Human Practices

Introduction

For our human practices component, we designed a survey, created posters, and conducted interviews. The surveys were administered to the public through the Internet; the posters were put up at our schools and handed out to community members; the interviews were given to biology and chemistry teachers at our schools.

Survey

We distributed a survey to the public through the Internet; this survey consisted of nine questions (shown below). We received 52 responses in total.

1. What is your age?

2. What is your gender?

The possible answers to the first question ranged from "under 10" to "over 18", with intervals of two years in between those ages; we did this because, as we were distributing this survey primarily through social media websites, we wanted a more comprehensive view of our audience. Our survey takers were mostly between the ages of sixteen to eighteen inclusive (80.8%), and they equally represented both genders.

3. How do you feel about E. coli?

The possible responses to this question were ranked on a scale from "negative" to "positive". The most popular response among our survey-takers was "neutral/don't know" (32.1%).

4. I feel well-informed about synthetic biology.

The possible responses to this question were ranked on a scale of "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". The most popular response among our survey-takers was "disagree" (41.5%).

5. It is acceptable to manipulate bacterial DNA for human benefit.

The possible responses to this question were the same as those for the question above. The most popular response among our survey takers was "agree"(47.2%).

6. Type one diabetes is an illness we should look toward curing.

The possible responses to this question were the same as those for question four. The majority of our survey-takers answered "strongly agree" (50.9%).

7. It is ethically and morally okay to inject genetically modified bacteria into our body for our benefit.

The possible responses to this question were, once again, the same as those for question four. The most popular response among our survey-takers was "agree" (41.5%).

8. I would allow genetically modified bacteria to be introduced to my body.

Predictably, the possible responses to this question were the same as those for question four. The most popular response among our survey-takers was "agree" (39.6%).

9. How did you hear about this survey?

This question was "short-answer"; we therefore, unfortunately, received some results that were not usable (such as "asdf"). However, the vast majority of the responses to this question mentioned the popular social media website known as Facebook ©.