Team:CCU Taiwan/Communication
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Public Engagement
We conducted several educational campaigns and collaborations to directly bring personal hygiene and superbug awareness to kids, hoping to give them at a young age accurate knowledge about using antibiotics and hygiene. With the interesting plot of The War on Germs, children can easily stay engaged and understand the scientific concepts.
Concordia (Xietong) Bilingual Kindergarten
Starting science communication at a young age, Concordia Preschool invited our team to share the picture book with their students. After communicating with the school, regrettably, the pandemic has not allowed us to bring the knowledge to campus ourselves. Eventually, we enlisted the help of zealous teachers, reading the book to their kids, providing physical copies for the future superbug fighters. The kids can learn about hygiene promotion while the teacher is reading the picture book, while the student who answers the teacher’s question can get the picture book as a prize.
Dong Rong Elementary School
Bringing the impact to the local community, Dong Rong Elementary School is a local elementary school in Chiayi County, Taiwan, where CCU is located. Their positive feedback and active engagement made the session meaningful by reading our picture book and interacting with second-grade students. At the end of the class, we asked the students to draw a picture of themselves fighting against the bacteria.
Collaborating with Non-profits
Teach for Taiwan (TFT)
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Teach for Taiwan (TFT) is a non-profit organization aiming to tackle educational inequality, committing to provide more resources for students who live in the rural areas to bridge the educational gaps in Taiwan. We collaborated with TFT teachers to educate the kids through science communication, for instance, teaching the students to distinguish the differences between bacteria and viruses. |
▲ Click this picture to watch the video of student's feedback
After reading the picture book, children draw these pictures imagining themselves fighting superbugs.
Consistent Children Care
“Consistent Children Care” a non-profit organization committed to providing long-term and consistent volunteer services, providing summer companionship and good influence to children from remote villages. We were striving to participate in their activity to provide additional pathways for rural area students in Gu Ming elementary schools in Chiayi, Taiwan. We are responsible for the bioscience part of this online program.
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For the younger students, we read the superbugs picture book with them. Through the vivid pictures, students can have a basic understanding of synthetic biology and think about how to prevent bacteria infection. |
| We also prepared two activities to have fun with students. The first activity is “True or False”, which mainly provides accurate knowledge of using antibiotics. The other activity is “Just Draw It!” There are many different kinds of bacteria in the environment; kids drew these bacteria and realized they should be careful of bacteria infection. |
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Another course was designed for students who are about to graduate from elementary school, telling about the basics of synthetic biology. To attract students’ attention, we observed cartoon characters' feature differences, and then explained how genetic differences cause this uniqueness. Finally, we introduced what genes are and the relationship between genes and DNA. |
During the day of the event, all students responded enthusiastically to the course. From observing the different features, we found that they can immediately see the difference in the facial details of the cartoon character in the picture, such as the difference in eyelids, and this ability to observe is beneficial for natural science and biological observation courses in junior high school.
Through the children's responses, we know that our educational promotion activities are practical. Furthermore, it is a massive encouragement that gives us more confidence for launching online courses.
Publicity for Students in High School and Above
Online Program for St. Viator Catholic High School
To allow high school students to be engaged in synthetic biology, the St. Viator Catholic High School invited us to use two class periods to share what iGEM is and our project. In addition, we held an activity for the students to experience our brainstorming process. In groups of four, we asked the students to imagine themselves as our members to list the functions they would think of for the AgenT Dressing to solve the superbugs crisis. We were amazed to see so many creative ideas generated by the high school students in just a short period.
Conference for Freshmen at CCU
To carry on the importance of synthetic biology and the spirit of the iGEM competition to future CCU students, during the conference on April 24th, we introduced the core value of the iGEM competition and presented our ongoing project to freshmen students. After the conference, we led the students on a tour through the laboratory to familiarize them with the competition process. (Using the laboratory complied with the safety rules).
Interview with CCU Foreign Students
Besides promotion and education, we need to make the public aware of using antibiotics and the awareness of superbugs. We had interviews with many students from many countries, such as Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
We designed a list of questions about the problems of superbugs and antibiotics for interviewers. During the interviews, the students responded positively to the questions and shared their opinions. Also, we produced a flyer listing four principles to teach them how to use antibiotics correctly. After the interviews, we knew more about the thoughts of the public.
▲ Click this picture to watch the interview
