Team:NWU-CHINA-B/Education

NWU-CHINA-B

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Science is closely connected with our lives. We look up to the scientists standing at the top of the tower and pay attention to the various masterpieces they continue to create. Their achievements affect our lives and the future. But for the public, science is like a veil. They cannot understand the inner meaning of science. This is why we do publicity education.

On January 24, 2021, in order to popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology to the masses, we held an online synthetic biology exchange meeting. At the conference, we connected things in life with synthetic biology and explained the impact and significance of synthetic biology.



    At the same time, we attracted a group of aspiring young people who are very interested in synthetic biology. So we established an exchange group where they have a heated discussion of synthetic biology, and they describe their fantasy and vision of synthetic biology.

After that, we trained these young people and selected talents for our NWU-CHINA-B team. About 90 students participated in our selection. During the selection period, we held three briefings on synthetic biology and iGEM competitions for them, so that they can better understand related academic knowledge and have a deep understanding of iGEM competitions, laying a solid foundation for their technical operations and academic research literacy. In the end, through three rounds of selection and interviews, a group of new forces merged into our team, and NWU-CHINA-B was established.

From April 5 to April 16, 2021, we received an invitation from IUCN to participate in the Global Youth Summit. During the period, we broadened our horizons and learned a lot. At the same time, we communicated and demonstrated the connection between synthetic biology and life to the participants. They asked us questions about the impact of synthetic biology on natural animals and plants, and at the same time they introduced their local environment and animal and plant resources to us, let us use them as references. They are very grateful for our sharing and exchange of knowledge about synthetic biology and are very interested in our research field. After in-depth exchanges, we took a group photo together as a souvenir.

The first Carbon Neutral International Forum was jointly organized by Shaanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment and Northwest University. It invited leaders and academicians from relevant ministries and commissions, universities, enterprises and foreign embassies to participate in the forum to discuss strategies and approaches for China to actively respond to climate change and achieve peak carbon neutrality under thecurrent situation.

We are honored to participate in this forum on behalf of Northwest University of Chemical Engineering.

During the meeting, we learned a lot about the current energy of the earth and our environment, as well as some important ways to protect the environment and save energy.

We also spoke to a number of experts about the link between synthetic biology and the environment.

At the same time, we also made a lot of interesting memories.

On August 3, 2021, we participated in the IEEE 3M-NANO Nano International Conference. We communicated with scholars in nano-related fields, discussed the connection between nanotechnology and Alzheimer’s disease, and introduced to the participants the the connection between rare ginsenoside CK and Alzheimer's disease and the phenomenon that nanoparticles can capture the new coronavirus in the body and clear it by human immunity. It conducted educational science popularization on nanotechnology and life.

After preaching the connection between nanometer and life and health to the public, we began to cut to the topic and continued the preaching of our project. We shared the design ideas of our project and the impact on the environment to the participants, and let them understand our influence on synthesis. The flexible use of biology also opened the door of synthetic biology knowledge for them and brought them into the world of synthetic biology.

During the competition, we worked with multiple teams and produced two promotional posters that contained our respective teams’ projects. We carried out nationwide education and publicity together, bringing synthetic biology and iGEM to every corner of the country.

(For details, piease refer to the ICII coopeation introduction section at the following website).

In order to let the children realize the related knowledge of synthetic biology, we made a picture book describing our project, expressing our project in the form of a combination of pictures and text, and we designed a cute emoji package based on Pichia pastoris which make it easier for children to understand synthetic biology and become more interested in synthetic biology.


Picture Book Collection

Emoticons

In China, WeChat official accounts and social networking sites are widely used by the media and companies as promotional tools. It sends articles and videos to fans on WeChat official accounts and social networking sites every day.

    This year, we conducted educational presentations on the content of our project and knowledge of synthetic biology on social networking sites in the form of video points. At the same time, we also recorded the entertainment life of the players outside of the game, let the public know about our colorful competition schedule, and at the same time stimulated the public's curiosity about synthetic biology.

At the same time, NWU-CHINA-B has registered its own WeChat official account. In the past six months, NWU-CHINA-B's WeChat official account has published a large number of articles. The content of the article includes team promotion, synthetic biology popularization, excellent paper sharing, team exchanges and cooperation, etc.

     At present, we have established channels of communication with the society. There have been many people who follow our team, including some post-iGEMers, who can also track the NWU-CHINA-B team's movements through WeChat official accounts and social networking sites. In addition, many other iGEM teams in China also followed "NWU-CHINA-B" through these methods and experienced the iGEM schedule with us. More importantly, we can popularize synthetic biology and iGEM competitions to more people by writing and publishing articles and promotional videos through these channels.