Team:Hong Kong JSS/Communication
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Hong Kong JSS
Education and Communication
We have always wanted to promote Synthetic Biology to our teachers and fellow schoolmates. We believe that people from all backgrounds (science or non-science students) could join us to enjoy modelling and engineering microorganisms to solve daily life problems.
We organised a range of activities for high school students, including sharing sessions in the assembly, seminars introducing iGEM and biotechnology in our daily life and a MCQ game in which participants could learn more about synthetic biology. More than 2500 students from 4 different high schools had participated in our events.
School TV broadcasting during morning assembly
Our team hosting the iGEM and biotechnology seminar in high schools
We have prepared a PowerPoint to introduce basic knowledge of synthetic biology and how we can use E. coli as a tool to fight aflatoxins contamination in food crops. We also made a leaflet and a poster to promote our project and the use of GM organisms to solve daily life problems. We believe public awareness is an important factor affecting the development of biotechnology.
Our team member distributed the leaflet to students and teachers during recess time and after school. We want to explain to them about our project and how synthetic biology can benefit our daily life. We also prepared slides and used iPad to aids our sharing. To our surprise, most of the students do not know what is synthetic biology and generally considered GMO as something "bad". After learning from our sharing, we are glad to see some of them changed their view and consider GMO as a potential solution to many daily life problems.
Poster made by our team
Leaflet made by our team
Our team promoting iGEM and synthetic biology in high schools
In our sharing, we are surprised to learn that most students consider GMO "bad" and "harmful". We think this is because they are not aware of how GMO can benefit our life. In order to change students' view on GMO, we prepared a short MCQ. In order to motivate students to take part in our activities, we have also organized a simple MCQ quiz at school. All answers could be found from our sharing, the leaflet and poster we distributed to them. Gifts were delivered to those who got all MCQ correct.
The response from students was overwhelming, we’ve received over 100 MCQ answer scripts from students, and more than 90% of them got all answers correct and received our gifts. Students showed interest in what we are doing on our project. They learnt more about synthetic biology and its wide applications in our life.
To conclude, our education program aimed to 1) enrich high school students with knowledge in synthetic biology. 2) present them with "facts" so that they can make a more informed decision towards GMO. Based on the response we received, we believe we had achieved our goal. In the progress, we also learnt a lot. Apart from doing R&D, we are now more aware of how to convince public not to be afraid of GMO and support our project. This is also important for us if we want to promote synthetic biology.
Our MCQ quiz