Developing the Focus Group

Developing the focus group questions

We have spent the past two months creating a set of questions for our 5 focus groups. We plan on working with groups located in a variety of areas, and have set up a number of collaborative partnerships to help us with that. We are working with ROTA (Race on the Agenda), GA (Genetic Alliance), our own networks for an artist led focus group, and with the IGC (International Genetics and Cancer research unit). We have used MIRO as a tool to develop a tiered system of potential questions framed by five themes. These have been shaped by our readings, analysis of media and discussions.
Curing disease
Stopping inherited disease
Saving endangered species plant/animal
Creating a better you
Resurrecting extinct species

We’ve been quite surprised at how useful MIRO has been, at first it seems clunky and limited, then you start spreading out into the virtual space, and it works great as a share place for building ideas.

Without going in to too much detail we used statistical analysis to narrow down a set of questions that we will ask each group (we also argued (debated) A LOT) over which questions were most relevant, tricky, ethically problematic or engaging. Each focus group should be asked almost the same set of questions with some minor adaptations. Each partner organisation is helping us shape our questions and information sheets so as to get the best possible response from the focus groups. This has been a really exciting stage of the project, as we are beginning to finalise what is it important to our project. More readings to recommend.

Interaction – Science and Art: Divergence and Convergence, Michal Giboda
CRISPR 101: Your Guide to Understanding CRISPR, SYNTHEGO
Using Data Sonification to Overcome Science Literacy, Numeracy, and
Visualization Barriers in Science Communication Nik Sawe, Chris Chafe and Jeffrey Treviño