Team:HKUST/Education

ShellBi

Project
Description Design Engineering Proof of Concept Implementation Safety Contribution Notebook
Wet Lab
Experiments Results
Dry Lab
Model
Reach
Human Practice Collaboration Communication Education Sustainable
Parts
Basic Parts Composite Parts
Team
Team Attributions

Education

Outreach and Learning

Overview

The existence of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PST) had been a surprise to many of us on the team when the idea was first pitched. This was alarming considering the prevalence of seafood restaurants in Hong Kong, and the incredible market value of the country’s fishing industry which stands at about USD 2.7 billion in 2020, which suggests that we consume shellfish very often.

After conducting a survey of HK shellfish consumers with 100+ responses, we learnt that 71.3% of participants eat shellfish regularly, and they all eat a variety of shellfish. More than 60% of the participants are not aware of shellfish poisoning or of any types of shellfish toxins, and the majority of participants were not aware of the existence of harmful algal blooms.

We really found this quite alarming, as there is an obvious gap in the general public’s understanding. We wanted people to understand our project, but before we can do that, they must know the main background issues that our project is based on. In order for a greater understanding, we decided to try and educate different levels of the public.

Within the survey, we also asked the participants of the education platform of choice. The top three choices from the participants were: Social Media (66.3%), Infographics (59.4%), and recorded videos (57.4%).

So we decided to take in the advice from our participants in the survey, and started our education campaign in regards to harmful algal blooms and paralytic shellfish poisoning.