Team:BHSF ND/Public Engagement
2019 IGEM BHSF_NDIndex
1. Overview
2. Social Media
3. Schools
5. Factory
7. Future
See More About
Collaborations
Human Practices
Public Engagement
Overview
Synthetic biology is a young subject with huge potential. However, public knowledge about this subject is quite limited. As iGEMers, we want to publicize synthetic biology to people on social media, our local neighborhood and schools around. Moreover, the managers of companies that use patented GMO microbes in production are not familiar with the latest synthetic biology research progress and good ways of dealing with problems associated with patent right. Therefore, we want to tell them better ways of dealing with such problems and the potential application of synthetic biology in production.
Social Media
In July and August, we started our public engagement on social media.
We aimed to make more people know what iGEM is like and raise their interest and passion on synthetic biology and iGEM. In order to do that, we showed them figures, videos and articles on Instagram that describes the daily life of iGEMers in many aspects like experiment, project design and public engagement or our project development. In the comments, some people said they finally know what iGEM was like after seeing our figures, some stated that they are starting to be interested in synthetic biology, and some people even decided they were willing to join iGEM next year. We also sent articles on micro-blog for people to know about our project and what iGEM is like. Our articles were very popular, over a million people read them.
Through sending figures, videos and articles on social media, we enlightened the public’ s passion on synthetic biology and iGEM. It was a good start of our public engagement.
Figure 1: our Instagram home page
Schools
Starting from September, we initiated surveys on how much middle school and high school students know about synthetic biology and patent right protection. We believe it’s necessary to spread such knowledge that we all need to deal with on research paper and academic writing in college and future work. The survey came out that most student do have a general knowledge on biology but not such relating specifically to synthetic biology. Moreover, students typically do not know about methods of protecting patent right and they come to realize the importance of it.
Seeing the results, we planned to bring lectures and activities to middle school students. On Sep 23rd, Mengwen and Jianing held an after-class lecture at Beijing No.4 High School International Campus. Students were very interested in our lectures; they asked a lot of creative questions such as how we can use the methods of synthetic biology to create a tree that can grow into a treehouse. Then, we showed them a game on synthetic biology we designed. The game is about using bio brick cards to build gene circuit models. From the game, the students learned the function of different bio bricks like GFP, promotor, and terminator, and they really enjoyed studying it.
Figure 2: giving lecture on synthetic biology to students in Beijing No.4 High School International Campus
Nursing House
With the success in middle school lectures, we decided to expand our audience within the neighborhood. We contacted the Jintaiyi Nursing Home to bring health and biology related information to the elders as well. We understand and respect their beliefs and culture, thus knowing that our lecture would focus more on the connection between synthetic biology and health science. We hope them to look at things from a scientific perspective and abandon untrustworthy rumors. The activity went well, all the seats were taken at the lecture and some even took down some notes. Realizing their passion in biology, we want the connection lasts longer. Firstly, we established long-term collaboration with Jintaiyi Nursing Home. We planned to bring them lectures about biology and health every other week. We want to keep their information up to date, being loved and cared, and know how they can live a happy and healthy life.
Figure 3: giving lecture on synthetic biology to elder citizens in Jintaiyi Nursing Home
Through engaging in public, the elder citizens obtained up to date information and a better social life; the high school student developed an interest in synthetic biology and a broader scope of knowledge; and we met more friends and became more skilled at popularizing science. iGEM is a community that helps everyone in many aspects. We learned to combine the needs of different people, learn from other’s strengths and take the initiative to present knowledge to the public, so that everyone can benefit from knowledge.
Factory
For the factory, we visited Bluepha and Yanjing Beer Co., Ltd. While discussing our experimental projects and improving their intellectual property protection systems; we also conducted science education in intellectual property with their employees and R&D personnel. We made related posters and promotional materials to help people in the factory understand what intellectual property is and why it is essential to companies and individuals. While we are doing science, we realize that most employees don't understand intellectual property rights, mainly because they are not suitable for IP disputes.
Figure 4:revealing specific processes that can be registered for patent
At the same time, we are also promoting intellectual property protection and how to use synthetic biology to effectively protect products on the network platform of more massive factories.
Public Promotion
We promote antibacterial biology and intellectual property protection in the bustling public spaces in Beijing. We introduce our project purpose and design to our strangers. For better public participation, we designed a lot of peripherals, such as postcards and bracelets, to give to people who listened to our projects.
After the first public display, we issued several knowledge loopholes. To better prepare for the next public science, we released our survey on China's largest social media, WeChat. After understanding the public's understanding of intellectual property and synthetic biology, we can target and implement the next public science.
Figure 5: revealing the public knowledge of the law about patent
In the next public science, we have improved our speaking skills over and over again. Our science results have been widely recognized and have increased exposure and impact for our projects.
Future
At school, we will develop iGEM clubs and be advisors or team leaders in future teams. We will also bring more lectures, activities, games, and fairs on synthetic biology and life science.
In nursing homes, we will bring more lectures and activities on synthetic biology and life science to the elder citizens.
For the general public, we are going to develop fairs that focus on synthetic biology and life science for them to understand basic ideas of synthetic biology. On the fair, there will be a variety of activities such as synthetic biology board games, easy synthetic biology experiments like extracting the DNA of plants and iGEM storytelling. We hope that other teams will also do these, and more people can know about synthetic biology.
Cartoon Drawings
To help promoting the life of iGEMers, synthetic biolgoy, and intellectual property, we drew several types of cartoons.
