Public Engagement

Our team has had a steep learning curve throughout this project. With the support of a local university with experiment facilities and guidance, and alumni pursuing higher degrees in biochemistry and synthetic biology around the world, we have had the opportunity to learn the theory and practice in this area. In returning, we have also carried out various education-related activities, which related to the scientific research, such as collecting first-hand information from our daily life about the problems we are facing, promoting science to people with different backgrounds, fundraising for the research project, and collaborating with others to work on the similar topics. This section summarizes our Outreach Education activities.

Visit Macao Government Department - Education and Youth Affairs Bureau

8/30/2019

Our team visited the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of Macao Government. As we are the first high school team in Macau participating in the iGEM competition, we delivered a brief introduction to the iGEM competition and presented our project to the senior officials of the Bureau. The officials were impressed that the iGEM competition is a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary activity. They appreciated our topic about degrading EDCs, which cause environmental problems and diseases. We also had some discussions with the policymakers about science education and research in Macau. We appreciate the support and encouragement from the Bureau, which includes aiding us in delivering presentations to schools, giving us advice on participating in international educational competitions and financial sponsor.

Consult Macao Government Department - Health Bureau

8/19/2019

In order to know the local laws about genetic engineering, we contacted the Health Bureau in August 2019, asking some relative laws which would be associated with our research. We then received a reply regarding the current laws restricting the application of Gene Therapy or similar means of Bio-therapy. Also, they analyzed the reasons for establishing these laws, therefore informed us about the potential ethical and moral problems with applying such bleeding-edge medical treatment. Furthermore, they notified us of the situations in other developed countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America, concerning Gene Therapy.

Visit to Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Fundation

6/21/2019

The aim of the Foundation is to promote, develop and finance socially beneficial, educational, academic, economical, charitable, cultural, recreational, athletic, scientific and technological research activities. Our group has the opportunity to present our project to the management of the Foundation. We have some fruitful discussion after the presentation about funding application for school research project.

Visit Macao Science and Artificial Intelligence Education Association

8/27/2019

We visited the Chairperson and members of Macao Science and Artificial Intelligent Education Association of Macau. We made a presentation on iGEM and our project during the visit. The Chairperson and some of the members of the Association were experts in scientific research. They gave us many valuable comments and suggestions, from our research methodology, validation of our experiment results, suggestions to relate our research topic to the local situation, possible extension of the research, to presentation skills for experts/layman and even fundraising skills for the scientific research project. We also had some discussion on pursuing a research career for Macau students. We thank you for the Association for sponsoring the team T-shirts."

Science fair at primary school & presentation to secondary and primary school students

6/22/2019

In a sunny afternoon before school break for summer holiday, our team participates a science fair at a primary school. Through the poster and games, we deliver the message of environmental protection and a brief introduction of iGEM. This is also one of our fundraising activities for our project. Thank you for the supports of the parents of kindergarten to primary students.

9/23/2019

We made a presentation to the junior secondary school students. We briefly introduced what is iGEM and what we do in our project. We focused on promoting the concept of synthetic biology and the experiments we were doing. There was a quiz section after the presentation, the students answered the questions very well.

9/30/2019

After the presentation we delivered earlier to secondary students, we had another section of presentation to primary students. In this presentation, we refined our presentation materials. We had more slides on water pollutionand environment protection, what we can do to save the environment, and briefly about the concept of our research topic. Again, the students did very well in the quiz section before we completed our presentation.

Presentation to local entrepreneur

6/23/2019

We have a presentation to a local entrepreneur, Mr. Fung, who is interested in promoting environmental protection and education in Macau. This is our first presentation about our project to a non-science background audience. We introduce the background of iGEM and our research on water treatment. This is a good experience for us to present how our project is linked to daily life. We also thank Mr. Fung for his generosity for sponsoring our registration fee of the Giant Jamboree.

Team:PuiChing Macau/Public Engagement