Team:NMU China/Communication
Overview
In recent years, cellular immunotherapy is developing rapidly. As SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate, the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 has gradually become normalized. "Toggle Macrophage" is based on cellular immunotherapy and targets patients who are infected by SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, we hope that through our science communication, we can accomplish three goals:
1. To popularize some knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 to children or adults who don’t know about it.
2. To understand the views of public on cellular immunotherapy and to popularize cellular immunotherapy to the public
3. Introduce synthetic biology to students or people, develop their interest in science and collect feedback in the process.
For these three goals, we carried out the following activities：
Education Package
Through investigations, we have observed that the levels of education are so different in China. In more developed cities in China, such as Shanghai and Beijing, synthetic biology and IGEM are well known by high school students. In most areas, students know nothing about synthetic biology and IGEM. In order to improve this situation, we have teamed up with Lanzhou University (See Partnership for more details) to produce an education package for students and teachers in these areas. (More details in Partnership )
The education package contains a manual and educational resources in two parts: elementary education and high school education.
Click to download the education package
Primary school education resources:
1.Learning slides(with explanation)
2. CAR-macrophage children’s book.
High school education resources：
1. Slides for high school (with explanation)
2. Silent-CAR introduction video
3. Silent-CAR project manual
4. More information on IGEM competition instructions
5. Synthetic biology learning manual
6. CRISPR-Cas13 introduction video
1. In order to make it easier for the teacher to understand, our slides are designed with explanations.
2. According to the knowledge level and the availability of high school students, we combine the display content with the outline of high school biology curriculum.
3. Introduce complex concepts in a simpler way like information questions in the college entrance examination.
4. Prepare the "Synthetic Biology Learning Manual" written by our teachers and members of NMU-China and an introduction of the basic information of IGEM.
5. Use feedback form to understand whether the content of the education package is appropriate and seek for further improvements.
1.For High school student
In the design of high school education slides, we were fortunate to be guided by the high school biology teacher. Mr. Wang is our scientific advisor for Education Package. Mr. Wang has been teaching biology in Shude School for more than 20 years and has rich experience in biology teaching.
Figure2：Xiang Wang, Biology Teacher, Shude High School
Based on these suggestions, we improved the slides, trying to be more simple, clear, focused, and concrete, so as to achieve the purpose to make students understand synthetic biology through the project.
2. For elementary school students
Different from high school students, elementary students have a low level of knowledge, so we focused on the science education of SARS-CoV-2. The primary school version of slides focuses on the cognition of SARS-CoV-2 and ways to deal with the epidemic situation. We hope that through our presentation, students can have a certain understanding of the current epidemic situation, know how to protect themselves, and learn some scientific knowledge. Better if they can develop good habits and the interest in science.
Shude High School
We first applied our education package in Shude High School. Shude High School is a famous school in Sichuan Province, but it does not carry out IGEM project. Synthetic biology and IGEM are a whole new world for the students of Shude High School.
1)Teach a lesson
After a lesson, students in this class had a primary understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and knew about immunology and biotechnology through the projects of NMU and LZU. At the end of teaching, all the students were asked to find the combination of synthetic biology and the project design, answering how synthetic biology guide our project. The students said that this lesson broadened their horizons beyond the basis of high school biology, enriched their comprehension of biology and synthetic biology. To our delight, some students showed great interest in synthetic biology and were willing to learn more.
2)IGEM communication in the future
In the communication between Mr. Wang and us, Mr. Wang showed great willingness to make his students participate in iGEM. He said if given the opportunity, he would strongly support his students to join in. However, Shude High School does not have the experience of iGEM and teachers who are good at synthetic biology, lacking relevant guidance and conditions.
After we said that we could provide help and guidance, teacher Wang thought it would be very helpful. It started a new stage for our subsequent possible cooperation.
Figure3：LZU-China used our Education Package and completed our users’ feedbak
On September 14, 2021, LZU-CHINA carried out an education activity at the Primary School affiliated to Lanzhou University in Gansu Province. During the presentation, the team had a friendly and close communication with students. The audience responded enthusiastically and actively interacted with the members of the LZU-CHINA. This education activity not only achieves the purpose of publicity, but also promotes the education for pupils.
Figure4: Jinan Foreign Language Junior High School used our Education Package and completed our users’ feedbak
iGEMers from Jinan Foreign Language Middle School introduced SARS-CoV-2 and how to use biosynthetic technology to treat SARS-CoV-2 at Jinan Foreign Language School (junior high school) to help them expand their knowledge and better understand biology.
Figure5: Northeastern University used our Education Package and completed our users’ feedbak
On the 13th, the NEU-China went to Shenyang No. 20 Middle School to conduct a science popularization on synthetic biology and SARS-CoV-2 .They also answered some questions on it.
Children’s Book
This year, NMU-China participated in the "Cell Factory" children’s book collection hosted by NNU-China. According to the cognitive level of the audiences of the book, the content is proposed to be easy to understand and combine with practicality and fun. That’s why we selected "Silent-CAR" in the "Toggle Macrophage" as the content of the book.
The picture book has 11 pages. The upper part introduces the process of SARS-CoV-2 invading the human body and replicating. It also shows the body's immune inflammatory response and disease developing. The lower part introduces the role of CAR. In addition, the "cell factory" produces CAR macrophages and inhibits inflammation and protects the body. In order to make these complex concepts interesting and easy to learn, we tell the story in personification and simile, such as "immune -force", "CAR- sword", "crown- spike protein", "weapon-immune factor", and so on, to construct the entire system of the story.
This book is merged into the "Cell Factory" children’s book collection. The electronic version is available for interested students to read. It can also be used as a popular science book to develop their interest in science. The paper version may be released in the future to expand the way of reading. At the same time, we also put the book into our education package.
Figure6：Collaborative Children’s Book
Synthetic Biology Learning Manual
The instructors of NMU-China chiefly wrote the "Synthetic Biology Learning Manual" with the team members’ participation.
This book answers many public confusions when facing synthetic biology from the perspective of beginners. It can be used as a popular science book for synthetic biology enthusiasts to understand genes and their language, the working principles of gene circuits, and the principles of genetic elements. It can also be used as a guide book for iGEM participants.
The electronic version this book has been confirmed and the publication is in progress.
Figure7：Our published handbook of synthetic biology
Instructions to Freshman
Compared to other universities, iGEM is not well-known in our school. In order to change this situation, we conducted relevant lectures on synthetic biology and iGEM at our school. Synthetic biology should start from the infant. Every freshman is like a piece of uncultivated soil, waiting for us to cultivate. If we plant a SynBio seed in their minds, it may cultivate their spirit of seeking. We not only popularized the basic concepts of SynBio to them, but also shared our own experience to promote the spirit and responsibility of the iGEM competition to them.
Through the explanation of iGEM team members, the application of pictures and videos, more than 200 students had a preliminary understanding of synthetic biology and had a certain interest in iGEM competitions. Without this promotion, our team’s recruitment will not be so smooth. We have selected many outstanding members from them!
Figure8：Freshman orientation on synthetic biology
Silent CAR Pamphlet
At the beginning of the project, in order to promote our concept of "immune silence" to the public, we produced Silent CAR Pamphlet. The booklet explained the immunological characteristics and advantages of CARMERTK, and introduced our project to more than 400 people (including our classmates, biopharmaceutical practitioners, and the general public). We also collected opinions from some people in order to improve the project. During the publicity process, we found that many people spontaneously inquired about synthetic biology-related materials about our project. This is undoubtedly a better way to learn!
Figure9：Silent CAR Pamphlet
Elective Courses
Through surveying the major participating universities in China, we found that most of the universities with better results have opened relevant synthetic biology courses, such as Zhejiang University and Huazhong Agricultural University. Synthetic biology courses are not offered at other universities.
details as follows:
1. No synthetic biology courses
2. Synthetic biology courses are mainly open to biology-related majors
3. Synthetic biology courses are mainly for juniors
In order to enable more students to understand synthetic biology and for students who are interested to get more in-depth knowledge, our team's instructor has carried out an elective course of synthetic biology.
Figure10：slides for elective courses
Presentation on Multimedia Platforms
In order to expand our influence and allow more people to understand synthetic biology, we have used a variety of new media methods.
On the Wechat official account, we used comics, videos and other methods to systematically introduce the basic knowledge of immunology, CAR-T therapy and synthetic cell bank technology. The articles on the official account can be used as supplementary materials for medical students in immunology and oncology learning, and it is also convenient for the interested public to understand cellular immunotherapy without barriers.
At the same time, we uploaded a synthetic biology introduction video on China's well-known video website Bilibili, which once again expanded our popular audience for synthetic biology.
Figure11：Presentation video on Bilibili (Original video website：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1i64y167av?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0，dubbing by Wang Xuan)
Figure12：Science tweets about synthetic biology and our project
Questionnaire Survey
In order to raise the public's awareness of cellular immunotherapy, we send out questionnaires to 300 people. The content covers the understanding of cellular immunotherapy, expected methods to learn cellular immunotherapy, acceptance, reasons and so on. It helps us to develop better publicity and education programs suitable for the public. Here are detailed survey results.
The participants of this questionnaire are mainly 18-25 years old and 41-60 years old. This is because the spread of the questionnaire is somehow within the team members’ social network.
Figure13：Code for questionnaire survey
The questionnaire shows
1.Many people don’t know what is cellular immunotherapy, so the popularization of it is very necessary.
2.Most of people are willing to learn about cellular immunotherapy, which has laid the foundation for our science communication.
3.Among the few people who are unwilling to learn about cellular immunotherapy, mostly the reasons are that they think cellular immunotherapy is irrelevant, useless or difficult to learn. This guides us to pay attention to the following things:1) Show the necessity of the education and communication. 2) Put our education in a simple and easy way for most people to understand.
4.The majority of people chose online media, then lecture and brochures to get information.
This shows that the three methods we plan to adopt are suitable for most people.
5.Most people are willing to receive cellular immunotherapy treatment when necessary, expecting it to be safe, effective and economical. Among the 9% of people who are unwilling to receive cellular immunotherapy, it is mainly because of the incomprehension of this therapy and safety issues, followed by economics. It shows that the tendency of people to accept the treatment mainly depends on whether or not they trust the treatment. To build trust, in addition to the safety of the therapy itself, popular education and communication is indispensable.
Communication with Expert
The above questionnaire survey helps us understand the population's awareness, acceptance, views and favorite methods of communication and education for cellular immunotherapy. However, during the data statistics and analysis, we found it difficult to conduct a more detailed analysis. To find out the problems in the questionnaire, we consulted Lifu Chen, Department of Health Management, Naval Military Medical University.
After understanding the original intention of our questionnaire design, the process of the design and implementation, Professor Chen asked us a question: What is the fundamental purpose of this questionnaire? Professor Chen pointed out that our questionnaire is to understand the acceptance and the tendency of people on cellular immunotherapy. It requires our questionnaire to be able to find out the factors that influence people's views and tendencies on cellular immunotherapy. Items like academic qualifications and age in our survey are invalid.
Professor Chen's remarks triggered our thinking on the questionnaire design and the way to improve it in the future. We need to subdivide the population, find the connection, and be able to guide the education activities as the orientation. At the same time. Professor Chen also complimented the logic and rationality of our questions design.