Team:IIT Roorkee/Education

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Science Communication and Public Engagement

Patient Interview

It's important to always understand the perspective of both sides of a coin before passing a statement. In our case, the sides are current healthcare facilities and the patient's judgment of those facilities. So, we decided to interview patients who have suffered from MDR Infections and are closely aware of the phase they have to go through while fighting the disease. We gained a lot of insights about the government hospitals' conditions and the patient's emotional trauma.

Following are some of the insights -

  1. Constant motivation is a must for patients to keep up with the treatment because once they lose hope, it becomes difficult for them to bear with loads of medicines, hospital visits, and doctors.
  2. A balanced diet with protein-rich food is necessary for maintaining the immunity & strength in the body to survive those heavy medicines and treatment therapies.
  3. Regular meditation helps a lot to improve the focus and to keep positive vibes around.
  4. Therapy must be considered if the patient is following medication for a long duration.


patient_interview
Patient's Interview


Webinar | School Students

India is rich in its social diversity, and although challenging, we aimed to spread awareness about the problem of antibiotic resistance in this diverse target "society. We chose to communicate science to Indian school children as we realized that local schools represent India's social and cultural diversity.

To this end, we organized different levels of webinars respective to the learning-grade of the students. The designing of webinar-levels was according to the learning techniques, the conventional science curriculum, and the comprehension level.

Our main objectives behind this activity were -

  1. Recognizing the limited perspective of science among school students
  2. Initiating an open dialogue on multidisciplinary fields involving science, mathematics, social sciences, arts, economics, and much more in solving real-life problems.
  3. Promoting breakthrough fields of near future - Biotechnology & Artificial Intelligence.



Surveys

Opinions don't matter if the data doesn't support it. To even prove a hypothesis, you need a well-researched outcome from the raw information you have. So, our team focused on validating our hypothesis (for the current status of AMR knowledge among the general public) by conducting surveys amongst the Indian population.

The first survey was conducted for spreading information about one of the leading causes of death - Antibiotic Resistance. We assess the webinar's success through these survey forms performed in a Pre- and Post- Webinar survey format for students. The surveys helped us to understand -

  1. Students' pre-existing knowledge about Antibiotic Resistance
  2. Students' sensitivity and responsibility regarding such a pressing issue

A Second Survey was conducted for the medical staff, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians, Operation theatre (OT) staff, medical residents, and interns. The purpose of this survey was to understand the real on-ground issues of the hospital environment and assess hospital-associated Infections (HAIs) with the help of healthcare personnel.




Quiz Competition

For Special / Blessed Children

“Education is one of the most powerful weapons which you can use to change the world.” So to spread this knowledge of biology and to create the necessary awareness among them, we, in collaboration with NSS IIT Roorkee, provided learning materials for the Anushruti Academy for Deaf (AAD) and conducted a quiz competition for them. NSS also kept incentives for the best performers of the Quiz!





Machine Learning Workshop

Our team organised a Machine Learning (ML) Workshop in the All India iGEM Meet (AIIM) and iGEM Global Meetup 2020 on the topic - “Combating AMR using Machine Learning”. The workshop provided a basic knowledge of ML (including its applications) and how machines learn. The session consisted of a tutorial on combating antimicrobial resistance, i.e. the role of ML in drug combination therapy.





Social Media

Trends take a toll over the world rapidly once they go viral on the internet. Youth these days tend to get influenced by social media and all their opinions are shaped products of the information available on these platforms. Utilising the opportunity and to keep our points with an interactive and aesthetically pleasing way, we released ‘Myth-Busters’ series from our official accounts on facebook, instagram, and linkedIn. We also promoted Meetups and Scientific Fraternity through our channels.








Local Newspaper

Awareness through Local Newspaper

Newspapers are the best source of spreading information, and we grabbed the opportunity to publish an awareness article in Indian local newspapers, namely, Navbharat Times and Dainik Jagran. We strive to make people aware of Antimicrobial Resistance pan-India as our first milestone in creating a transformed world.



Policy Review

Setting up the project story by conducting webinars, surveys, and interviews of successful stakeholders from different organizations, we looked into the governing body under our collaboration with NSS IIT Roorkee. This was to review what all initiatives our Indian Government has taken so far to overcome the challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. This review helped us map different aspects of those policies with our project. For instance, the sustainable development goals associated with the impact of the healthcare sector. The following report related Antimicrobial resistance with the National Action Plan and other government measures, sliding to the changing effects on SDGs and concluding with a message to curb the misuse of Antibiotics and become responsible as citizens to better the world at our level.