Fatih_Turkey asked medical school students whether they were experts on synthetic biology and what they wanted from their bacteria to do for themselves.
Another activity we did was in Fatih Medical School; firstly we prepared a poster, then we hanged it to our campus. We introduced the İGEM competition and some good bacteria in our poster. And we asked our fellow students “What do your bacteria do for you if you change their genome?” And we wanted them to write their opinions on the poster. And we decided a surprise award for the winner with the best opinion.
Our fellow students had very original ideas, like the children in the kindergartens we visited. They liked the activity because it was done during the exam time so it helped reduce the stress of the students. Surprisingly, general approach was giving childish ideas about designing the bacteria. However, there were very good ideas, too; such as:
Bacteria would adhere to cell membrane and regulate to nutritional value.
Bacteria would produce to water because few years later the world will be completely desert.
Bacteria would repair to ozone layer.
Bacteria would grind the rubbish.
People, whom have interests about iGEM and synthetic biology, have also been thankful for the poster.