It was a key interest of our team to make an educational impact. Our goal was to target people of different ages and demographics to introduce them into the world of synthetic biology, explain the problems tackled by our project and to spark an open discussion about the ethics and politics of GMOs in Switzerland.

Specifically, our educational contributions are the following:

1. School lessons on synthetic biology at several high schools in Ticino, Switzerland
2. A lunch lecture with a guest speaker presenting their field of research
3. Presentation on GMO regulation and introduction of our project at the protected site of Agroscope
4. An interactive booth at the Science and Nature Festival 2024 that gave parents and children an insight into the life sciences
5. A lab workshop at the Life Science Learning Center in Zurich directed towards high school students
6. Exhibition of our project and the problems it tackles in the main hall of the University of Zurich
7. Educational videos of interviews we held with farmers, agroecologists, ethicists, consumer behavior experts and NGOs
8. Posts on our own Instagram account as well as a takeover of the official Instagram account of the University of Zurich
9. Wiki: open source code from the models developed in dry lab, open access to all our wet lab results

While our project was still at its beginning, we had already set a focus on education.

For that, we visited three high schools in Mendrisio and Lugano in Switzerland. The high schools offered the so called “giornate autogestite” which translates to “self-managed days” where everyone (especially the high school students themselves) can apply to prepare a school lesson. This way, pupils get to experience school in a refreshing way by having classes that are for once not taught by their usual teachers. The teachers themselves also visit some of these self-managed classes which gives the whole event a very familial atmosphere. Overall, it is a great learning experience for the students.

Our focus during the school lessons was to bring synthetic biology closer to the pupils. We started the lessons with a short introductory presentation on the history of synthetic biology, the genetics tools used in this field, the basics of molecular genetics and topped it off with a few examples of synthetic biology applications.

After the introduction, the students were able to come up with their own synthetic biology project ideas. In groups, they brainstormed on problems to tackle and their applied solutions. Their ideas ranged from improving the nutritional value of food to treating wastewater.

With our school lessons, we hoped to spark the interest of younger generations for synthetic biology, iGEM and problem-solving based implementations of genetic engineering.

For education at the university level, we were able to organize a lunch lecture in May in collaboration with the Student Biolab Zurich.

During the lunch lecture, we invited Dr. Aleks Nivina, who presented her research on soil bacteria that produce antibiotics. As part of her work at the Department for Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, she tries to harness antibiotic producing microbes to develop novel antibiotics. For this, she particularly investigates genetic elements that are crucial for the synthesis and diversification of antibiotics.

Her lecture was a great learning experience, as it showcased the importance of naturally occurring biological mechanisms to human health and wellbeing. She was able to show us that using biological mechanisms responsible for antibiotic production and diversification offers a huge opportunity in the fight against bacterial pathogens.

Besides her expertise on evolutionary dynamics and DNA recombination, she was able to give us tips for the iGEM competition as she was once an iGEM contestant as well.

The lecture was accompanied by food and drinks provided by the Student Biolab Zurich.

The Swiss center for agricultural research Agroscope has a “Protected Site” in Reckenholz, Zurich, that serves as a site for field trials of genetically modified plants.

In Switzerland, the only legal way to plant genetically engineered crops is for research purposes, the way it is done at Agroscope’s Protected Site.

The commercial use of GMOs in agriculture is a hot topic in politics as there is currently a governmental moratorium that prohibits commercial use of genetically engineered plants. There are several associations that call for an easing of Swiss law regarding GMO policy, while there are also multiple associations that draw attention to potential dangers of GMOs used in agriculture.

In collaboration with the association “Sorten für morgen”, we were able to visit the Agroscope’s Protected Site alongside Swiss parliamentarians and researchers in May.

The visit started with three presentations on GMO Legislation, gene technology and consumer perception of GMOs. Next up was a tour of the testing field where we got to see the current experiments run by Agroscope in partnership with several universities. After the tour, we were able to present our iGEM project RhyzUp to the other participants and also pointed out how important genetic engineering for research purposes is for us as an iGEM-Team.

By actively participating in the visit of the Protected Site, we were able to give our standpoint on novel gene technologies and inform the other participants about the problems tackled by our project. We believe that our presentation had an impact as we were able to present in front of several Swiss parliamentarians. Optimally, this made them reflect on their position regarding GMO legislation and highlighted the opportunities that synthetic biology brings.

In June, we had a booth at the Science and Nature Festival 2024, where we set up microscopes for children and parents to take a closer look at plant roots. Our goal was to stimulate interest in the life sciences and introduce the topics of our project to a younger audience.

For our team, it was a major interest to not only educate people on a theoretical basis. We wanted to enable people to gain hands-on lab experience.

To reach this goal, we organized a lab workshop at the Life Science Learning Center Zurich aimed at high school students that have a special interest in molecular biology. The workshop was held just before the start of the fall semester in September. We also invited students from the University of Zurich to participate in the workshop.

The students were given a general introduction to the methods used in molecular genetics before we challenged them to find out which strain of bacteria contains the gene necessary for biofilm formation. During their detective work, the students learned about plasmid extraction, DNA digestion and gel electrophoresis. The whole day was a lot of fun and sparked the students' interest in life sciences.

To guarantee that everyone who is interested could do the workshop, there were no costs attached to the participation.

During the first two weeks of the fall semester at UZH, we organized exhibitions of our project and the problems it addresses in the main hall as well as in the hall on the Irchel campus of the University of Zurich. Students were able to learn a lot about agrometeorology, water availability and the iGEM competition by exploring the posters and interviews on display.