/OxigemDotTeam.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e0/OxigemSidebarModelling.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/4/4a/OxigemSidebarAchievements.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/8/83/OxigemSidebariGEMcomm.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/3/3d/OxigemSidebarSafety.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/18/OxigemSidebarDCMation.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e2/OxigemSidebarInterlab.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/7/7b/OxigemSidebarP%26P.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/3/3b/OxigemSidebarTeam.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/1d/OxigemArrowleft.png)