Education

As a group of young scientists, we all have a passion for learning, discovery, and sharing knowledge. Our project ReFiBa is not only about research and the practical application of synthetic biology. It is about inspiring the next generation of scientists, thinkers and problem solvers. Therefore, the integration of education is a very important aspect for us. Being members of iGEM, we seized every opportunity to educate the public on synthetic biology and the issue of fast fashion. Science communication has been a key element of our outreach efforts, allowing us to engage with a variety of target groups – students, school classes or children and their parents.

With each interaction, we sharpened our ability to communicate the potential of synthetic biology, which has become central to our work. Our research focuses on modifying bacteria in innovative ways, showing the possibilities of this field. We saw growing enthusiasm from our audiences, who were intrigued by how synthetic biology could solve real-world problems connected to fast fashion. Now, more than ever, synthetic biology is at the heart of our project, driving our excitement further. In the following section, you'll find a showcase of the events we participated in and how these experiences enriched our project.

Clothes Exchange Party

To raise awareness about fast fashion and its environmental impact, TUUWI (the Environmental Initiative of TU Dresden) teamed up with the StuRa (Student Council of TU Dresden) to organize a clothing exchange party. The event invited everyone to participate by bringing unwanted clothing to exchange.
As the ReFiBa iGEM Team, we contributed by setting up an informative booth covering three key topics: What is iGEM?; The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion; and GMOs as a Possible Solution. At the booth, team members Gabriel, Julia, Tatiana, and Aaron engaged with students from various disciplines. They discussed the risks and benefits of GMOs, listened to their opinions and concerns, and collected feedback through an open survey. Between 16:00 and 20:00, our Team has interacted with many students, with over 20 participants completing our survey. One of the key questions asked, “How often do you buy new clothes in a year?” showed that on average, respondents go shopping for new clothes three times a year. Shopping was defined as purchasing at least one larger clothing item (like a T-shirt) or several smaller items (like socks or underwear). Some participants already bought second-hand clothing, while the most frequent shopper reported buying new clothes 15 times a year.

Our project drew significant interest, and after we delivered our project pitch, most participants expressed enthusiasm about using GMOs to tackle issues like fast fashion. Especially when they heard that we had already come up with a safety concept. On a scale of 1 to 10, the average interest level was 8.75. One key insight we gained was that many people are unclear about what happens to their old clothes. Some assumed that their clothing was incinerated, but only a few had an accurate understanding of where their clothes end up and how much waste is produced. This has motivated us to include more educational content about current textile waste management in future events.

Girls Day

Girls day is a Germany-wide initiative that strives to peak young girls interests in technical and science jobs and to show them the full range of possibilities their working future entails. As a team full of scientists working on a synthetic biology project, we were happy to take this opportunity to connect with the young girls from grades 8 and 9 and teach them about synthetic biology, our project and our jobs. Two members of our team first gave a presentation about the needed basics in genetics and then proceeded to educate about the problems of textile waste and how we are trying to solve them. The girls were even able to look at some bacteria strains under the microscope and try their hands on some small lab experiments with different textile fibres.

Long Night of Science

The Long Night of Science hosted by the TU Dresden enables everyone to get an insight into research and current research projects. For this reason, our team used the opportunity to host two booths at different locations to engage people and raise interest in degrading textile waste and the issues of fast fashion. Featuring an educational quiz & self-made animations with the truckloads of waste deposited during the event, we aimed to raise awareness about the environmental issues associated with textile consumption. With light microscopes visitors got a hands-on experience of complexity of our target fibers and therefore an idea about our challenges in recycling them. Furthermore, our poster introduced our innovative approach for solving this problem using synthetic biology. Our efforts were met with great enthusiasm, also leading to donations for our crowdfunding.
Two members of our team also represented our project in a Science Slam, where they pitched the project in five minutes drawing parallels of utensils used for magical spells to synthetic biology. This made our topic not only accessible for the non-scientific community, but raised further curiosity. The competition helped to increase the visibility and get additional people interested in our booths.

Flea Market

To raise awareness for the rapidly growing fast fashion sector and the following textile waste problems and to reach a wide spectrum of people, we decided to organise our own event. In collaboration with the Dresden-based event collective nms e.V. we arranged a flea market where people could sell their old clothes or buy from others. We wanted the event to show what sustainable fashion consumption can look like while also giving people the possibility to learn more about us, what we are trying to do and why. We were able to talk to many people from different backgrounds, spreading the word about our project, educating about overconsumption of textiles and synthetic biology and earning some money for our crowdfunding.

Louisenfest

While working on our project and discussing new ideas with different experts, we also wanted to get in touch with non-specialists to get their feedback on our project. So we organised a stand at the Louisenfest in Dresden, where we were able to present our project to passerby and talk to them about textile recycling. Not only were we able to improve our science communication skills, but we also learned that a wide range of people are interested in our project and would support it.

Sustainabillity Week

While looking for further opportunities to grasp attention and support for our project, we found out that our university organizes an event called 'Sustainability Week'. Although its program seemed already full packed, we approached the responsible person. Finally, we could have a booth from Wednesday 19.06.24 to Friday 21.06.24 from 10 am to 3.30 pm. As always, the booth included our poster presenting our project in brief as well as quiz cards and pictures of little bacteria for coloring. The whole event took place on the street in front of the university’s biggest canteen. Therefore, during our first two days, a lot of people were caught by our project and even scanned the QR-code to participate in the survey. Most of the students were already aware of the problem of Fast Fashion but indeed surprised of our approach to solve it. While people knew about the severe overproduction of clothes, they did not always know that most of the textile waste is incinerated. A question that was posed very frequently was what happens with the clothes after our degradation step. Even though we already had a rough plan it seemed that we should pursue further investigations on that topic. That also made us think more about how the implementation of our idea could be more realistic and thereby be integrated into the industry.

BIO Pubquiz

The largest Pub Quiz in Dresden is regularly organized by Prof. Oliver Zierau and Aaron, a member of our team. We recently hosted the Pub Quiz with the theme of our project: Fast Fashion. On June 28th, 100 contestants, divided into teams, answered questions on topics such as biotechnology-produced fibers, the history of clothing, the current fate of garments, and much more. We also had the opportunity to introduce our project, and during the breaks, participants could ask us any questions or share their concerns. This allowed us to inform and educate people in a playful and relaxed manner.

Bakteriopolis

Bakteriopolis is a travelling exhibition as a part of the the DFG-funded special priority program (SPP 2389) 'Emergent Functions of Bacterial Multicellularity'. The exhibition educates visitors about microorganisms and their crucial roles in producing food, generating energy, and supporting various other aspects of life. It emphasizes that microorganisms of all types, not just pathogens, are important and fascinating. Coordinated by the Chair of General Microbiology at TU Dresden, this mini-museum first engaged students in Dresden for several weeks before moving to Leipzig for a three-week stay, where numerous school groups participated in the exhibit. Our team highlighted the beneficial applications of microorganisms, offering a hands-on example of microbiology and synthetic biology in action. During the Leipzig exhibition, we spent four days interacting with students from grades 7 to 12, discussing topics such as fast fashion, synthetic biology, and iGEM, while also presenting ways for students to get involved in similar projects. Located at Wilhelm-Leuschner Platz in Leipzig, the exhibition attracted the attention of many passersby. People stopped to explore the information, engage in conversations with us, and learn more about our project. This allowed us to connect not only with school groups but also with the broader public, who showed significant interest in our work.

BIOS Reports

Several students in our team are part of the „Biology in Society“ Masters program at TU Dresden. Since this program has a strong emphasis on science communication, some of the students release a monthly newsletter called BioS reports. We were happy to be selected to write a small article about our project for it. You can find the issue containing our article here.

Biology Summer Party

On August 30th, the biology faculty at TU Dresden celebrated its 30th anniversary with a grand program, which included the ceremonial presentation of this year’s certificates. The event brought together alumni, current students, professors, and staff, creating a wonderful opportunity to engage with a diverse audience. In a relaxed and festive atmosphere, we hosted a wheel of fortune, giving away small prizes and sparking conversations with numerous attendees. This allowed us to successfully promote our crowdfunding campaign and survey, while also raising awareness about iGEM and the mission behind our project. The scientific setting fostered the exchange of new ideas and a shared sense of fascination.

Social Media

In recent years, journalism and science communication have shifted from traditional outlets, like journals and newspapers, to social media platforms. Fewer people, particularly the younger generation, rely on the news or print media, while many turn to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for information. With this shift in mind, we decided to use our Instagram channel not only to promote and provide updates on our project but also as a platform for educational content.
Through these posts, we introduce iGEM and synthetic biology, and highlight the growing environmental impact of fast fashion. We also talk about our project as a potential solution and invite our audience to engage with this important topic.


Card Game

We, at ReFIBa have asked ourselves how to increase interest into synthetic biology within new and already scientifically curious audiences. To that extent we created a card game that offers an opportunity to learn in a playful and exciting way. In this game, up to 4 people compete in collecting points by combining bacteria, various gene and enzyme cards, which offer simple descriptions of interesting model organisms and genetic toolsets utilized in laboratories. These cards can then be used to fulfil missions in the game, that present a small sample of their potential usage in biological projects today. With this card game we aim to give some insight into how research in synthetic biology works and to which projects it may be of use in our future. You can download the cards for printing for free here:

Our Card Game in pdf

Outlook

As a team, we truly believe that no one can change the world alone. Making a good impact on our planet pursuing the sustainability goals is only possible when enough individuals are willing to do so. During our project we had a lot of opportunities to directly engage with different groups of people and to discuss with them the consequences of textile overconsumption. Hopefully, the people we spoke to have become more aware of textile waste issue and will make more conscious choices when buying and disposing of clothes in the future.

Additionally, on the example of our project we could show to a broader public what synthetic biology is. We have demonstrated that the usage of genetically modified organisms has a potential to solve real-world problems even if still a lot of work has to be done. Furthermore, we have spoken about the risks associated with GMOs and about the development of suitable safety concepts. We believe that being transparent not only about the benefits of our strategy, but also about its bottlenecks and related safety concerns, has helped the wider public to better understand our work. Hopefully, as a result of our approach, more people will trust developments in the field of synthetic biology.

With our project coming to an end, we do not stop participating in educational events yet. For example, in November we will give a talk about our project and take part in a science slam on the Student Research Exposition (StuFoExpo of our university). Moreover, we will give a lecture in December, which will be a part of the environmental lecture series organized by the TU Dresden student initiative dedicated to climate justice (TU Umweltinitiative: tuuwi). In this way, we will continue to raise awareness of the problem of textile waste and educate more people about the key principles of synthetic biology.