Education
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." – Nelson Mandela
Education has been one of the cornerstones of our iGEM project. With half of the members having experience as educators to middle school, high school and university students, we have been quite motivated to share our project and our ideas further to both the younger and older generations, in a fun and easy way. We wished to spark an interest in biology in the younger generation, as well as make people of all ages curious about innovations, biological advancements and iGEM.
Our project is quite ‘heavy’ to convey with only words, as such we decided that the most efficient way to communicate our ideas is to involve a more hands-on educational approach, in addition to adding fun twists, to convey the science behind our idea correctly. We have worked with finding an appropriate way to approach people of all ages and make a big synthetic biology project into an interactive story time, which we shared through our events.
From the beginning we were quite focused on working with Education as an excellence criteria, as 3 of the 7 members are educators, and our team member Marlene Metz devised a brilliant method to share the idea of a cortisol monitoring device with a younger audience as well as people unfamiliar with synthetic biology or biology in general. The Educational Storytime, as we have called it in the team, was shared through different events we participated in and was conceived early in our project phase.
Our Educational goals encompass two main aspects of our project. The first main Educational Goal is explaining synthetic and protein biology using LEGO. We wished to explain the complicated and main parts of the process of transcription, such as amino acids, ribosomes and plasmids, with a hands-on exercise. This concept was created and targeted mostly for middle school students, aged 11-15. In order to explain the three aspects of transcription - plasmids/genetic information, amino acids as building blocks, and ribosomes - a LEGO analogy was prepared. The genetic information to build their own protein was given to visitors as LEGO instructions. These were equivalent to what a ribosome reads and transcribes. In the world of synthetic biology they would be corresponding to a plasmid given to a bacterium. The building blocks here represent what a ribosome uses to make proteins, the amino acids. By following this concept, the visitors could use the LEGO bricks and to feel how it is to be an essential part of the protein synthesis - the ribosome themselves.
A little easier to understand and therefore targeted at an even younger audience like primary school students(aged 5-11), was the second aspect of the LEGO protein building. With this exercise, once the protein was completely assembled, it could hold an eraser - a non-LEGO brick. This eraser symbolized our molecule of interest - cortisol. The LEGO build could then be closed keeping the cortisol in place and showing how ligand binding and conformational change work.
Our second main Educational Goal was explaining our project idea through the medium of a short story. The short story was written for all ages and included parts that were more complex and parts that were easier, using many real-life analogies. We aimed to explain the basics of the endocrine system in the human body on the basis of cortisol to everybody starting at primary school level. Following this and a little more advanced, was the description of the glucocorticoid receptor(GR), for middle or high school students. Here we utilized the building of the LEGO proteins and a hand-crafted mailbox as analogy to help even the youngest understand. The last part of the story was about cortisol in stress and Addison's disease, and our project specifically. This part was mostly for high schoolers and adults, but also for some clever children who were able to understand as well.
We provide the whole story here on the wiki in several languages for everybody to read it again. We linked the wiki on the public events and hope parents and teachers can use this to read the story or use it as the basis for educational material for their children again.
All Educational goals were prepared ahead of time for all our events and presented to the correct audience we received at our stands discussions.
Please scroll a little further to read the story in the language selected!
Educational Storytime
The beginning of our Educational Storytime, DetectiMOL - the unexpected delivery of cortisol (NO: Den uforventet leveranse av kortisol),happened when our teammate Marlene Metz, began discussing with our team how to approach the theme of cortisol and cortisol binding and detection to a younger audience. Although different methods were recommended such as using PLUS-PLUS bricks, we decided to work with LEGOs, due to their universal abundance.
Everything began with a simple LEGO building exercise and Marlene and the team's fantasy did the rest.
Following the LEGO build we began envisioning a storyboard that can be taught to a young audience and divided it into three parts, The Problem, The Idea and The Solution. It goes as such.
How is your body regulated?
The function of a body is regulated by many tiny parts too small to be seen and in very complex interplay. This interplay can be understood with an equivalent in our very see-able world: The post service.
Your body consists of tiny cells which make up different organs, and organs make up your body. Imagine your body as a country, every organ as a city, every cell as a person with a job. In those cell cities a daily life, just as in the outside world where we humans are, is going on constantly. And because there are so many cities that are part of the country, they have to talk to each other to manage everything going on.
The communication task is taken on by the main-postal service, which is the brain in your head. The brain also has many governing tasks, but here we focus on the post department. It has to have constant contact with the organ cities to know what they need and how to help. At the same time the cities make sure that the country is provided with the right resources.
So how does the postal service work?
This postal service is known among scientists as the endocrine system. Communication in this system relies on hormones. This is very similar to sending a letter. One of those hormones is cortisol. Cortisol as a letter would deliver the message to the brain that certain resources in the body are needed. The cortisol letters are sent out to specific addresses with the right kind of mailboxes, which are called receptors. There are several receptors that can receive cortisol and forward its message to the cell who owns the mailbox receptor. Those receptors are the glucocorticoid receptor, or the mineralcorticoid receptor.
The brain, as the main post office, knows where to place orders and contacts other cities (organs) whose inhabitants (cells) start to work on the order. Cortisol is ordered in the suburban area of the kidneys, called the adrenal glands.
There is also the change from day to night in the country that is your body. Some cities have a wild nightlife, while others keep it calmer. The post office in your adrenal glands has a calmer night shift to work. During this time the letters sent from the brain are less in number than during the day. In the morning when everyone starts to wake up and begin the day many more letters are sent from the brain to the adrenal glands, and a lot more work is getting done. Everybody is so productive. By the end of the day everybody gets tired from work, wants to take a break and rest during the night. Communication is being shut down, so the cortisol letters become less again until the next morning. This cycle of many letters at daytime and less during the night is called the "circadian rhythm", which is science language for "around one day pattern", meaning the pattern repeats itself after one day and night.
Other hormones follow this rhythm too but in a different pattern because they carry other important information. For example, melatonin is a hormone letter that lets everyone know it's time to sleep and relax from the long day. There is a lot of melatonin in the evening and less in the morning and during the day.
What is stress and what does it have to do with the postal service?
Sometimes there are stressful times. Everybody has them and to get through them a lot more work has to be done. During stressful times plenty more cortisol letters are requested by the brain because the country demands more work. Those specific letters are sent to the suburban kidney area, the adrenal glands. Glands are usually local and specified post offices that exchange letters with the main post office in the brain. And the adrenal glands are the right address for cortisol messages. Stress makes the adrenal glands produce more cortisol, heightening productivity of the receiving cells of cortisol mail.
Addison's disease and the post-strike
In rare cases the postal office in the adrenal glands goes on a strike. That means they don’t write and send the cortisol letters anymore, not even when the main post office of the brain is asking them very nicely to do so. The strike can have many reasons and in most cases the strike leads to a shut down and closing of the office. No mail is sent anymore. But that is very dangerous for the country because it needs its communication system up and running. The cell people might not know what to do at what time and it impairs the work of many cells.
If that happens, the task of sending cortisol letters must be taken over by outsiders. These outsiders are medication carrying cortisol. The outsiders are already quite good at their job in delivering cortisol mail, but never as good as the adrenal gland office. They are not employed by the main post office and don't follow the circadian rhythm as precisely, so they would need somebody to oversee if everything is running smoothly. At the moment, nobody has really taken over this task.
The problem, the idea, the solution
With this text and story in mind we began our Education journey. The DetectiMOL team participated in different events both at the Science and Technology Museum as well as the University of Oslo to promote the topic of synthetic biology and contributing to teaching people of all ages in our idea of a cortisol detecting patch.
3-Day Science Fair at the Science and Technology Museum in Oslo
Between 19th and 21st of September 2024, DetectiMOL together with the faculty of Medicine, faculty of Odontology and the Pharmaceutical Faculty, participated in a 3-Day Science Fair at the Science and Technology Museum in Oslo. This is an event organized by the Research Council of Norway in collaboration with the faculties of the University of Oslo and the Science and Technology Museum of Oslo.
Day 1 - 19th September 2024
Thursday the 19th of September 2024, the Science and Technology Museum of Oslo had a late night event from 19.00 to 23.00, marketed towards university students and the general adult public. We were invited by the museum, as event guests, to have a preview of our stand and involve the university students or interested adults in our research. .
We involved the museum guests to ask questions and to take part in a LEGO making workshop to explain the different biological mechanisms involved in the process of creating a cortisol detection device and especially how cortisol should bind to the GR.
Day 2 - 20th September 2024
The second day of the Science Fair, Friday the 20th of September 2024, there were 10 public schools from the Oslo Municipality that were invited to the museum. We had a total of 450 elementary, junior high and high school students visit our stand from 10.00 to 15.00.
We began using our Educational Storytime on the stand more to explain our project to the students. Additionally, we invited them to make LEGO builds of the Glucocorticoid receptor(GR) involved in binding cortisol. Not only could students build their own models of a supposed GR, but we also fine tuned our original LEGO build idea and made step by step instructions for the students to follow and work on by our stand. Here we revisited our Educational Goals and presented synthetic biology and our project idea differently depending on the age group, as we had prepared beforehand. The students that finished building our LEGO design, were given a DetectiMOL sticker as a merit for their hard work.
The LEGO build that was shared with the students was divided in two parts that they could work on, Chain A and Chain B, as well as instructions on how to assemble them. In the end the students could see how adding a cortisol, which in this case we showcased by using an eraser to represent a different type of molecule than the amino acids(LEGOs), would cause a conformational change to the overall structure of the GR after binding cortisol and what this means.
Another additional structure that we used for educational purposes on our stand, was the use of a post box and envelopes. The post box illustrated the Glucocorticoid receptor in the body, while the letters constituted the cortisol. The binding of cortisol to GR was illustrated by adding the envelopes in the post box and we explained the need of a cortisol monitoring patch as the supervisor keeping track of the envelopes inside the post box.
Day 3 - 21st September 2024
The last day of the Science Fair was also the busiest for the team. We received approximately 2000 visitors of all ages, ranging from 1st grade to university students and working adults. We used our Educational Storytime for our younger visitors as well as adults with no biology background and invited them to also try their hand in LEGO making. We engaged in deeper discussions of ethics and safety with our older audience and received good feedback on our idea of a wearable cortisol monitoring patch.
