Team:FAFU-CHINA/Education and Communication
Overview
Synthetic biology aims to build artificial biosystems that operate like circuits. Using the ideas and tools of synthetic biology, many fantastic ideas are being realized. Synthetic biology is very different from the traditional biological sciences, and we want to educate the society about this new discipline, as well as the general public about smell.
University
For Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University
Due to the influence of COVID-19 's epidemic situation, our team was forced to choose to carry out
educational popularization activities in our school. We held an educational seminar, a popular science
iGEM competition and synthetic biology.
After the completion of our popular science speech, many students came to ask us questions, and we
answered the relevant questions to them one by one. Through this lecture, many students say that they
like synthetic biology very much, and many of them are willing to become a member of iGEM or participate
in the research of synthetic biology in the future.
For Fuzhou University
When we learned that the team of Fuzhou University (another team in Fuzhou), due to the newly formed
team, there are limited, or even basically no, synthetic biology-related science seminars on campus for
college students and graduate students. As brother colleges, our two teams got in touch at the end of
the spring semester and reached a cooperative relationship. In this year's competition, we will help
each other to grow and progress together.
In the initial stage, through several project sharing and exchange meetings and human society practice
exchange meetings, we initially agreed to jointly hold a synthetic biology science publicity seminar on
the campus of Fuzhou University under the premise of epidemic prevention and control.
This presentation meeting is for the newly enrolled students of Fuzhou University in 2021 and students
of all grades who are interested in synthetic biology. This conference has a total of more than 200
people. At the same time, there will be two teachers from the leading group of Fuzhou University. Of
course, during this seminar, the students at the scene were active in thinking, actively asking
questions and communicating, and the response was enthusiastic. As the organizer of the event, we also
distributed corresponding prizes and souvenirs to the students. We will remember every like-minded
friend on the 3rd floor of the east of Fuzhou University in September 10, 2021.
We sent our brochures to ZJU-China and CAU-China
High school
We distributed brochures to senior high school teams and cooperated with senior high school teams to carry out popular science propaganda activities on their campuses. We learned that high school students already had a preliminary understanding of genetic engineering, and based on that, we introduced high school students to the concept of synthetic biology. We encourage them to learn about this emerging discipline and participate in iGEM competitions.
Children
FUSHAN park
（The consent of the guardian has been obtained for taking photos that interact with minors.）
On October 3rd, we organized an theme activity of synthetic biology and nature in Fushan National Park
for students from the kindergarten affiliated to Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University to get close
to nature and konw some knowledge of synthetic biology.
Before the activity began, we conducted a survey of kindergarten students through their parents, and
found that most of the students were around 5 years old. They had no knowledge of synthetic biology and
had never participated in any activities. Therefore, in order to facilitate kindergarten children to
better participate in this activity, we designed a simple and interesting game, children as long as the
picture of bacteria and the name on the card match can get a reward. We also invite parents to interact
with their children, which will not only deepen parents' understanding/interest in SYNTHETIC biology,
but also give students a good introduction to synthetic biology. In addition, we also draw cartoon
patterns of neroli and linalool on the back of bookmarks as a reward for children. Children who actively
participate in the game will have a chance to win bookmarks, which will greatly increase their interest
in synthetic biology.
Through this activity, we shared some simple synthetic biology tips with children to stimulate their
interest in biology. In the future, we plan to hold more related activities to introduce more biological
knowledge and better promote synthetic biology.
Kindergarten
The 21st century is the century of biology. In order to better popularize synthetic biology, we have
held an extremely important and meaningful activity for children's scientific enlightenment.
we held a popular science education activity in a kindergarten . The activity name was "Microbial
Incense Production Factory -- Entering the world of children". Many children are unfamiliar with biology
and synthetic biology in order to enlighten their scientific outlook. We showed them vividly what cells
and bacteria are. We compared the cells to the ants in the mountains. We also introduced our project to
them and presented our preparation PPT and video to their principal. The children found biology
fascinating and interesting. At the end of the popular science education, we distributed our team's
gifts to the children and encouraged them to become excellent scientists when they grow up. The children
were very enthusiastic and active in the activities.
This activity enlightens the children's scientific concept and sows the seeds for their future
scientific career.
Primary school students
（The consent of the guardian has been obtained for taking photos that interact with minors.）
The third primary school of fuzhou education school
On the morning of October 8th, our FAFU-CHINA iGEM team arrived at the third Primary School
affiliated
to Fuzhou Institute of Education for a popular science lecture. The purpose of this lecture is
to enable
primary school students to light the lamp of science, enhance their understanding of synthetic
biology
and create a good atmosphere for learning synthetic biology.
We warmed up the interaction with the short story of two yeasts. At the beginning, we first
introduced
microorganisms, and the children expressed their own views on this. What is a microbe? Where are
the
microbes? Does it mean that microbes we can't see don't exist? We explained this one by one.
Then we
extend viruses, bacteria and fungi through microbes. In the second part, we begin to introduce
the
uniqueness of our project.Why is it fragrant? Where does the fragrance come from? We summarized
the
origin of the fragrance from a microscopic point of view, which the children talked about with
great
delight. In the third part, we gave a brief introduction to our project. We first told a short
story,
and then we introduced the general steps of our project in ABC order. Finally, we accepted the
children's questions and answered their bewilderment.
This activity not only brings scientific interest to the students' classroom, but also makes
them love
science more.
Fuzhou huaian experimental primary school
Our fAFU-China iGEM team arrived at Huai 'an Experimental Primary School in Fuzhou and gave a popular science lecture. We came to the three (1) class, the three (1) class for the basic science lectures. The popular science lectures are roughly divided into three parts. First, we introduce the topic of biology and what kinds of creatures are included in children's world. Secondly, we and the children on the topic of "fragrance", launched a discussion, the children said that they prefer fresh taste. And then we started introducing them to microbes. We introduced the yeast used in our project by introducing microbes, and made it easier for them to understand our project by explaining the stories of comic characters. Through the question-and-answer session after the explanation, we felt the children's curiosity about the microbial world, and also felt the children's love for science popularization activities.
Science lecture on no-till farm
We cooperated with the wild Growing Nature Creative camp to carry out popular science lectures on the
fragrance of microorganisms for families.
Before the activity began, we conducted safety training for participants to protect the personal safety
of each child participating in the lecture. Each experience area was protected by our team members, and
the microscope experience area and section were protected by trained team members. Every photograph we
take is taken with the consent of the subject, protecting the privacy of all who are photographed.
We started with the promotional video of FAFU-China IGEM team in 2021, introducing the knowledge related
to biology and microbes. Children were full of interest and curiosity about the world of microbes. When
the children have a certain understanding of microorganisms, we began to introduce our project in simple
and easy to understand language, how to use microorganisms to produce aroma. With the help of our
self-made cartoons, the complex experiment process has become a daily life that children can understand.
In the course of the lecture, the children actively asked questions, and in the process of answering
questions, they deepened their understanding of microorganisms and the production of aroma. We also help
the children to make temporary pieces, let the children find their own fragrant plant leaves, petals,
they found mint leaves, lemon leaves, we also use onion, pumpkin and other existing materials, and will
make good pieces under the microscope, take the children to appreciate the world under the microscope.
The public
BiliBili is a video website respected by Chinese young people. We choose to use this as our publicity
platform. We have released some videos, of which this year's promotion video has received Many hits.It
allows our project to be presented to the public in the form of video, and the inclusiveness and
acceptance of video endows us with the convenience of publicity. Of course, it has strengthened its
social ties, working to promote synthetic biology and the International Genetically engineered Machine
Competition(iGEM).
Wechat public account platform is one of the subsidiary functions of wechat, mainly serving to carry out
"one-to-many" media sexual activities.
This year, our team continues to use it as a platform to provide information and knowledge about
synthetic biology for public advocacy. We mainly push literature knowledge and basic scientific
knowledge related to the project, and establish the 2021-FAFU-China public account platform through
text, pictures, audio, animation and other forms.
TikTok is bytedance's short-video social platform, which has repeatedly topped the App Store or Google
Play charts in the US, India, Germany, France, Japan, Indonesia and Russia.It is the destination for
mobile videos. On TikTok, short-form videos are exciting, spontaneous, and genuine. It goes saying that
“All you have to do is watch, engage with what you like, skip what you don't, and you'll find an endless
stream of short videos that feel personalized just for you”. It also has offices around the world,
including Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul and
Tokyo. In today's society, it has great communication influence in China and even the world.
Therefore, we created the official TikTok account 2021-FAFU-CHINA to record daily experiments. This can
not only record the process of our team's safety experiment, but also teach the public the relevant
knowledge of laboratory safety, so that they can realize the importance of experimental safety.
Over the course of the year, we updated the short video of the experiment and gained a lot of likes and
comments, which met our expectation of publicizing the importance of the safety experiment.
