Team:UESTC-China/Public Engagement
Dance music for the elderly
- don't eat expired drugs
“Education has never been for young people only!”
Don’t use expired drugs
- 蓝蓝的天上 飘着云彩
Clouds flowing in the clear sky - 家庭药箱查起来
Check up family medical box - 一张张药品说明书打开
Read instructions again and again - 用法用量别乱猜
Stop guessing usage and dosage - 生产日期过了多少载
How long has it taken since production date - 药品过期好无奈
Have no ideas with medicine expiry - 以为保质期在遥远未来
Remember shelf life were in the distant future - 不小心忘了它的存在
Forget it because of the distant future - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药品变质伤身是一种煎熬
It’s painful and unhealthy to use expired drugs - 治疗效果弱 要买的药不会少
How slight the treating effect, how many the drugs need to buy - 赔了夫人又折兵 令人烦躁
Losing money and health, so agitated to you - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药品变质伤身是一种煎熬
It’s painful and unhealthy to use expired drugs - 以为能省钱 却让身体更糟糕
Expect to save money, but have worse body - 新病问诊多开销 只能嚎啕
Do nothing but crying for another spending on seeing doctor - 蓝蓝的天上 飘着云彩
Clouds flowing in the clear sky - 过期药也有人买
There are people buying expired drugs - 药贩子说着回收奉献爱
Vendors claimed they want to recycle drugs and donate - 其实只想高价转卖
They want to sell them again in different packing in fact - 随意丢弃药品是很快
It’s convenient to throw drugs away - 废药渗漏却很坏
It’s harmful if drugs leak out - 倒入内河或直接地下埋
Directly pouring drugs into rivers or burying under ground - 污染环境十分有害
So noxious to pollute environment - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药进入食物网是一种纷扰
How panic if expired drugs accumulate in food chain - 耐药性屡增 能用的药又变少
Stronger resistance and less drugs can be used - 下次生病怎么治 真是苦恼
How to cure you next time is a trouble - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药进入食物网是一种纷扰
How panic if expired drugs accumulate in food chain - 属有害垃圾 还应回收再分类
Expired drugs are hazardous waste and need recycled and resorted - 莫等超级菌现身 再说后悔
Don’t wait any more or express regret to super bacteria. - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药进入食物网是一种纷扰
How panic if expired drugs accumulate in food chain - 耐药性屡增 能用的药又变少
Stronger resistance and less drugs can be used - 下次生病怎么治 真是苦恼
How to cure you next time is a trouble - 别用过期药 你别用过期药
Don’t use expired drugs, don’t use expired drugs - 过期药进入食物网是一种纷扰
How panic if expired drugs accumulate in food chain - 属有害垃圾 还应回收再分类
Expired drugs are hazardous waste and need recycled and resorted - 莫等超级菌现身 再说后悔
Don’t wait any more or express regret to super bacteria.
In the process of analyzing the questionnaire, we found that the elderly is the largest group of expired drug use, and their medication habits have greatly affected the store and treatment of expired drugs in the family. (Supplemental data analysis) Therefore, it is very important to popularize expired drug knowledge for the elderly. After seeing that the elderly are the main audience of the project, We started from the most popular entertainment activities for the elderly in China – the square dance, and adapted a square dance with new lyrics to promote the danger of expired drugs.
Preliminary preparation
In order to better grasp the music preferences of the elderly, we went to the square nearby to conduct field research by dancing with the old people and chatting with them during the break. We expect to understand their requirements for the square dance soundtrack and the views for our project. After a while, we learned that the old people generally like the square dance soundtrack with rhythm and melody. The old people told us that the dance movements are arranged according to the rhythm of the soundtrack. They were afraid of forgetting movements with a new song. Therefore, we decided to use the original soundtrack, combine with the knowledge of expired drugs to re-fill the words, reduce the burden on the old people and improve the acceptance of new songs by the old people.
Adaptation process
Due to the uncertainty of the old people's acceptance of new songs, we decided to select the most enviable "Envy and hate" to adapt first, and then took the old people's suggestions into account to adapt other songs. In order to make the lyrics catchy and meet the preferences of the old people, our new lyrics have been rhyming. The adapted song was sung by our team member, Liao Xingyu.
Subsequent feedback
The old people welcomed our adapted songs. After dancing in the new music, they said that new lyrics fit the square dance. After the break, many old people came to ask us about the meaning of the lyrics and tried to understand the details of the classification and recycling of expired drugs. At the same time, some elderly people have put forward their own suggestions for the design of our devices. For example, the warning signs of the devices can be larger, and the old people are also looking forward to more knowledge about the classification of garbage and drugs.
With the rapid development of modern society, there is still a lot of knowledge that needs to be popularized with the old people. We believe that the popularization of knowledge by using the square dance song lyrics as a carrier can make old people more deeply impressed, more understandable and easier to understand. We plan to continue to animate other song lyrics as anti-fraud, anti-theft, and use of electrical specifications.
Children's Day Adventure
- Exploring Synthetic Biology
"Plant seeds of synthetic biology in the hearts of children!"
Together with UESTC-Software and students from the University of Hong Kong, we brought a big children's day adventure to children in the Science and Technology Museum of Sichuan Province - Exploring Synthetic Biology. We performed a children's stage play "The Case of the Ciprofloxacin Kingdom" based on our project in the Science Theatre. We did a science lecture on synthetic biology, carried out pH detection, creatures painting, leaf bookmarks making and leaves stickers. These interesting activities conveyed the charm of biology to children. The children and parents responded enthusiastically, both of whom expressed a new understanding of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. What’s more, we buried a synthetic biology seed in the hearts of children.
At the end of the performance, we conducted on-site Q&A on the content of the play. The children answered the question such as “Why is the photodegradation method not available?” and “What is the key role in the degradation of ciprofloxacin in the sewage?” actively and correctly. The best proof was that we have successfully introduced our projects promoted iGEM, and popularized synthetic biology.
In the process of participating in the event, many parents were curious about our project. After the explanation, they praised our thoughts, and some parents also asked us about the genetic modification.
Science Little Theater
In order to let children and parents learn about our iGEM project more quickly, we chose to use our play to present our project to parents and children. We set the story in a fictional ciprofloxacin kingdom. This kingdom had close cooperation with humans around the export trade of ciprofloxacin. It suited ciprofloxacin in the fields of human medical care and aquaculture. There was a rebellion inside the ciprofloxacin kingdom. The Duke led the rebels to flee the sewage kingdom and lived in the microbial estate. It was said that the untreated wastewater contains ciprofloxacin which is easy to bind to microorganisms, making the microorganisms gradually resistant. The environment and human health pose great risks.
In order to make the main line of the story easy to understand, we extracted and simplified the main line of the project as the story core based on the accurate introduction of the project. We combined the functions and characteristics of E. coli, fluorescent protein, promoter and CrpP enzyme as roles, and wrote the story stickers. Every movement of the rebels and the army can find the principle based on synthetic biology, and it corresponds one-to-one in the experiment. In this way, we let children remember the characteristics and functions of many genes in the subtle way, let the children understand the practice of our project without knowing it, and better promote the biology of synthetic biology. Knowledge makes the public more explicit about the abuse of antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin. At the end of the performance, we conducted on-the-spot quiz questions on the content of the play. The children answered actively and correctly.
"Green Water Green Hills, We Are in Action" Lecture
We invited Professor Tang Lixia from the School of Life Science and Technology of the University of Electronic Science and Technology to give a lecture on the topic of synthetic biology entitled “Green Water, Green Mountain, We Are In Action”. Professor Tang’s lecture began with the common tea cups and coke cans around us, exposing the seriousness of the modern social environment and causing the children’s thinking. Afterwards, the comics are used as a carrier to introduce the children in easy-to-understand language. The concept of synthetic biology and its application in environmental adjustment. Professor Tang used the in-depth lectures to lead the children to appreciate the charm of synthetic biology, to spread the seeds of synthetic biology in the hearts of children, and prove the children that science is not a distant and sacred field, it is around us. It is easy to understand it.
Click here to learn about Professor Tang Lixia
Interesting experiment
We also carried out interesting experiment activities such as pH detection, creatures painting, leaf bookmarks making and leaf stickers. These experiments are easy and funny to operated. The results of activities can be taken home as souvenirs, which are very suitable for children aged 6-12. In these fun activities, the children gradually had a knowledge of basic steps of pH detection, learned the difference between structures of the unisexual and bisexual flowers, recycled the leaves, and fully utilized their imagination to make artworks with personal characteristics. They could understand the beauty of nature and felt the wonder of biology.
pH detection
The pH detection experiment let the children know the concept and use of the pH, have a preliminary understanding of acid and alkali and have a general understanding of the acidity and alkalinity of commonly used liquids. At the same time, this gives children the opportunity to experience experiments from an early age, which can cultivate their interest on science and experiment.
Creature painting
This activity fully stimulated the children's imagination. They were bold in color matching, and their whimsy were fully displayed on paper. In addition, this activity started with introducing the biological structure of common flowers around us to children. In life, if they saw a flower, they would ask others "what’s this", but often did not remember to ask the structure and characteristics of this flower. This activity helped children develop an inquiry spirit of asking more “why”-questions when facing ordinary things.
Leaf bookmark making
The well-made leaf bookmarks could be taken home, because they were made by children themselves, and the bookmarks were especially memorable. The activity let children get close to nature and feel the beauty of nature, so that they can cherish and protect nature and say "no" to the pollutants that destroy nature.
Leaf stickers
The activity showed that combining ordinary things in different ways will have different performances. For example, our project used E. coli as a carrier to combine genes with different functions to work together to solve pollution problem. This was also an opportunity to vividly convey the meaning of the word "synthetic" in “synthetic biology” to the children: connecting genes into networks, commanding cells to accomplish the tasks envisioned by the designers.
