Team:Thessaly/Education
Education
Overview
iGEM Thessaly 2020 at TEDx UTH Larissa
Tedx is a non-profit organization that aims to spread ideas mainly through speeches.
The parallel TEDx events that take place help to exchange ideas in communities
around the world. TEDx UTH Larissa, which was organized by the students of the
University of Thessaly, was held on 7/3/2020 at the Department of Medicine of the
University of Thessaly. Our team could not miss such an event! Members of the team
gave a presentation about Synthetic Biology and the iGEM Competition. The iGEM
team was well received by the public, as many visited our information stand (image
1). The objective of the public information and of our project management was
achieved by our team on a high level.
Image 1. iGEM Thessaly 2020 at TEDx UTH Larissa.
Boardgame: Syn Phase
Every year, in March, the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the
University of Thessaly organizes the Open Days. During this event, students from
different schools have the opportunity to explore different scientific fields. So we
built a Synthetic Biology board game (image 2), called Syn Phase, for students.
Unfortunately, in our country at that time lockdown began to withstand the spread
of SARS-CoV-2, so the event did not take place. But, we were not disappointed! We
made our game virtually (image 3)! Through the Tabletopia platform, everyone can
have access to it using their computer. Thanks to Tabletopia, an online arena for
playing board games, we had the ability to transfer our game, the Syn Phase, to the
virtual world. The goal is to complete the phases and create a recombinant plasmid
that expresses a fluorescent protein in bacteria!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 2. The board game Syn Phase.
School's online newspaper
Α High School in Thessaloniki - Chortiatis General High School- had never heard of
the competition before. So how would children learn about it? After contacting us,
they wanted to publish an article about Synthetic Biology, the iGEM competition, and
projects of other school teams that participated in the competition in previous years,
their online school newspaper.Teacher Chrysoula Dritsari and one of her student published the article online on Gialinos Kosmos,
means The Glass World, was created during the school year 2019-20. The purpose of
those who participate in the editorial team is to creatively and freely express
interesting topics that concern young people today through their writing. They
uploaded our Syn Phase game to their online newspaper since they found it quite
interesting (image 4)!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 4. The student online newspaper, Gialinos Kosmos.
Interactive tutorial video for Synthetic Biology
Tedx is a non-profit organization that aims to spread ideas mainly through speeches. The parallel TEDx events that take place help to exchange ideas in communities around the world. TEDx UTH Larissa, which was organized by the students of the University of Thessaly, was held on 7/3/2020 at the Department of Medicine of the University of Thessaly. Our team could not miss such an event! Members of the team gave a presentation about Synthetic Biology and the iGEM Competition. The iGEM team was well received by the public, as many visited our information stand (image 1). The objective of the public information and of our project management was achieved by our team on a high level.
Image 1. iGEM Thessaly 2020 at TEDx UTH Larissa.
Boardgame: Syn Phase
Every year, in March, the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the
University of Thessaly organizes the Open Days. During this event, students from
different schools have the opportunity to explore different scientific fields. So we
built a Synthetic Biology board game (image 2), called Syn Phase, for students.
Unfortunately, in our country at that time lockdown began to withstand the spread
of SARS-CoV-2, so the event did not take place. But, we were not disappointed! We
made our game virtually (image 3)! Through the Tabletopia platform, everyone can
have access to it using their computer. Thanks to Tabletopia, an online arena for
playing board games, we had the ability to transfer our game, the Syn Phase, to the
virtual world. The goal is to complete the phases and create a recombinant plasmid
that expresses a fluorescent protein in bacteria!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 2. The board game Syn Phase.
School's online newspaper
Α High School in Thessaloniki - Chortiatis General High School- had never heard of
the competition before. So how would children learn about it? After contacting us,
they wanted to publish an article about Synthetic Biology, the iGEM competition, and
projects of other school teams that participated in the competition in previous years,
their online school newspaper.Teacher Chrysoula Dritsari and one of her student published the article online on Gialinos Kosmos,
means The Glass World, was created during the school year 2019-20. The purpose of
those who participate in the editorial team is to creatively and freely express
interesting topics that concern young people today through their writing. They
uploaded our Syn Phase game to their online newspaper since they found it quite
interesting (image 4)!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 4. The student online newspaper, Gialinos Kosmos.
Interactive tutorial video for Synthetic Biology
Every year, in March, the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the
University of Thessaly organizes the Open Days. During this event, students from
different schools have the opportunity to explore different scientific fields. So we
built a Synthetic Biology board game (image 2), called Syn Phase, for students.
Unfortunately, in our country at that time lockdown began to withstand the spread
of SARS-CoV-2, so the event did not take place. But, we were not disappointed! We
made our game virtually (image 3)! Through the Tabletopia platform, everyone can
have access to it using their computer. Thanks to Tabletopia, an online arena for
playing board games, we had the ability to transfer our game, the Syn Phase, to the
virtual world. The goal is to complete the phases and create a recombinant plasmid
that expresses a fluorescent protein in bacteria!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 2. The board game Syn Phase.
School's online newspaper
Α High School in Thessaloniki - Chortiatis General High School- had never heard of
the competition before. So how would children learn about it? After contacting us,
they wanted to publish an article about Synthetic Biology, the iGEM competition, and
projects of other school teams that participated in the competition in previous years,
their online school newspaper.Teacher Chrysoula Dritsari and one of her student published the article online on Gialinos Kosmos,
means The Glass World, was created during the school year 2019-20. The purpose of
those who participate in the editorial team is to creatively and freely express
interesting topics that concern young people today through their writing. They
uploaded our Syn Phase game to their online newspaper since they found it quite
interesting (image 4)!
Link: https://tabletopia.com/games/synphase
Syn Phase: Click here
Image 4. The student online newspaper, Gialinos Kosmos.
Interactive tutorial video for Synthetic Biology
The teachers and especially Ereiliadou, Ourania of the 1st elementary school Nea Maditos in Thessaloniki used the H5P platform to create interesting presentations and educational games for children during lessons. H5P is an open-source platform designed to create interactive content on HTML5. So, we decided to make an interactive tutorial video for them to use. The video contains questions, word matches, fill in blanks, and picture observation.
Local society
Hellenic Society of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Patients (HELLESCC) was founded by a group of patients. Member of the Board of Directors and representative of the Region of Thessaly is Costas Demertzis. Members of our team met with him and discussed their problems, the treatment they receive, and our project (image 6). Discussing with him, some of the problems he mentioned about treatment were: its complexity and side reactions it may cause.
Hellenic Society of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Patients (HELLESCC) was founded by a group of patients. Member of the Board of Directors and representative of the Region of Thessaly is Costas Demertzis. Members of our team met with him and discussed their problems, the treatment they receive, and our project (image 5). Discussing with him, some of the problems he mentioned about treatment were: its complexity and side reactions it may cause.
Image 5. Members of our team with Costas
Demertzis.
Mental Health
Image 6. The QR code that has been posted on
different media platforms.
Image 7. Inspirational message.
IBD includes a group of autoimmune diseases and, thus, it is considered a chronic disease. An autoimmune disease can be an enormous burden for a patient. Unfortunately, most people in our country, Greece, tend to hide their condition due to the fear of pitifulness and society’s lack of affection and understanding. So, we decided to design a poster to boost people's morale. Let's strengthen self-esteem and increase the self-confidence of people who suffer from it! We decided to collaborate with the iGEM CSMU and NKCU teams from Taiwan in the frame of improving public health education. We decided to participate in the “Mental Health” topic, as it is more relevant to our project, and design a poster with a QR code (image 6) to boost morale, strengthen the self-esteem and the self-confidence of people who suffer from IBDs. The QR code has been posted on different media platforms enabling the user to scan it and to be redirected to an inspirational message (image 7).
Next lesson: Synthetic Biology
The Middle School in Kassandra, in Thessaloniki, Greece, wanted to know about Synthetic
Biology. The teacher Lemonia Karapaiou, helped us approaching students of Middle School to
inform them about Synthetic Biology. So, a member of our team gave an online
presentation about Synthetic Biology, iGEM Competition and our project.
The Middle School in Kassandra, in Thessaloniki, Greece, wanted to know about Synthetic Biology. The teacher Lemonia Karapaiou, helped us approaching students of Middle School to inform them about Synthetic Biology. So, a member of our team gave an online presentation about Synthetic Biology, iGEM Competition and our project.
Patients of the General Hospital of Larissa
Our communication with each other and with IBD patients was restricted, making our goal even more difficult to reach. But our determination to work with them and be able to see the problems they face, through their own eyes, was greater than any obstacle. Due to the world pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, this initiative was not possible to happen face to face. So, we designed questionnaires (image 8 ) that were distributed to the patients, with the help of Helen Papadimitriou, an IBD specialist from the General Hospital of Larissa. The questionnaires were about the difficulties that they may experience in their diagnosis and treatment, and how they believe that our project could help them.
First, we read iGEM's policy on Human Subjects Research very carefully. For formal permission, we discussed with our university professors/PIs. The questions that we provided on the questionnaires were based on International Human Subject Research Resources and especially with DIRECTIVE 95/46 / EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 1995 for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data nature and the free movement of such data. Contributing to the survey was voluntary and they could suspend its completion or withdraw at any time. Any personal data will remain confidential. Therefore, we adhered to all legal formalities.
Privacy Policy: Click here
19 patients, aged 20-65 years, suffering from either Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Colitis, completed the questionnaires. Τhe disease appeared in the first 20 years of their lives or in later years. Usually, the symptoms are diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, fatigue, and blood in the stool. In some cases, however, there may be rheumatic, skin, or even eye problems and joint pain. The difficulties they face because of their disease are the side effects of antibiotics and fungal infections. Only 1/3 of patients have consulted a nutritionist. Patients undergo various tests to be diagnosed with IBDs, such as blood tests, colonoscopy, biopsy, computed tomography, and possibly capsule endoscopy. Treatment can unfortunately be very expensive for them. They described our project as an interesting and innovative idea. Finally, we asked them what message they would like to send to society. Their answers are shown below:
“There is no normal life when you live it in the toilet”
“Have patience and don’t stress”
“Respect yourself and take care. Calmness and composure”
“Be careful of what you eat!”
“Autoimmune diseases affect a larger portion of the population than we think, and the difficulties they cause in the daily lives of the people who suffer from them are not always obvious.”
“Courage and strength”
“Fight!”
“Optimism!”
Image 8. Questionnaires
There was a person from our environment, who wanted to publicly share her problems, aiming to inspire those in the same situation as her. We thank her from the bottom of our hearts for accepting to participate! She told us that she is always careful of what she eats and unfortunately she cannot eat enough foods. Anxiety and sadness aggravate the situation. What she pointed out to us, in particular, was not to stress, to have a specific diet, and for the patients to be careful of the foods that they consume.
Theater Time!
Our collaboration with the world of theater was one of the most exciting ones! A beautiful workshop took place on 9/21/20 under the auspices of Without Omega, which deals with theater pedagogy and theatrical play. Their goal is: free expression, inspiration, the promotion of innovative ideas, and interaction in creative fields such as art, philosophy, science, and technology.
The supervising theatrical teachers, Antonia Magou and Nadia Angelouli, welcomed us with joy, to talk about our topic, which was nutrition. We explained to the children how important the role of nutrition is and what is caused in the body of children suffering from IBDs. In order to better understand the problem, we created a theatrical play in which all the children participated. We let the children freely express themselves, draw, and write a sentence addressed to the children with IBD, in an attempt to encourage them to strengthen the sense of self-confidence of these people.
But our actions do not stop here! We renewed our appointment for the new year with educational activities around the field of biology.
Certification: Click here
IBD song
Because as a team we are also creative, we thought of writing about some of the things we learned about IBD, in a song in order to spread our message, but, also, work with other iGEM teams. With a lot of effort, and above all a lot of passion, this beautiful video came out, which you can watch below.
Piano iGem Thessaly
Voice iGem Groningen lyrics: Click here
Guitar iGem Patras chords: Click here
Nutrition depending on Health or Health depending on Nutrition?
Many times our team discussed nutrition and health issues and everyone had to submit and supplement their own point of view. How many people had the same questions as us and wanted to know more? So, we decided to interview Mekras Apostolis, a Dietician and Nutritionist in Larissa, and make the following video in order to inform the public. The video is available online for everyone to watch.
Women in Science
“To rise to the challenges of the 21st century, we need to harness our full potential. That requires dismantling gender stereotypes. Let’s pledge to end the gender imbalance in science. UN Secretary-General António Guterres” At the present moment, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 - 2016), only around 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female students’ enrolment is particularly low in ICT (3%), in natural science, mathematics and statistics (5%) and in engineering, manufacturing and construction (8%). Some women despite this fact, stood out and contributed exceedingly to their according fields. Women in Science was a weekly tribute to all these women on social media (image 9).
Image 9. Women in Science
LGBTQI+ in science
In a 2012 report on undergraduate STEM education, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said that “Women and minorities, today constitute about 70 percent of college students but earn only 45 percent of STEM degrees”. Karen Warkentin is a CAS professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, she said “Feminist biologists and queer—or queer-informed—biologists are likely to notice different things and ask different questions, compared to people without those perspectives”, “People bring different ideas from their life experience that can be really helpful in solving problems. And we have better science that way.” A different prespective can be a defining asset in every research, so, differente mindsets can only help, but improve the way science works today. As with “Women in Science”, so with LGBTQI+ in Science was a weekly tribute to all these people on social media, organized by our team in collaboration with Colour Youth, Athens LGBTQI+ Youth Community (image 10). They were distinguished in many scientific fields such as Biology, Neurobiology, Neurology, Genetics, Electrical, and Computer Engineering.
Image 10. LGBTQI+ in Science
E-mail: Click here
Youtube
In order to disseminate Synthetic Biology as well as the iGEM competition, our team, having the consent of the speakers who participated in the online BIG GREEK MEET UP, uploaded the videos on our channel. The lectures based on Synthetic Biology, followed by discussions on interesting and interactive projects, covering all aspects of the competition, such as graphic design, wiki management and entrepreneurship, lab and life through iGEM.
Press Coverage
Throughout our research project we wanted to invite more people to get to know us and read about the competition and our project. Our effort was boosted by videos, interviews, and articles published about our work on radio, television, and the press.
