Team:SIS Korea/Introduction
Introduction
While biological or engineered solutions are crucial in solving environmental problems, the social aspect of these solutions should not be overlooked. In addition to experimenting with the PETase enzymes and E. Coli, our team realized that raising awareness about the plastic epidemic to the general public is equally as important in order to be able to garner public support and spread the idea that the biological solutions that we were working on are necessary in order to preserve the world. In order to achieve such goals, we first made sure we had the necessary knowledge about plastic to teach others by interviewing professionals, learning from environmental groups (iCOOP), and having discussions on how to minimize the negative impact of plastic.
Our group interviewed many professionals to gain further depth in our knowledge of the experiment and effects. In total, we had interviewed five people ranging from researchers who conducted very similar experiments as us and people who are very passionate about resolving the plastic epidemic in society today. Overall, our team interviewed a number of experts in the field to gain a better understanding of not only our solution’s strengths, weaknesses, etc. but also other potential issues and ideas that are relevant to our project as well.
“iCOOP (자연드림)”, an environmental group in Korea, informed us about general knowledge on plastic and how current trends were shifting to the worse. By having multiple educational sessions with the volunteer workers, we were able to verify our current understanding of plastic and notice a difference between the explanation of plastic issues written on documents and that of actual experiences of volunteers.
Finally, before we started informing others about this issue, we had frequent discussions with each other about who our target audience will be, what we were planning on sharing with them, and how we were going to deliver that message successfully. After many hours of discussion, we decided to educate the next generation about the increasing dangers of the plastic epidemic and initiate street campaigns for further awareness.
Now that we knew we had verified our knowledge and gained a deeper understanding of plastic, we worked on in-school education about the plastic epidemic to students, collaborated with a tourist center, and initiated street campaigns subjected to the pedestrians on the streets.
The in-school education was conducted on three levels: kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. The educational content focused on the basics of what plastic is and how exactly plastic affects the ecosystem and, eventually, human beings too. We attempted to discuss not only the issue but potential solutions as well. Through our educational presentations to all three age groups, we were able to identify how well the next generation was informed about plastic and its devastating effects, allowing us to further educate them about necessary details that they were lacking. We wished to educate others, very much like us, into understanding the importance of resolving the plastic epidemic. At the end of each presentation, we included a description of the project we are participating in and how it can combat the plastic epidemic, in terms suitable to the audiences we were presenting to.
The public campaigns were held both in our school (SIS) and Chiri National Park. For our school campaign, which was conducted throughout a full week, was composed of holding surveys about the public perception about the plastic epidemic and further educating passing students on the subject. We even distributed eco-friendly items such as corn straws for free. In our public campaign, we interviewed and educated passing people regarding our topic and project at Chiri National Park. Chiri Mountain is a popular wildlife tourist attraction in Korea due to the variety of life forms inhabiting it. In order to reduce plastic waste that may potentially harm the creatures native to the mountain, we collaborated with Chiri Tourist Hotel to prevent tourists from irresponsibly throwing away plastic waste and raise awareness about the plastic epidemic. With the Zero Plastic reward service, a service that allows tourists to save up points by participating in plastic reduction activities and purchase eco-friendly products, we handed out pamphlets containing information about the severeness of current plastic situations and our solution to this epidemic. As such, our team employed a multitude of methods to raise awareness regarding the dangerous effects of plastic and garner support for our project.
