Team:BEAS China/Public Engagement
Index
Education and Public Engagement
Synthetic biology and the gene-modified technology have shown great and greater potential in both research and industrial use. To investigate the public's view of synthetic biology and gene-modified technology, we published a questionnaire, and from the feedback we found that, to most people, bio-technology is still an unfamiliar field, and they may doubt the efficiency and safety of this new field, making the implement of Synthetic biology and the gene-modified technology more difficult.
One of the most efficient ways to address this problem is by introducing synthetic biology to more people and making them realize that synthetic biology is capable of providing effective solutions to some severe problems, such as water pollution in our project, without bringing harmfulness to the environment.
In specific, we did presentations in three high schools in Beijing and a high school in Shan Dong, introducing the history of synthetic biology and illustrating how we can use biological methods to control and regulate the microbes being used. Besides, several questionnaires were used to obtain a general understanding of synthetic biology from the public, and by analyzing the results we got from questionnaires, we were able to figure out the problems most people are concerned about.
Questionnaire Report
To investigate the public's view and understanding of water pollution, sewage treatment, microbial application synthetic biology, and gene-modified technologys, we established this questionnaire. It includes 22 questions, including basic information about the sample's sex, age, education, and occupation, as well as a series of questions about water pollution, sewage treatment (reported in our Human Practices page), and biotechnology. A total of 257 questionnaires were collected in this survey.
Basic information survey
Question 1: Gender survey
Question 2: Age survey
Question 3: Education background check
Question 4: Occupational survey
From the survey results, we can see that the sample of this survey covers different ages, educational backgrounds, and occupations, and the sample size is relatively large. This makes the survey meaningful and reflects the public's general understanding of these issues.
People's understanding of the application of microorganisms in life
Question 13: have you ever thought of using microbes (such as bacteria) to solve problems?
From the above data, we can see that 43% of people have not thought about using microorganisms to solve the problem, and 18% are not sure whether they can use microorganisms to solve the problem. This shows that most people are not familiar with microorganisms and their applications. We need to popularize the knowledge of microorganisms and other biological knowledge to the public. Therefore, in the following human practice, we give lectures on synthetic biology, aiming to make the public know more about this field.
Question 14: what do you think microorganisms (such as bacteria) can help us?
To understand the public's preference for microbial applications, we present several examples of microbial applications in this question. As you can see, 23% of people expect microorganisms to play a role in clean water, which reflects the necessity of our project. At the same time, 4 percent rejected the application of microorganisms in production and life, which shows that we still need to promote and publicize the knowledge of microorganisms and strive to eliminate people's prejudice and doubt about it.
Question 15: do you think it is appropriate to treat pollution with bacteria?
Question 16: if there is such a method, would you like to try it?
From the results of the above two questions, we can see that 55% of people are in favor of using bacteria to control pollution, and 71% of people are willing to try to use bacteria to control pollution, which confirms the development prospect of our project and the promotion possibility in future practical application.
Knowledge and views on biotechnology
Question 17: Have you ever heard of synthetic biology or gene modified technology?
From the above figure, we can see that 83% of people have heard of synthetic biol-ogy or transgenic, which tells us that these terms have been common in our life.
Question 18: what do you think of using biotechnology/gene modified technology to solve some problems in life?
On the premise that biotechnology is deeply rooted in people's lives, most people support the application of this technology in solving practical problems, but 8% of people still doubt and do not support it.
Question 19: What are the main reasons why you would like to use this method?
Question 20: What are the main reasons why you do not want to use this method?
As we can see, 43% of people are not willing to use biotechnology or trans-genes because of the possible dangers. Therefore, our project designed a safety module to ensure that the modified microorganism could only exist in a specific environment and would not be released into the external environment to eliminate public doubts. A further 27 percent were concerned about the cost of the technology in practice. This also has a strong guiding significance to our final hardware design.
Question 21: What do you think about biotechnology/gene-modified technology?
The above results show that most people expect biotechnology and trans-genes to bring fruitful results and improve people's lives. But there are still some people who hold a negative attitude, express doubt or not clear about this -- this is also our goal of accessible science education in the future.
Question 22: How do you hope biotechnology can help human life?
According to the survey results, we can see that 18% of people want biotechnology to help people's lives in terms of environmental improvement, which is the highest proportion. Combined with people's positive attitude towards microbial pollution con-trol and the application of biotechnology in life, we can know that our project has practical significance and good development prospects.
Conclusion
1. The public is looking forward to the application of microbiology and biotechnology in the treatment of environmental pollution, which shows that our project can meet the needs of the public.
2. Public doubts about biotechnology and gene modified technology focus on safety issues, so we designed a biosafety module so that the modified microorganism can only survive in a specific environment. At the same time, people are concerned about cost, which makes us pay more attention to cost control when designing the final product of the project.
3. The public is not fully aware of several aspects of our survey, which guides us to focus on these aspects of our school lectures.
School Presentations
Presentation at Beijing Jianhua Experimental School
On September 18th, after organizing all students from grade 9th to 11th, we did a presentation to introduce synthetic biology and our project in the lecture hall at Jianhua Experimental School.
The first part of the presentation was to introduce synthetic biology and its history of development. Team member Yutian Zhou asked what the audiences knew about synthetic biology and shared some latest news of synthetic biology at the beginning in order to avoid the presentation being tedious and unattractive to audiences. Then, team member Jiayi Tian and Jiatong Tian began the introduction part. Attracted by the topic and the huge possibilities synthetic biology has in the future, the students participated in the presentation actively.
The second part of the presentation was about our own project, which was introduced by team member Yutian Zhou. He illustrated how we could integrate detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions into one system. Then he explained how each parts worked using a simplified way. Also, he put emphasis on how we can ensure that the system is safe and effective, further proving the importance of practicality of synthetic biology.
After the presentation, we asked our classmates how they felt about this presentation, the replies were satisfying. Besides, several students expressed great interests on synthetic biology.
Presentation at Beijing 21st Century International School
On September 18th, after organizing all grade 10th students, we did a presentation to introduce synthetic biology and our project in the lecture hall at 21st Century International School.
The first part of the presentation was to introduce synthetic biology and its history of development. A video was played at the beginning in order to avoid the presentation being tedious and unattractive to audiences. Then, our instructor Xinyu Liu began the introduction part. Attracted by the topic and the huge possibilities synthetic biology has in the future, the students participated in the presentation actively.
Besides just introducing the mechanisms behind synthetic biology, team member Tianhe Wu later introduced his own understanding of our project. He emphasized the importance of concerning the practical use when doing experiments, showing students that synthetic biology is not merely about experiment or research but also includes how people can use biological methods to address problems.
The last part of the presentation was about our own project, which was introduced by team member Hongyu Yu. He illustrated how we could integrate detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions into one system. Also, he put emphasis on how we can ensure that the system is safe and effective, further proving the importance of practicality of synthetic biology.
After the presentation, several students expressed great interests on synthetic biology, proving that our presentation gave students a basic understanding of synthetic biology and facilitated some of them to discuss this topic with others, expanding the influence of the presentation.
Workshop at Dulwich College Beijing
We have also reached our steps of public education toward the international community. Dulwich College Beijing, an international school, is the perfect choice to convey our message to students from different national backgrounds. On September 23rd, we have made an interactive workshop with grade 8 students at DCB.
We started by asking them what they think the word "synthetic biology" means. Everybody gave different answers. But when we mentioned some of the examples that this field has brought us and the great potential it has, the students were instantly drawn into the discussion. After explaining some basic mechanisms, we allowed them to think about what they like to create with the technology. The responses were surprising: much thought of real-life applications like plastic-degradation or medicine production. From that, we can see how eager they are to make a difference using their creativity.
We then introduced iGEM and our team, including the mechanism of our project. After that, we let them operate on the PCR machines, micropipettes, and electrophoresis tanks (a special benefit for doing presentations with smaller groups of the audience). They were very interested in touching this professional equipment. We hope that this experience will spark their passion toward the field of biology.
Presentation at Shandong Experimental High school
On 10/16/2019, our team member in Shandong Experimental High School organized a presentation about this competition and synthetic biology.
We started our presentation by debating with recent synthetic biology breakthroughs. Then, we started introducing our team's project that how to use edited bacteria to absorb heavy mental and reuse them. As the presentation getting through, the audience began to be curious and confused about how technology can edit living's genes and their looks.
As a result, we changed our content of presentation from showing what our E.coli could do to introducing basic principles or experiments of synthetic biology--PCR, Golden Gate, Electrophoresis, etc. Since we introduced those basics, they began to enjoy this presentation instead of being confused. The audience gradually into this presentation and even gave our team some practical advice or help: adding some bricks or offering us places to testify to our bacteria.
Finally, after introducing those of lecture, we invited our audience to go to our school's lab and assisted use equipment in person that inspired them a lot: some of them even like to participate in iGEM in 2020.
