Team:NEU CHINA/Public Engagement

HP_Education&Public Engagement

HP

Education&Public Engagement

To strengthen publicity and acquaint them with IBD as well as synthetic biology, we deliver public speeches at schools and via social media, which have attracted numerous people (Fig. 1).

Public speeches & Propaganda

We set up a Talent Project, aiming at educating high school students and to cultivate their interests in synthetic biology (Fig. 2).

Talent Project

Rubik’s Cube Wall

We cooperated with the NEU Rubik’s Cube Association, using 200 Rubik’s Cube to build a wall with iGEM pattern. We hope that by collaborating with other organizations and institutions, more people can involve in iGEM from various kinds of approaches (Fig. 3).

We used each block of the 3*3*3 as a pixel to construct various patterns, such as the iGEM’s logo, the emblem of our team, the name of our team and so on. Students participated in building the wall not only participated in their hobbies, but also had a basic understanding of our project. What’s more, the Rubik Wall has become a landmark in our school, with numerous students and teachers taking photographs every day. By cooperating with other organizations and institutions, we hope to propagandize our project in various ways, in order that IBD as well as synthetic biology can arouse more attention of our society.

Lab workshop

We opened our laboratory to freshmen, during which we organized a workshop on petri plate painting (Fig. 4 And Fig. 5).

While showing the freshmen around the laboratory, we introduced some of the experimental apparatus to them. Some of them were encouraged by our explanations and showed great interests to try the experiments themselves. The participants were asked to divide into groups, which should consist of senior biology student, ensuring that no technique problems for culturing bacteria might be occurred. They did an excellent job and their masterpiece was displayed in the hall of our building.

This activity is well received due to following feedback:

▪ It provided the students a chance to demonstrate what they learned and explained them.

▪ It was a good opportunity for the students from other colleges to learn some basic biological knowledge which was easy to accept, so that the knowledge can be popularized among undergraduate.

Drug Recycling Station

We opened our laboratory to freshmen, during which we organized a workshop on petri plate painting.

We heard some students around us complaining about the expired drugs piling in the dormitory. This gave us an inspiration to establish a Drug Recycling Station (Fig. 6), which located in the main teaching building. It wasn’t long before our action spread among the individuals in the university and numerous students began to join us for the recycle project (Fig. 7). The expired drugs were collected once a month, after which they will be sent to the local processing department.

From the conversation with the staff in the department, we recognized that the procedures of waste drug disposal are fairly complex. On the one hand, the chemical drugs are not easy to degrade. On the other hand, the substances that decomposed were toxic and not friendly to the environment, which may increase people’s health risks.

The disadvantages that chemical medicine reflects strengthen our determination to create a biological agent for our treatment, which is easier to degrade by utilizing some enzymes. However, what we should pay attention to prevent the leakage problems of the bacteria.

Promotional cartoons

A comic was drawn to illustrate the mechanism of our project as well as synthetic biology. The story made it an easier way for people to understand, which combines to the publicity. It was put up in the bulletin board in the campus, attracting students and teachers who do not major in biology.

Digital game

We designed a digital game in order to draw attraction from more people, ranging from children, teenagers and adults. People fall in love with this game immediately, which is not only scientific, but also rich of entertaining. This game has won excellent appraisal among the public around us.

Apart from optimizing our project, we also devoted to innovating methods of education, so as to figure out the most understandable ways. We combined the traditional form of education with other diversified forms, including entertainments ,workshops and so on. These methods, which were both interesting and scientific, have effectively enlarged the participation of different ages.

Figure 1. The photo of public speeches about our “gut firemen” project.

Figure 2. The photo of team member is teaching the knowledge of synthetic biology to high school students.

Synthetic biology is a new subject in the 21st century. It is widely known that it has played a very important role in some areas, such as industrial production, pharmaceutical manufacturing etc. Our team expects more people, especially students, involved in this subject. Therefore, the Talent Project was established and we selected four students from this high school to participate in this project. On the basis of their existing knowledge, we introduced something of synthetic biology while guiding them to do several basic experimental operations. Through Talent Project, we hope that more teenagers can pay attention to the development of synthetic biology, and with their knowledge, to open up a bright future.

We got several feedbacks from the project. The teenagers had broadened their horizon as well as cultivated their interests in synthetic biology, but some of the knowledge was too difficult for them to understand. They advised us on combining with various practical and experimental activities so that it can be more attracting.

The video below demonstrates the feedback as well as the meaning for the Talent Project.