Public Engagement And 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.
Public Engagement
USTC-interesting Synthetic Transaction and Cooperation
In order to promote public awareness of synthetic biology and introduce its basic ideas to the laymen,
our team is devoted to the development of a board game which aims at instructing non-biologists to
understand
what biobricks can do and how can we use them to make new things.
As games have become a significant part of our spare time, and most youngsters would rather play games to have fun. We consider it a perfect opportunity to introduce synthetic biology to them.
To attract more people without such background to be interested in this area, we develop this board game specially designed for synthetic biology. In this game, even laymen can have fun. We greatly weakened the hardcore and annoying part of synthetic biology when we keep the main idea of it.
Still want to know more? Click Here.
As games have become a significant part of our spare time, and most youngsters would rather play games to have fun. We consider it a perfect opportunity to introduce synthetic biology to them.
To attract more people without such background to be interested in this area, we develop this board game specially designed for synthetic biology. In this game, even laymen can have fun. We greatly weakened the hardcore and annoying part of synthetic biology when we keep the main idea of it.
Card Game
Still want to know more? Click Here.
USTC1958 Café
In our broader community, there's a café called USTC1958, which is the highest rating café in Hefei,
according to the internet. We consider it a great way to interact with them. They may add color to our
project while we can add new elements for them.
Talking with the café owner, she spoke highly of our projects and enthusiasm, and also showed great
interest in
synthetic biology. As an attractive café owner, she provided brilliant suggestions for our team name,
logo, and
uniform. Since we don't have a teammate in the art relating majors, their advice had a great influence on
us.
Meanwhile, we gave an overview of synthetic biology to them. They were interested in it and willing to add some "synthetic" elements in the café. We offered to rendered our board game, which may help the customer kill time and subtly teach them some aspects of synthetic biology. Thus we can make complex scientific information flow into the community.
It's really marvelous that more and more people will start learning with games and coffee.
USTC1958 Cafe
Meanwhile, we gave an overview of synthetic biology to them. They were interested in it and willing to add some "synthetic" elements in the café. We offered to rendered our board game, which may help the customer kill time and subtly teach them some aspects of synthetic biology. Thus we can make complex scientific information flow into the community.
Having a chat in the cafe
Education
Video for kids
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.
Land on class
Concentrating in the class
Watching the iGEM videos
Propaganda biology
Lecture for teenagers
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.
Land on class
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.
Lesson
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.
Meeting
Conclusion
By presenting lectures at schools and introducing our project into the broader community, we are sure such
activities can help promote synthetic biology and iGEM. We interacted with many schools and successfully
promoted mutual learning and engagement. We also thought seriously about the difference between elementary
students and undergraduates, using different methods to promote synthetic biology instead of using only
one type of propaganda. Meanwhile, we made some efforts to collaborate with our broader community. We
talked with a popular café and introduced our project. Then we designed a syn-bio relating board game and
rendered them for their customers. No one can say no to coffee and games, and so do someone may love
biology. We're sure such activities can enable more people to contribute and participate in synthetic
biology. Our works are bitter like coffee, but the rewards are pleasant like board games.