Team:iBowu-China/Public Engagement
Mutual learning and engagement are considered essential. Driven by the desire of solving social issues relating to our projects, we arranged various activities and tried to engage as many people in synthetic biology, and aspects derived from our project as possible. To resolve issues observed ealier in other human practices activities, we bridged our project to the society, where relationships and connections from one to another are constantly exhibited.
We divided public engagement into four parts, and target groups of our project including children, researchers, farmers, and the general public respectively. For the children group, we held an interactive lecture at Peking Primary School on synthetic biology to provide them with opportunities to learn about cutting-edge technologies. The children seldom had access to relevant knowledge, and this learning experience was very valuable to them. We believed this lecture would encourage them go further in the journey of science. To advocate the importance of application of synthetic biology in agriculture, we presented at the 3M international Nano conference and showed our ideas to the professors in different fields, and they expressed strong interests in our innovative cell-free system approach. Furthermore, we have produced a handbook for farmers to raise their awareness of the appropriate uses of chemical pesticides. Moreover, to engage the general public, we created our own potato recipe booklet to publicize benefits of eating potatoes, meanwhile, we also introduced some knowledge about synthetic biology to them. In addition, we joined a charity related to potato sales, which funds for children’s education in Daliang mountain.
Vision: To advocate for the public to consume more potatoes and focus more on agricultural problems
During the interview with Mr. Haiyong Wang, the Deputy Director of the Health Risk Assessment and Control Committee of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and the Director of the Public Relations Department of the Beijing Municipal Medical Examination Center, we learned about the benefits of having potatoes as a main source staple food, for example quoting from Mr. Wang: “Potatoes have positive effects on the treatment of diabetes. Potatoes are also highly nutritious, low-energy foods that are good for weight loss.” However, according to our questionnaire results, the majority of participants are unaware of these benefits. Therefore, we decided to produce our own potato recipe booklet, a guide that is written from the viewpoint of a potato to make the contents very entertaining and easy to understand. The cookbook focuses on promoting the nutritional values of potatoes and the different ways that potatoes can be cooked. Fun facts about potatoes are also included to engage younger readers.
In order to produce the best outcome of the recipes, for example to make sure that each dishes are both healthy and easy to make, we experimented extensively with different recipes. After countless trials and substantial amounts of efforts, we finalized the cookbook with the 10 most successful potato dishes we made. After the cooking the dishes, we took photos of them and these pictures are being put into the recipe, a 26-page publication. The 10 dishes were made from recipes found in both western and eastern cultures, therefore they can be accepted by populations from various ethnical backgrounds. Furthermore, we intend that the users of this cookbook can experience a fusion of cuisines that are different from their daily cooking but all made by potatoes, that indicate the diversity of this specific crop. After publishing the cookbook and promoting it in via popular social media platforms such as Wechat, we obtained positive feedback from many viewers, who told us that they were motivated by our recipes and are starting to understand the beneficial factors of potatoes now that they are trying to make the various potato dishes in the cookbook.
Apart from promoting the nutritional values of potatoes via the cookbook, we also publicized the concept of synthetic biology and bacterial potato diseases in the book, because we believe that if the cookbook is a successful product, then the ideas in the book will also be accepted by the readers. Therefore, this indicates that we are able to establish a broad platform to promote our project and the idea of sustainable farming, which is the base of this entire process. Additionally, we believe that synthetic biology is a subject for everyone, but not everyone understands the concepts behind it; we then implemented public engagement programs at different stages of the project.
Vision: To provide the less fortunate with education opportunities.
Our team helped the MaKa primary school and the SiYa primary school located in the Daliang mountains of SiChuan province, China by purchasing potatoes grown by the children there and publicizing the charity program.
As an area inhabited by the Yi people, the Daliang mountains are isolated from the rest of the world due to lack of infrastructure. Education and child labor have been the main focus of social concern regarding this area in the past decade. The majority of local residents in the Daliang mountains are currently suffering from extreme poverty. For us, potato may just be an ordinary food; but for the children of the daliang mountains, potatoes are the main source of both food and financial support for most of the families. They need to finish sowing and harvesting by themselves even in extreme weathers, since potatoes are not only their food source for almost every meal, but also their only way to sustain their livelihood. Since our project was highly relevant to the situation of the children dwelling in Daliang mountain, we decided to do the best we can to help them.
We then actively participated in the ‘Dream Daliang Mountain’ program where potatoes grown by children in Daliang mountain are sold, with the profits invested in the 2019-2020 school year "sunshine nutrition project" breakfast and lunch program aimed to provide breakfast and lunch at school to the children there.
Vision: To encourage children to approach science and develop a scientific way of thinking
We held an interactive lecture at the Peking Primary school to the sixth graders there, during which we turned difficult genetics concepts into simple and understandable language. We feel that in primary schools, the students do not get enough opportunities to explore the world of science. From the responses of the teachers working at the school, the lecture was well received and paved a potential path for the young students to engage with the subject more in the future.
Notably, after the session ended, many students demonstrated strong interests in the study of science and stayed even longer to discuss the topic further with us. The discussions ranged from the existence of alien creatures to different interpretations of evolution (modern synthetic evolutionary theory). We were all very impressed by both the level of understanding shown and their thirst for knowledge. We believe that this lecture, as an inspiration, will encourage them to go further in the journey of science.
Vision: To prompt scientists to realize the importance of synthetic biology and agricultural development.
Two of our members, Jiayi Li and Ian Liu, were invited to the 2019 IEEE international Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale, held in ZhenJiang in August. The goal of presenting our project at this conference is to bridge the gap between nanosciences and engineering sciences, as we aim toward technological opportunities and advocate researchers to focus more on synthetic biology, a subject we deem to have a great potential for various developments and applications.
Going into the conference, we knew that agriculture and environment was not a very popular research focus among scientists compared to medicine. However, agricultural and environmental research can be just as impactful on our society as medical research, partly because it affects our everyday consumption and intake of food. This particular impact can be observed through the increasing focus on the different types of organic food. Therefore, we wanted to promote future development in synthetic biology specifically regarding applications in agriculture where researchers would focus on solving problems related to farming (Soft rot disease is considered one).
As many of the professors viewing our presentation does not work in the field of biological sciences, we introduced our project under the concept ‘future farming’, allowing the idea of developing a non-contaminating biocontrol method of Soft Rot disease to be easily understood by those without a synthetic biological background. Linking our detection and treatment methods to great prospects of the future, we demonstrated the importance of sustainable farming coupled with environmentally friendly bactericide tools.
The presentation was exceptionally successful, as we gained a great amount of attention from researchers working in different fields (especially researchers who focus on synthetic and molecular biology). Through the feedback we received after our presentation, we identified other major problems in this field, including bacterial wilt and Blackleg Disease in potatoes. In addition, several professors attending the conference were particularly interested in our approach to avoid contamination, the cell-free system. After the session, we further discussed with them the mechanism involved in cell-free synthesis.
The conference was a great opportunity for increasing the publicity of both our project and bacterial Soft Rot, as well as the importance of synthetic biology.
Driven from problems reported by Mr.Lu at our visit to potato center Asia-Pacific headquarter, we realized that one major cause of unhealthy crops is the inappropriate or overuse of chemical pesticides. Most of the farmers are not well-trained and therefore, do not have an idea about the best way to spray pesticides that is optimal to their plant growth.
After discussions, our team has come up with the idea of producing a handbook for farmers and other people who are interested in farming (such as people who have a yard or garden in their house), to advocate a proper use of pesticides that is both beneficial to their crop yield and environmentally sustainable. Besides, precautions are listed to prevent farmers’ skin and other parts of the body from being irritated by chemicals in pesticides.
This handbook does not only publicize the importance of ‘Correctly’ spraying pesticides, but also promotes the concept ‘Bio-pesticides ’ and ‘Bio-control’ of plant diseases such as soft rot. This is because, from the responses of the questionnaire we sent out earlier, most people are unaware of the syn-bio approaches to disease treatment and detection. Therefore, the handbook would allow different stakeholders to get an overview of the background of our project, as well as the appropriate uses of pesticides.