Team:ULaval/Education
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Interview with Radio Canada
(July 13th, 2020)
Due to the cultural significance of the maple industry in Canada, we wanted to communicate our project to general audiences. As such, our team considered radio would be an appropriate platform to do so and reached out to Radio-Canada, a national news broadcaster. Our project got their attention and ultimately Joanna Mbuya acted as the team’s representative at a live interview on July 13th, 2020.
Since the maple syrup industry is based primarily in the Quebec province, we can consider ropy syrup a local problem. Because of that aspect, the interview was done in French, because our community is French speaking. We got the attention of our supporters who congratulated us on the project. It was really rewarding to communicate a science and community based problem to the public. We really wanted to inform Quebeckers that young scientists are truly interested to maintain and improve the value of this patrimony.
When we did the interview, we could see that the presenter was really interested and she also showed her support by accepting to promote our project at Radio-Canada, the oldest diffusion service in Canada. We made this material accessible to a wider audience by later sharing it with our social media and to our relatives. This interview encourages an open dialogue with our audience, because our representative talked about how serious and interested we were to solve the ropy issue. By doing that, we informed the public about the problem and later did a survey for the maple syrup producers.
The interview (in French) can be found at Radio Canada’s website at the 8:36 mark of the July 13th, 2020 emission of Première Heure. We encourage you to watch the interview if you speak French, because we discussed the iGEM competition, our team and the negative impact of ropy syrup on the Quebec maple syrup patrimony. Finally, one of the most important lessons we learned is that the media are open to hosting scientists, so more of us should aim to get involved in science communication efforts.
Science communication conferences:
(August 19th, September 3rd)
A second way in which we communicate science to a wide audience was by co-organizing two conferences together with Team iGEM Concordia. This was particularly effective because it allowed experts to engage with a wide and general audience in a real-time discussion. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to organize them virtually, with the main focus being how synthetic biology can impact the food industry in terms of sustainability since this was the common ground of our projects. The format of our conferences was set to be a panel discussion, featuring panelists from academia, industry, and investors. 4th space, an organization within Concordia University, helped us organize the panel discussions and took care of the logistics behind the events. 4th space was a particularly helpful contact organization because their experience in science communication allowed us to reach a broader audience and broadcast the conferences both on Zoom and on Facebook Live.
First Panel : August 19th
The first of the two panel discussions took place on August 19th, 2020. This panel focussed on how microbes and cellular agriculture can be used for sustainable food production. Our panelists were: Michael Selden (CEO and Co-Founder of Finless Foods), Michelle Oeser (R&D Manager at Lallemand), and Ahmed Khan (Founder of Cellagri). The event engaged 102 unique participants from 16 different countries and was a major success. Our attendees were very highly motivated and asked questions that our panelists answered either directly on the call or on the Q&A box. After the talks, we created breakout rooms to have open discussions with the participants. One room was D3, an organization within Concordia University that talked about Entrepreneurial and Innovation themes. Since our audience also included students from other iGEM teams, we considered the breakout room with D3 to be a very valuable way to contribute to their career development. Our speakers were also involved in the breakout rooms, Ahmed Khan answering questions about cellular agriculture and Michelle Oeser focusing on the regulations and impact of bioproducts in industry. The last room was for people looking for more information about iGEM. The conference was recorded and is free to watch on Team iGEM Concordia’s YouTube channel.
Figure 1. Poster used to advertise the first of our two science communication panel discussions, featuring Michael Selden, Michelle Oeser, and Ahmed Khan.
Second Panel
The second panel discussion took place on September 3rd, 2020. This panel focussed on how we can use microorganisms for sustainable food production on earth and in space. Our panelists were: Morgan Irons (Founder and Chief Scientist of Deep Space Ecology), Marie Filteau (Professor and researcher at Université Laval), and Karen McDonald (Division Lead at NASA - Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space). We had a great participation, which included 51 unique participants from 12 different countries. Once again, our attendees were very active and asked very interesting questions that fueled the discussion. The conference was recorded and is free to watch on Team iGEM Concordia’s YouTube channel.
Figure 2. Poster used to advertise the second of our two science communication panel discussions, featuring Morgan Irons, Marie Filteau, and Karen McDonald.
Surveys Results
Our panel discussions included a couple of surveys to our attendees. In particular, we wanted to know more about their background and their opinions on synthetic biology. Most of our attendees were students and had some previous knowledge about synthetic biology. Opinions about synthetic biology in the food industry after the conferences were overall positive, although an important percentage of attendees thought more research was needed. Another important concern for attendees was the environmental footprint of these laboratories.
Figure 3. Results of our poll asking our attendees of our first conference their concerns about cellular agriculture.
Figure 4. Results of our poll asking our attendees of our second conference their opinions about synthetic biology for food production in space.
Being a part of this science communication initiative helped us learn about all the hard work behind the organization of these kinds of events. There were several challenges to overcome, which included having to coordinate everything remotely with Team Concordia and doing the advertising in the face of tight deadlines. However, facing these challenges made it all the more gratifying when we saw all the people who were interested in our event.