Team:AUC-EGYPT/Education

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Education

A scientific research and innovation company called “3M” operating in fourteen different countries conducted a survey to estimate the acceptability of the scientific research of the people living in the countries they operate in. 90 percent of people were hopeful about the technology they felt science would enable, while 86 percent said they knew little to nothing about science. Similarly, more than 90 percent felt that science drives innovation, while 23 percent viewed science and technology as completely separate things (John Timmer, 2018).

AUC-Egypt experienced the same exact thing when delivering our work for public. We decided that the new generation is the best option. Our mission was raising this generation communicating science, knowing its importance, and being eager to contribute to it. We are also committed to giving back to our communities, so we chose to collaborate with an NGO to deliver workshops of synthetic biology to highly unprivileged children. They were very hyped and interactive with the lecture, but still the learning outcomes were not met. That was because of the traditional way we use to deliver our content. It with a replica of the school mode, nothing new!

That was the point when we decided to invest more in interactive ways of science communication. We consulted some experts in science communication to know about the most interactive ways to engage the audience. We researched new techniques of science communication as the VR and game design. We knew for sure that these ways are more interactive, so we decided to invest in a game to be able to access the scientific knowledge of our methods and techniques by as many people as possible. We learned that research suggests that game-based learning in science results in more satisfaction on the recipients. We also knew that it is more effective in team learning (Depp et al., 2018).

Our game design team stooped over a product to be available to the public. We worked extensively with the AFCM-Egypt iGEM team on transforming their educational content into a fun and interactive game scenario. The game is a multi-level game designed to make the player know about the from-gene-to-protein process, recombinant DNA technique, and Synthetic biology techniques.

We experimented this product on young audience and we found a more engaging feedback than the mere lectures were.

We strongly believe in the role of science communication to deliver the message of science to large audience. We believe in the role of science communicators as being the missing link between the scientists and the public, and our role as scientists to facilitate their mission. Find our game here.

References

John Timmer - Mar 11, 2. (2018, March 11). Survey: Most people don't understand science, want their kids to do it. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/03/survey-most-people-dont-understand-science-want-their-kids-to-do-it/

Depp, C., Howland, A., Dumbauld, J., Fontanesi, J., Firestein, D., & Firestein, G. (2018, June). Development of a game-based learning tool for applied team science communication in a virtual clinical trial. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6199551/