As a part of the outreach branch of our Human Practices, we decided to make a presentation to our Municipal Government. We contacted the city council and were able to receive a slot on their agenda for June 9th, 2014 at one of their weekly meetings. We wanted to use this opportunity to spread awareness to local leaders about iGEM, our team and our project. We were allowed a 10 minute presentation and a following Q and A session. In our presentation, we defined synthetic biology and the use of E. coli in iGEM. We also described the iGEM competition and Lethbridge’s past participation in Jamborees. Then, we were able to bring forward the issue of antibiotic resistance and share what we have accomplished with our project this year.

The city council officials were very interested in iGEM and our project. They were very impressed with what we are doing at a high school level. Many questions were raised including concerns with the use of E. coli and whether or not there are ways of breaking down antibiotics without using bacteria. City council members were well aware of the issue of antibiotic resistance and were interested to hear our teams proposed solution. After the Q and A, the mayor and city council members thanked us for our presentation and wished us good luck and success at the Jamboree! They requested that we send them our finished Wiki and that we stay in touch to let them know what we accomplish at the Jamboree. Presenting to city council was a very exciting experience as a scientist and as a citizen! We are so grateful to have had this opportunity to communicate with our city leaders and officials and to have received such positive feedback!

In addition to meeting with our Member of Parliament as a means to inform our federal government about the iGEM program, we have also contacted our Members of Legislative Assembly Ms. Bridget Pastoor and Mr. Greg Weadick as representatives of our provincial government. Our project this year deals with an issue affecting Albertan citizens, as we are heavily involved in the agriculture and natural gas industry –both, which heavily use water. For us we wanted an outside perspective on the ethics of our project and to learn possible ways it could affect Albertans. We also wanted to inform our provincial government about how high school students in the province were getting involved with science –specifically synthetic biology –through the iGEM program.

We have been fortunate enough as well to have the opportunity to meet with Mr. Greg Weadick during our season. However our meeting will not occur until after Wikifreeze on June 23. We hope to inform Mr. Weadick more about the iGEM program, its applications and our own general comments about our experiences. As well as to hear his opinion on our project and its practicality.

On May 23, 2014 representatives from our team met with Lethbridge's MP Jim Hillyer. We wanted to bring awareness about what iGEM is and what it has to offer High School students. We discussed our antibiotic resistances project and we were able to teach Jim Hillyer more about the problem with antibiotics in the water. We got great feedback about our project and the iGEM program itself. This experience helped us get an outside perspective on the ethics of our project. Our own federal government is also beginning to accept synthetic biology and it's application. Jim Hillyer is very excited and intrigued about what we do and is definitely cheering the Lethbridge Canada team on!