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<h4>Silver Medal Criterion #2</h4>
<p>Explain how you have determined your work is responsible and good for the world.</p>
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<p>Please see the <ahref="https://competition.igem.org/judging/medals">2024 Medals Page</a> for more information.</p>
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<h4>Best Integrated Human Practices</h4>
<p>How does your project affect society and how does society influence the direction of your project? How might ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide your project purpose and design and the experiments you conduct in the lab? How does this feedback enter into the process of your work all through the iGEM competition? Document a thoughtful and creative approach to exploring these questions and how your project evolved in the process to compete for this award!</p>
<p>To compete for the Best Integrated Human Practices prize, select the prize on the <ahref="https://competition.igem.org/deliverables/judging-form">judging form</a> and describe your work on this page.</p>
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<p>Please see the <ahref="https://competition.igem.org/judging/awards">2024 Awards Page</a> for more information.</p>
<p> At iGEM TU Delft, we recognize the importance of outreach and education within our project. Within the outreach team, our primary focus is on education, which we believe is an essential part for an effective outreach. We consider education on synthetic biology essential for a better understanding of the rapid changes occurring globally, where numerous synthetic biology solutions can help alleviate issues related to climate change, socioeconomics, and health. Currently, terms like GMO, biofuel, and biomarkers are becoming more common in the news; however, relatively few people fully understand these terms, leading to confusion and, in some extreme cases, fear among the general public.This hinders the acceptance of those solutions to global problems based on synthetic biology. To prevent this from happening, we believe that
educating the general population to better understand these concepts, and therefore the implications of related solutions, is crucial.
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<p> To promote education in synthetic biology, we have developed various activities tailored to different age groups. We believe that one of the best ways to educate the general population is from childhood and adolescence, to avoid them becoming adults who fear synthetic biology advancements. For this, we have prepared appropriate and differentiated educational packages for each activity, as programs that work for children are not suitable for teenagers nor for adults. We have given lectures at high schools, organized games in farms, and promoted learning through our social media channels.
<p> Alongside our laboratory progress, we organized lectures at high schools. One of our team members, Roos Beijer, reached out to Dutch high schools, where the magic began. Through a presentation on synthetic biology, Roos taught high school students about endosymbiosis, cellular organization, and intracellular transport systems. She delivered the content in a dynamic and engaging way, ensuring that the students were involved and asked all sorts of questions. A week later, Roos repeated the lecture at another high school, once again captivating the students’ attention while entertaining and educating them.</p>
<li><strong>3D Printed Animal Cell Puzzle:</strong> A fun and educational puzzle that allowed kids to assemble and learn about the different parts of an animal cell.</li>
<li><strong>Candy DNA Models:</strong> Children crafted their own double-stranded DNA molecules using candy, making biology both fun and delicious.</li>
<li><strong>Microscope Exploration:</strong> We brought two microscopes—one that we built ourselves using LEGO, and a professional microscope provided by the Leiden team. The kids were especially fascinated by these, eagerly bringing their own samples from around the farm, such as flower petals, blades of grass, and leaves, to examine under the microscope.</li>
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<p>The event was a tremendous success, not only because the kids had a blast but also because we had the opportunity to ignite a spark of interest in biology in the next generation. Their endless curiosity and desire to understand how everything works are the very qualities that drive scientific discovery, and we are thrilled to have played a part in nurturing those qualities. The parents were also equally engaged, using the microscope and learning alongside their children.</p>
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<divclass="h1">Stakeholders we Talked to</div>
<p> Through Instagram, our most frequently used social media platform, we have promoted science education in various ways. Not only through our posts and stories that promote iGEM and explain our project, but also through a collaboration with the Dutch science museum NEMO. This collaboration allowed us to distribute a selected few of our followers free museum ticket. Through this, they had the opportunity to continue learning by visiting the museum. The lucky winners were selected through a giveaway on an Instagram post and a cellular biology quiz in our stories, which featured 10 questions of varying difficulty levels. The winner was chosen for being the first person to correctly answer all ten questions. After announcing the winner, we also shared the correct answers, providing brief explanations for each one. For questions where the majority chose an incorrect answer, we explained why that option was incorrect and clarified the differences with the correct answer.
<p> In June, our team attended the SynBIONL event in Wageningen. This event, aimed at fostering synthetic biology collaborations in the Netherlands, provided us with a platform to pitch our project to a panel of experts, and listen to insightful talks about various synthetic biology initiatives in the Netherlands. This was followed by an engaging networking session</p>
<divclass="h2">Dutch iGEM Meetup</div>
<p> In July, we attended the Dutch iGEM meetup hosted by Utrecht University. Here, we got a chance to present our own project as well as listen to the presentation of the projects of all other teams in the Netherlands as well as Belgium. This was a good opportunity for all the teams to meet each other, connect, and share our experiences working on our respective iGEM projects. Finally we also listened to talks from the Dutch Patent office on Intellectual Property, as well as from one of our own supervisors for Human Practices, Britte Bouchaut, on responsible innovation. </p>
<divclass="h2">OWee/IP</div>
<p> In late August, we also attended the Activity Market organized by the Opening Week (OWee) and Introduction Programme (IP), the introductory week for new students at TU Delft. This Activity market allowed a lot of TU Delft Student Teams, DreamTeams, sports and student associations to advertise their team or association to invite interested students to join them. Through our stand at this market, we were able to gather the interest of several freshers from different studies, ranging from Aerospace Engineering, Industrial Design, Life Sciences and Technology, Molecular Sciences and Technology, Nanobiology, and others. We explained the concept of the iGEM competition, and a bit about our own project, and past projects in the TU Delft. Several interested students shared their e-mail IDs, through which we will contact them during recruitment for the next iGEM season.</p>
<p>At iGEM we believe societal considerations should be upfront and integrated throughout the design and execution of synthetic biology projects. “Human Practices” refers to iGEM teams' efforts to actively consider how the world affects their work and their work affects the world. Through your Human Practices activities, your team should demonstrate how you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your project is responsible and good for the world. We invite you to explore issues relating (but not limited) to the ethics, safety, security, and sustainability of your project, and to show how this exploration feeds back into your project purpose, design, and execution.</p>
<p>Please note you can compete for the Silver Medal criterion #2 and the Best Integrated Human Practices prize with this page.</p>
<p>For more information, please see the <ahref="https://responsibility.igem.org/human-practices/what-is-human-practices">Human Practices Hub</a>.</p>
<p>On this page, your team should document all of your Human Practices work and activities. You should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, document any activities you conducted to explore these topics (such as engaging with experts and stakeholders), describe why you took a particular approach (including referencing any work you built upon), and explain if and how you integrated takeaways from your Human Practices work back into your project purpose, design and/or execution.</p>
