We believe that synthetic biology will make fantastic difference to the world. But before that, we need to ignite a passion for synthetic biology in people's mind to encourage more potential synthetic biology researchers to join us. That's what we have been doing in the past year.
Online dissemination
To have a more extensive effect on people's knowledge of synthetic biology, we decided to carry out our promotion work online. So, we joined ICII to introduce synthetic biology facing middle school students and held a lecture on synthetic biology with HUST-China, WHU-China and CAU-China, which affected hundreds of undergraduates from a community in Beijing.
Into CHINA, Into iGEM (ICII)
We participated in ICII, an educational activity organized by CPU-CHINA and NAU-China with the theme of Into China, Into iGEM. We disseminated synthetic biology and iGEM facing the middle school students in our city, Wuhan, and produced relevant videos to realize effective publicity while participating in the competition. We hope that through multiple technologies and forms, people will have a new understanding of biology and let more and more people understand the connotation of synthetic biology. We also hope that people around the world can know more about China. (see more ditails at Collaboration-ICII)
Figure 1: posters of ICII
Figure 2: screenshots of the online education
Online lecture on Synthetic Biology
We also participated in the Online Lecture on Synthetic Biology jointly organized by HUST-China, HUST2-China, WHU-China and CAU-China. This is an online lecture aimed at promoting synthetic biology. We explained the knowledge of synthetic biology to university students through the Internet, so that they can have a preliminary understanding of synthetic biology. Our lecture won their appreciation. During the lecture, we also introduced our own project. We hope to increase students' understanding of our project in this way.
Figure 3: logo of each team
Figure 4: poster of the lecture
Figure 5: screenshot of the lecturers
The serial articles
We established a team QQ public account in order to promote the knowledge about skin care and synthetic biology and other interesting biology knowledge to society. From August.8 2021 to October.7 2021, we maintained the frequency of one article per week. These articles were also published on the official account of our college. Because of the exquisite pictures, concise and vivid text, they have attracted wide attention of the public.
Figure 6: all the articles published
Offline education
It's true that promotion online can realize fast and extensive spread of knowledge, but that's not enough for us. Even in this information era, we still believe that offline education can bring more intuitive understanding of synthetic biology. We need a combination of traditional method and modern method. In China, we name this philosophical thought "Golden Mean".
Skin care lectures and experimental trainings
According to the current situation of acne disease from which contemporary college students are suffering, we carried out many face-to-face popular science activities to the students for our own university. We have prepared the professional knowledge related to the prevention and treatment of acne diseases in detail and introduced them vividly.
After full preparation, we invited them to join the experiment training hosted by us in their spare time to experience synthetic biology research. We carried out some antimicrobial experiments with antibacterial drugs and some cosmetics. During the training, we also introduced some basic synthetic biology knowledge, such as the concept, the operation method, the significance, and its application prospect. Through these offline lessons, we have enabled more students to have some understanding of synthetic biology, an infinite potential area of biology.
Figure 7: offline lesson about synthetic biology and skin care
Figure 8: the lesson about synthetic biology and skin care
Figure 9: the experimental training
The Popular Science Brochure of the Skin League
We constructed the Skin League (see more in Skin League, Collaboration) with WHU-China, NUDT-China and SZPT-China. The most meaningful work we did was the Popular Science Brochure of the Skin League in which we introduced specific scientific knowledge of skin care. The brochure was distributed in Wuhan, Changsha, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Hundreds of people got to learn our brochure directly. Besides, the brochure was placed in the library of Southern Medical University and Shenzhen Polytechnic. More people will see these brochures by chance.
Figure 10: front cover of the brochure
Figure 11: logo of each team
Figure 12: placed in library of Southern Medical University
Figure 13: brochures placed in library of Shenzhen Polytechnic
Figure 14: WHU-China is introducing our brochure in WHU campus
Figure 15: students of ShenZhen Polytechnic are learning the brochure