Team:NTHU Taiwan/Communication

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Overview

There was a small scale outbreak of the COVID-19 in Taiwan during the competition. Thus, our original education plan which is mostly face-to-face was disrupted. It gave us some difficulties to rebuild the new educational plan because none of our team members has experience in new media, digital marketing and post-production. In consideration of time pressure and heavy workload, we finally decided to conduct a comprehensive face-to-face and online education program.

In our face-to-face education program, we have made a synthetic biology board game "Adapter", which uses a simple way to introduce the basic concept of synthetic biology. In addition, we established the "NTHU iGEM Genetic Engineering Research Society" in our university to pass these valuable experiences in a more organized way. Students who came from different departments can also transfer knowledge with each other, came up with more brilliant ideas. Finally, some freshmen got to know us through the introduction of professors. Those students who want to participate in iGEM in the future or are simply interested in some part of the iGEM competition, We are very welcome to have them as interns.

On the online education program, we hope most of the masses can be considered. Taking into account the eye damage caused by long staring at monitors during the epidemic and some rural students may not have computers and other mobile-type equipment, they could only learn through the small screen of their mobile phones. Therefore, we decided to use the podcast, simply deliver the content aurally. We made a total of 14 episodes of podcasts, 30 minutes per week. The content of the program records in detail the introduction of iGEM, the content of our plan and our mental journey. Furthermore, we have also been invited to National Hsinchu Girls' Senior High School to give an online speech. We also wrote an article introducing PWD published in Taiwan's well-known popular science website "Pan Sci".

Under the influence of the epidemic, the form of education has changed considerably. We can only do our best to respond to it through relative contingency measures. We hope we have done our best in achieving the universality of education. Last but not least, we hope we have achieved our prime goal, which is letting more people know about synthetic biology, iGEM and PWD. Hoping we can inspire more students to know the fun within it and make the world a better place together.

Synthetic Biology Board Game "Adapter"

2021.07.12 Board game prototype

Because our project "Compine" uses the mechanism of RNAi, we want to make a board game that combines both synthetic biology, RNAi mechanism and horizontal gene transfer. In "Adapter", each player have their petri dish, players can plate random numbers of the bacteria and add various type of genes. While playing, the environment will undergo some changes, and players can also use special functions such as RNAi and proteins to attack each other. The ultimate goal of the game is to grow up in a changeable environment and bring the most genes.

2021.07.19 - 2021.07.26 Discuss board game rules in detail

During the summer vacation, we used the computer to simulate the stage of the game and solve the possible problems based on the prototype of our board game. With clear and logical rules, we surely save some time in the trial process.

2021.08.02 - 2021.08.30 The trial process

Although many ground problems have been solved in the computer simulation stage, we still spent lots of time in the trial play stage. In the case of physical trial play, we found many unexpected ways to play the game. Also in the computer simulation stage, the specific length of the game and the number of cards have not been estimated, so we have made a considerable scale of change at this stage.

2021.09.06 - 2021.09.13 Visual Design

After months of detailed discussions about the game, we finally determined the final version of the rules and entered the stage of visual design. Here is the final version of our card and rules, welcome those who are interested to photocopy it and try it out.

Future Work

If time permits, we also hope to launch an online version of the game to achieve a more practical integration between the face to face and online education program.

Genetically Engineered Machine Club

2021.05.27 Genetically Engineered Machine Club Established

The Genetically Engineered Machine Club is the first formal organization of NTHU iGEM since 2016. Through this club, we can communicate more directly with students who are interested in iGEM and can better pass our experiences to future iGEM members. In addition, because the club members include the previous iGEM members, we have also received many excellent suggestions from them.

2021.09.13

Our club information is reported in the 2021 club brochure.

Internship

2021.08.06

We are very grateful that Prof. Yujun Lin who has served as the instructor in the previous iGEM competition, has been sharing the information of iGEM in one of his classes. We thus have two outstanding freshmen to work with us as interns. During the competition, we teach them the basic experimental process and publicity part.

Team iGEM NTHU 2019 have tried internships and that intern had soon become team iGEM NTHU 2020's leader. We thought the internship may have made great help to the next team. Therefore, we exemplified this good expression and we're looking forward to the performance of these students in the next year.

Nancy, Kang & Emily, Shih

Online education program

Podcast(+Facebook & Instagram live streaming):The Road of iGEM

TIn this time's education program, we read some articles about the COVID's impact on education and talked with the students who have studied about the Teacher Education Program in the school. We hence realized that the education under the epidemic, online, not only expresses the convenience brought by technology, but also reveals the gap of education between the rich and the poor. We noticed that the students in some rural villages may not have computers and other types of equipment, they may only have online courses through the small screen. Therefore, we decided to use podcasts to simply deliver information by aural to reduce the damage caused to the eyes.

We set our target audience to anyone interested in iGEM and planned a total of 14 episodes of podcasts, 30 minutes per week As shown below. At present, our podcasts have been launched on 11 platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. Just search for "The Road of iGEM", you may hear these rich contents easily. All interested are welcome to browse.

  • 2021.08.04 What is iGEM?
  • 2021.08.11 Why do you want to join iGEM?
  • 2021.08.18 The advantages and difficulties of iGEM NTHU
  • 2021.08.25 The most impressive iGEM proposal that you have heard
  • 2021.09.01 The iGEM proposal that has been rejected and why
  • 2021.09.08 Our iGEM project "COMPINE"
  • 2021.09.15 Our iGEM project----Wet Lab
  • 2021.09.22 Our iGEM project-Dry Lab
  • 2021.09.29 Our iGEM proposal----HP
  • 2021.10.06 Roles and work content within the iGEM team
  • 2021.10.13 The source of funds in iGEM?
  • 2021.10.20 Previous NTHU iGEMer share experiences
  • 2021.10.27 The most interesting thing that has happened during the competition
  • 2021.11.03 Suggestions and experiences for iGEMer in the future

Online Speech----National Hsinchu Girls' Senior High School

Thanks to the teacher in HGSH, we have been invited to give a speech about iGEM and our project to the students in her class. Though because of the COVID we can’t meet them face to face, we still share a wonderful time chatting with them.

PanSci

The environmental problem caused by B. xylophilus has not just emerged in a material year, it's been a serious problem in Taiwan for more than 40 years. Nowadays, our solution is to drill a hole in the pine tree and pour the medicine into it. Although this method may cause some damage to the tree, this method surely solves part of the problem. Thus, the public turns their view to those environmental problems that haven't have a solution.

Founded in 2011, PanSci is now the largest scientific website in Taiwan. We hope to introduce this topic to disseminate environmental issues to the public and propose possible improvements.

NTHUTaiwan

  • Give us a call: +886 03 571 5131
  • Send us a mail: nthuxigem@gmail.com
  • Come visit us: No. 101, Sec. 2, Guangfu Rd., East Dist., Hsinchu City , Taiwan (R.O.C.) our location
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