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iGem diffusion by brochures
Description: Another of the Human Practices we did to spread the information about the iGem was the repartition of brochures through the whole campus of Mederos of the UANL. This activity was thought as an opportunity to give information and analyze the amount of people who were really interested in the area of synthetic biology. For this, it was very important to give a good design to the brochures and make sure it contains the most important information in an easy and comprehensible way, for those who don’t have deep knowledge of this biology area. Once the brochures were ready, they were printed and folded by the team. The total number of brochures round the 900 to 1000 brochures
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The brochure itself contains the most specific information that was necessary for a complete comprehension of this science. The information chosen for the brochure was selected in order of importance, and was arranged so it appeared in a simple way for the students to read it. The explanations were condensed but leaved it clear enough for any person to understand it. And also, the brochure was arranged in a way that it presented the information in order of importance, so if someone read it, he or she can learn first the basic concepts, and then passes to the more complicated parts. The brochure was made with a lot of images so the explanations can be easier to understand and made the information more dynamic
The activity was then divided into 2 Saturdays, because these days were the days when the majority of the faculties were full of people, but without any formal classes; so we can talk them about the iGem without any problem. The first day, all the brochures were picked up, and the first thing the team do was to ask for permission in the security central, so the guards of each faculty allowed us to be giving the documents without any problem. The main idea was to talk with every student we saw about the synthetic biology by giving a short and simple explanation, and then give them the brochure so they can have the form to contact us in case they were interested.
The first Saturday, the team walked through the faculties of campus Mederos, giving brochures and talking about what the iGem is and what the synthetic biology and the genetic engineering are.Half of the brochures were given that day and the things we can notice were the lack of knowledge most of the people have about this sciences, and the interest of some students in the contest. Various persons asked us about how the work was done in the contest, and when in that situation we expand the explanation to this persons to give more details and concentrate in the doubts they had. Some parents even ask us how they can get more info about the iGem for their sons, who were very interested in biology. The second Saturday, the results were almost the same, giving the rest of the brochures, and having the same respond of the students. This time, we found persons who directly said us they were no interested at all in the information. But we were glad to see persons who really get into the explanation, and even wanted to be part of the contest.
This activity showed us how the lack of information can take away huge opportunities like this one. The response we get from the students on the campus was very positive, and the feedback we received when we talked about our project helped us to understand things more general and how it can help our community.
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