Team:Calgary/Human Practices/Outreach/Campus Events

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 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM (USRP) RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM: SEPTEMBER 23RD On September 23rd, the University of Calgary iGEM team had another chance to display our work at the Markin Undergraduate Student Research program symposium (USRP). This symposium features summer undergraduate research projects from a variety of faculties at the University. We participated in the poster session, submitting two of our posters. This was a great chance to showcase our work to other students and faculty at the university, working on establishing more of a campus-wide presence for iGEM. We set up a demonstration of Second Life and gave out handouts to people on the four aspects of our project. We had a lot of fun talking about our work and it gave us some practice explaining our project to people outside the field, with no prior knowledge of iGEM or of synthetic biology. This was the first of a few research symposiums that the University of Calgary iGEM team will be participating in over the next couple of weeks. Upcoming symposiums include the BHSC Symposium in October and the University of Calgary Student Union Research Symposium in November.



 BACHELOR OF HEALTH SCIENCES (BHSc) RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM: OCTOBER 1ST The University of Calgary iGEM team was fortunate to give poster and oral presentations at the Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) Research Symposium on October 1st, 2009. The goal of this annual symposium is to get young undergraduate students with no research experience interested in research by showcasing summer projects. Although this symposium was important as a means of practicing presentation and poster skills for iGEM, we also used this opportunity to recruit students for UofC iGEM 2010. As few students knew exactly what we were doing, our mission was to get the word out about iGEM. We did this by first explaining iGEM and Synthetic Biology, and then by delving into the four aspects of our project: lab, modeling, Second Life and human practices. Students seemed quite surprised that undergraduates were able to manipulate DNA to produce cool functions in the wetlab. Moreover, our Second Life initiative was showcased and received quite a lot of interest and great feedback because of the innovated platform to teach students about synthetic biology. We also let the students attending the symposium know about the academic backgrounds and interests of all of our members. They found it quite surprising that most of our members are either 1st or 2nd year students (this seemed quite young!) from not only health sciences, but engineering, computer science and kinesiology as well. The UofC iGEM team stood out from the other research projects because we showed the students that research doesn’t have to be strictly science. They understood that although iGEM is a competition in synthetic biology, it is moving away from simply biology and requires teams to pursue other initiatives (such as outreach and ethics) within the field to be recognized as successful projects. We received a great number of questions about our project and the role of every individual in our project. The amount of interest about iGEM demonstrated by the undergraduates far surpassed anything we had expected. We hope that we got the message across that the UofC iGEM team strives to create a multifaceted project and that in order to achieve this goal, we require enthusiastic students from all types of academic backgrounds. There’s no doubt that our participation in the BHSc Research Symposium will increase the number of students wanting to be a part of UofC iGEM 2010.



 DISCOVERY DAYS: OCTOBER 16TH Hosted by the Faculty of Medicine, Discovery Days is an event held annually for Alberta High School students. Over three hundred students generally attend from a variety of schools in Calgary as well as outside of the city. Focused on careers in the health and health related industries, the event includes a variety of activities including key note speakers and various small group sessions focused on. The University of Calgary iGEM team had the opportunity to set up our posters and distribute hand outs to the students. We also set up a laptop and gave students a chance to explore our Second Life Island. As this event was catered towards students interested in pursuing careers in the health industry, it was a great opportunity to talk to students who may be interested in pursuing iGEM in the future.