Education
Overview
To include more people in participating in work in synthetic biology and promote both iGEM and us in the local community,
we made efforts in education, propaganda, and a board game.
Education-From elementary school to undergraduates
Video
At the very beginning of our project, we came up with an idea of making a promotional video for the children and teenagers.
Considering they may not know much about synthetic biology or even biology, we made our video uncomplicated and cute,
only want to encourage them to step in and explore by themselves. We believe it's the best way to appeal to an amateur.
Teenagers, especially kids, love cartoons. Through our fascinating video, the children not only gained happiness but also increased their biological knowledge. We contacted the Bureau of Education of Yongji County, Jilin City, Jilin Province, hoping that we could play our video in a primary school. They are pleased with our idea and speak highly of our popular science work. Then our video was permitted to be played in all of the schools there. The influence was beyond our expectation, and the pupils and junior students were indeed stimulated by the marvel world of synthetic biology.
How do we say that? The teachers there mailed us, retelling several questions; for example, in the first edition of our video, we simply implant the "Fragrant Gene" and complete the workflow, which is inaccurate. Some students were confused if that's all we need to perform synthesis. We then replied, answering the question, and modified our video. We regard such positive feedback as our success in the effort of education towards the youngers.
Teenagers, especially kids, love cartoons. Through our fascinating video, the children not only gained happiness but also increased their biological knowledge. We contacted the Bureau of Education of Yongji County, Jilin City, Jilin Province, hoping that we could play our video in a primary school. They are pleased with our idea and speak highly of our popular science work. Then our video was permitted to be played in all of the schools there. The influence was beyond our expectation, and the pupils and junior students were indeed stimulated by the marvel world of synthetic biology.
How do we say that? The teachers there mailed us, retelling several questions; for example, in the first edition of our video, we simply implant the "Fragrant Gene" and complete the workflow, which is inaccurate. Some students were confused if that's all we need to perform synthesis. We then replied, answering the question, and modified our video. We regard such positive feedback as our success in the effort of education towards the youngers.
Lesson
Besides this, we also planned to promote synthetic biology to high school students.
For sure, the video we made seems too simple to them, so we decided to present them a lecture, namely, a lesson.
Back to his alma mater, our biology team leader Suyang Zhong gave his junior students a speech about biology and synthetic biology.
According to the biology teacher, current students prefer to spend more time studying math or physics. Though they are indeed the basis of biology, it's also true that they are more likely to choose other majors after going to college.
In the lecture, we first introduced the fantastic biology world. Then we elaborated on what is synthetic biology about and what is iGEM Foundation. Of course, we propaganda our team and our project. They listened carefully, seemed that we had Ignited their passion for biology. And we sincerely hope these potential students can join us, becoming the future generation of iGEMers.
According to the biology teacher, current students prefer to spend more time studying math or physics. Though they are indeed the basis of biology, it's also true that they are more likely to choose other majors after going to college.
In the lecture, we first introduced the fantastic biology world. Then we elaborated on what is synthetic biology about and what is iGEM Foundation. Of course, we propaganda our team and our project. They listened carefully, seemed that we had Ignited their passion for biology. And we sincerely hope these potential students can join us, becoming the future generation of iGEMers.
Meeting
Our university has made significant achievements in physics and math, and we have plenty of undergraduates majoring in them. However,
we found our mates knew little about synthetic biology and iGEM. Therefore, Team USTC and we held a meeting in our university to
popularize synthetic biology and present our projects to the entire school, trying to absorb new force.
In our meeting room, students, namely, our potential iGEMers from all kinds of majors, listened carefully. We told them what is synthetic biology in detail, like how a synthetic biologist works, and what we have acquired during this year's project. They are deeply fascinated by the world of synthetic biology that we described. During our Q&A time, they asked many questions and were eager to know what do they need to join us. We were surprised by their enthusiasm, and it seems that we successfully intrigued more people participating in synthetic biology.
In our meeting room, students, namely, our potential iGEMers from all kinds of majors, listened carefully. We told them what is synthetic biology in detail, like how a synthetic biologist works, and what we have acquired during this year's project. They are deeply fascinated by the world of synthetic biology that we described. During our Q&A time, they asked many questions and were eager to know what do they need to join us. We were surprised by their enthusiasm, and it seems that we successfully intrigued more people participating in synthetic biology.