We spent a lot of time on education. Since we are doing a project on frescoes, we introduced not only synthetic biology but also frescoes, a traditional culture that has been passed down for thousands of years, in education and science communication. We hope that people will pay more attention to synthetic biology. At the same time, we hope that people will learn more about Chinese traditional culture and join the family of preserving Chinese traditional culture.
I am a big proponent of the use of biobricks to engage and educate students. - Craig Venter Here is a quote from Craig Venter. We were inspired by this to think of a fun way to introduce synthetic biology to kids. The result was this activity: Synthetic Biology on Paper!
Fig.1 Place of holding
Fig.2 Started painting
Fig.3 Our teammate guided painting
We reviewed a lot of information and prepared a presentation of more than 2,000 words. We introduced the long history of frescoes and the beauty and value that history has given to them beyond the frescoes themselves; we talked about the meaning of frescoes and the values they convey from the Middle Ages; we walked with the audience through the story of the frescoes' trials and tribulations and their damage, and together we felt the importance and significance of their conservation; we introduced synthetic biology, igeme, and synthetic biology.We presented an overview of synthetic biology, the igem competition, and reflected on what our project can do for the murals, history and the world. In addition, we prepared a picture-based lesson and collected a video on existing fresco restoration methods so that the audience could experience the beauty of Dunhuang's frescoes and the hard work that goes into their restoration.
After the lecture, we arranged a brainstorming session and then encouraged the children to create their own artwork based on their imagination.
Fig.4《Animal with a rose head》
Fig.5《Spit out the rainbow》》
Fig.6《A duck with a green hat》
Here are some of the final paintings we received. There were colorful caterpillars and little people with rose heads and animal bodies. One of the most surprising thing was that one of the children clearly drew a design for the transfer of genes into cells. This was one of our biggest surprises and made us feel that our hp activity was really fruitful and meaningful. Unfortunately, we did not take a picture of her work due to her wish, so we took a picture of her heartfelt creation to commemorate the event. In fact, we learned a lot in the process of preparing the lesson. We also took an unprecedented look at the history of Dunhuang frescoes, such as the artistic characteristics of frescoes: the use of lines to depict shapes, the classification of frescoes and the interpretation of the meaning of the sutras, and so on. We also gained a deeper understanding of the spirit of craftsmanship and the significance of heritage preservation in the existing hand-restored murals. Perhaps the most profound learning is in the process of trying to apply or pass on that learning to others, as is the case with art history and synthetic biology. It is during this time of experimentation that we gain the deepest understanding and learning about synthetic biology. It is indeed extremely rewarding to engineer applications of biology and to use this discipline we love to contribute to the world around us.
After doing the synthetic biology activity on paper, we were amazed by the wild imagination of the children, so we thought, can we let the students who are new to biology in junior high school to use their imagination, if they are the ones to repair the mural? So for the middle school students, we held a big discussion on mural restoration.
Fig.7 Our team member explained how to bio-repair the mural to the students of Yucai NO.3 Middle School
Before the discussion, we briefly introduced our project and the existing problems of the mural. This was followed by an explanation of what synthetic biology is.
Fig.8 Our team member explained Synthetic Biology to the students of Yucai NO.3 Middle School
Finally, we started brainstorming on how they would restore the mural if they were in their shoes. We received a lot of novelty in this activity. One student said to make an antioxidant spray to cover the mural without harming it. This got us thinking about oxidation prevention. Another student said to have bacteria produce a "siding" to patch up the peeling parts. This surprised me because it coincided with our project. So after listening to all the wild ideas We finished the activity after listening to each and every one of the wild ideas. The teachers on the sidelines praised us for helping to guide the interest of the middle school students and helped us to promote the project on social media.
Fig.9 Our team member explained how to bio-repair the mural to the students of Yucai NO.3 Middle School
After the event, each student received a gift about the mural.
Fig.10 team members took pictures with the students of Yucai NO.3 Middle School
We had the experience of doing HP in the early stage. Considering that we are high school students, we have been exposed to some biology knowledge, so we plan to do an online and offline pure synthetic biology seminar in our own high school
This online sharing session was held on August 26, 2021, with the theme of introducing people to synthetic biology and discussing the definition, construction methods, applications and ethical issues of synthetic biology. The session began with an introduction to the iGEM competition and the Yucai High School lab, followed by an interactive session on "What is genetic engineering in your eyes". Firstly, the audience was briefly introduced to synthetic biology through the story of synthetic human insulin. Next, the definition of synthetic biology was introduced, and the methods of building synthetic biology were also introduced. Introduction
The concepts of part, device, and systems were introduced. Then, we explained the application of synthetic biology to artemisinin and the restoration project of Yucai_SZ team in 2021 to further understand and experience synthetic biology. Finally, we introduced some of the possible ethical issues of synthetic biology and explained some ways to minimize the occurrence of such ethical issues. In the end, some ethical issues of synthetic biology were introduced, and some ways to minimize the occurrence of such ethical issues were explained to the audience, and the correct values about synthetic biology were conveyed to them. After the sharing session, the moderator interacted with the audience and addressed some of their other questions about synthetic biology.
Fig.11 On-line and off-line synthetic biology seminar
The audience of this sharing session was high school students. The whole venue was full, with the presence of Professor Sun from UW Genetics (graduated from the Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences and currently the Education Director of Mammoth Foundation), dozens of teachers and more than 700 high school students. We explained our project and synthetic biology from four aspects: project introduction, plasmid explanation, experimental process, and HP process. After the event, Prof. Sun(A project director of the Beijing Genomics Institute.) gave us his opinion that we should take into account the effect of temperature and humidity on the strains. A lot of students approached us after listening to the lecture. Asking questions about what igem does, the process of our experiments, etc. We answered all of them. The students expressed a greater interest in biology. I think this is the meaning of doing this activity.
Fig.12 the offline Small Bacteria - Big Mural
Fig.13 The reaction of audience