Synthetic biology applies the concepts used in engineering to the field of biotechnology.
It uses genes, cells, etc. as materials to design and transform organisms. It plays an important
role in biomedicine, biomaterials, environmental energy and many other feilds. Unfortunately,
there’s a general lack of knowledge about the displine among the general public. In addition,
from the results of the questionnaire made at the beginning of our project, we learned that many
people still don't know much about enteritis and intestinal flora, which is closely related to our
daily life, health and disease. Therefore, our team hopes to present current scientific understandings
about synthetic biology and intestinal related diseases through our education.
Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the education program of our project was divided into two parts:
online and offline. For the offline part, we got in touch with the local middle school and the community,
designed different courses for three different types of audiences: children, middle school students,
and the elderly, introducing them to synthetic biology and the intestial flora and enteritis related
to our project. In addition, on the World IBD Day, we did a exhibition about enteritis in school, which
attracted many undergraduate, graduate and even doctoral students. In the online part, we produced a
great deal of exquisite public science tweets and a introduction video about synthetic biology science
video suitable for middle school students. In addition, we used the the "Fall in Love with Nanjing
University" column in the Xiaolan Whale platform, which mainly works for undergraduate admissions,
to introduce the synthetic biology program to candidates who are interested in Nanjing University.
We also presented some preparation methods for the subject exam for biology and promoted the iGEM
competition on the platform.
In addition, we are deeply concerned about the topic of sustainable development and inclusiveness.
We cooperated with the school’s teaching support team from schools located in in Guizhou, Yunnan and
many other places that are less economically developed in China to give lessons to children from
minority schools with an average age of 7. Together with the kids, we made fans with cartoon animals
on them, hoping to make this event an opportunity for the children to find their love for the lovely
creatures and biology.
Offline Education
1.1 World IBD Day propaganda
On May 19, 2021, the World IBD Day, four students from the Nanjing-China team set up a presentation
panel about the World IBD day and scientific understandings about enteritis on the first floor of the
school’s school of life sciences. The origin, significance, causes of enteritis, pathogenesis of the
disease, prevention and treatment methods, etc where presented to everyone that enters the building.
We held lectures at the spot and did a presentation for the students and teachers from the School
of Life Sciences, which attracted the attention of many passing college students, graduate students
and professors.
1.2 lectures in middle school campus
On May 17, we held a lecture about synthetic biology and our project for the students of the second
year of Nanjing Foreign Language School. We used many very interesting examples and metaphors
throughout the lecture, hoping to help junior school students understand the concept of synthetic
biology. Our students asked a lot of questions about intestinal flora and synthetic biology in class
and from their reactions, we could tells that they were very interested in our lectures. At the end
of the course, we also gave each of the students bookmarks and sticky notes we designed by ourselves,
and told them to feel free to reach us and have further discussions on the materials we covered in
class and biology. I am very happy that we have received a lot of praise, and some students even said
that because of our courses, we have strengthened their determination to engage in biological research
in the future. We are very happy to see that through our own efforts, we have promoted synthetic
biology to everyone and stimulated the interest for synthetic biology among middle school students.
1.3 lectures in off-campus societies
Being aware of the fact that the demand for biological knowledge of the elderly and children are
different from those of middle school students and college students, on July 6, we re-adjusted our
courses to focus more on the introduction of biology and the intestinal flora, the concept of
homeostasis and prevention of enteritis. We went to the Yao'an New Village community with a
brand-new offline lecture targeting the local children with an average age of 7 who participated
in the summer school and the elderly who lived with them. During the lecture, the children
interacted actively with our lecturers. After the course, we discussed with the elderly people
to learn about their concentions related to intestinal health, and dealer with their confusions
regarding to how to adjust the intestinal health. I am very glad that we can take this opportunity
to attract children's interest in biology and bring a healthy lifestyle to more people. In addition,
in order to attract children’s attention to the subject of biology and inspire their love for biology,
our team members prepared fans with cartoon animal images, and together with the kids we drew on the
fans. The fans not only brings a little bit of coolness for the summer, but brought happiness and
laughter for the children.
Online education
2.1 'Falling in Love with NJU' experience sharing session
Offline activities have been restricted this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, on the
April 17, a member of our team used the Nanjing University undergraduate admissions platform, "Fall
in Love with Nanjing University · Seniors Sharing" column, to reach the high school students who are
about to take the college entrance examination and are interested in learning about Nanjing University.
The event was launched on the ZOOM online conference platform, and was simultaneously broadcast
live on social media platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin, Toutiao, and iQiyi with a large number of
participants. In the meeting, we shared about the preparation methods for biology exams and the charm
of life sciences during college with prospective candidates and promoted the iGEM competition. We hope
that more students can pay attention to this competition, and even Participate in this competition in
the future. During the event, our team members also actively interacted with the audience, stimulating
engaging discussion with our audience in the comment section.
2.2 Spread knowledge through public account articles
Concerned with the relatively low audience variety for online or offline courses, we also created
our own WeChat public account platform, and have produced tweets to introduce the iGEM competition,
the background of our team project, our experiment designs and the concept of synthetic biology to
whoever reads the article.
2.3 online courses for areas with education deficits
Our team members have always paid great attention to sustainable development and the inclusiveness
of our project. Through interviews with various teaching groups of Nanjing University and online
information retrieval, we learned that basic education in ethical minority areas in western my
country needs more attention. Among all the teachers for different subjects, the biology teachers
are in high demand. Therefore, we hope that through our own efforts, we could participate in the
development of basic education in the ethical minority areas in the western part of my country and
bring interesting biology-related classrooms to local children.
Unfortunately, due to the impact of the pandemic, we were unable to reach the local area offline to
have face-to-face classes with local children. Therefore, we used Tencent meetings, recorded lessons,
and to reached Yunnan Tuodian Middle School, Yunnan Shuangbai No.1 Middle School, Guizhou Pingba No. 1
Middle School through members of the support teaching team who stayed there to launch our online
education program and introduce them to synthetic biology, promoted the iGEM competition, and
introduce the background and design of our project to them. After the course, we answered questions
from the local children. We are very happy that they were full of interest during our courses, which
makes us even more determined to continue paying attention to basic education in the future, and
actively participate in education support, science education and other activities for the welfare of
these students.
