Team:iBowu-China/Communication
Education and Communications
Overview
iBowu-China 2021's Education and Communications Major AchievementActivities revolved around our 2 core projects: a book “Biodoodle” and a documentary. Based on the results of survey on reader preference, the 6 sections of Biodoodle are interconnected and progress in order of “familiarity”, that it enables the content to be readily acceptable while introducing Synbio and lab in depth——not just on the superficial level about “what”, but answering “How” and “why”. The section of lab equipment is selected based on our experience in lab, making it a perfect handy guide for both kids and high school students to grab Synbio and lab skills quickly. Besides direct education, 60% of the proceeds from selling “Biodoodle” was donated to an educational program. The documentary focused on the culture, biosafety and production method of both traditional and modern TCM, which is aimed at offering scientific facts to audience for determining which kind is more suitable for them
The BioDoodle Project
A massive syn-bio amazement on the tip of children's coloring markers'
What is BioDoodle?
BioDoodle is a coloring book, designed for children to get exposure to synthetic biology knowledge through having fun with active evolvement. Read on and you will find out how we determined on this type of education materials.
A Peek Inside the BioDoodle
BioDoodle contains enough materials, both in words and in pictures, for passionate learner. We designed more than 50 synthetic biology related subject and elaborate on them with more than 5800 words in plain language.
There is a BioDoodle for everyone
§ 1. Why a Doodle Book?
Doodle books involve active learning from a user. The user has to observe what is on the page, think and understand the object, and the logic between objects, then could the user start to use imagination to create new color patterns. The imagination and the customized patterns also served as an instant positive feedback. What is more, Beside the reasonings, our members have an instinct that if we were presented with a doodle book, we would certainly be interested to explore what is inside. Therefore, we decided a doodle book would be a great educational project to encourage learning.
Team iBowu-China tried out the idea of doodle book in 2019, but due to limited time and resources, we ended up with only four pictures and didn't have a chance to complete a whole book. This year we are dedicated and passionate enough to finish a greater job.
In fact, a doodle book is also a condensation of educational resources for future iGEM teams to build upon, in addition to its value in encouraging active learning. In this season, the BioDoodle project invited teams all around world to participate, and we envision that future iGEM teams could use this book for their educational activities, and they can revise the book with us from user feedbacks!
2. Intended for the kids, but welcomed by all!
We decided to target the doodle book to engage children of the age in elementary schools and secondary schools, for young kids are mostly attracted to illustrated materials and they learn by doing fun activities. At the same time, raising awareness and knowledge in an early age will inspire more children to seek to learn biology in higher grades.
3. Designing the Structure of BioDoodle
What subject should we include in the book? How to organize the structure of all materials?
To get more precise understanding of the aim behind Biodoodle, we surveyed our potential readers on their study methods, familiarity with biological concepts and expectations of a coloring book. About 70% ranked more than 7 out 10 for how often they utilize visual materials to learn information, which suggested that a coloring book will be useful for visual learners who want to interact with the diagrams and drawings. Most of the sample enjoy laboratory courses, but more than 60% selected that they have “0 practical lessons per week”. The lack of practical experience led us to include “Lab Rat” as a chapter in the final booklet, which introduced basic lab equipment. The information was selected based on our own experience in lab, making it a perfect handy guide for our target audience. Some of the free responses suggested that they were unsatisfied with 3 aspects of their previous experience using a coloring book: poor organization of content; lack of information to accompany and explain the drawings; and irrelevance to what they are studying at school.
In response to the survey, we structured our doodle book based on levels of familiarity and difficulty. It is divided into six interconnected, free-flowing chapters. We started with concepts that students were more acquainted with, such as the environment or the human body, then moved on to microbiology, and finally, the innovations and experiments in synthetic biology. More precisely, the book begins in the realm of addressing environmental issues and teaching ecology concepts that students can identify in everyday life. Next, we transition to the human body so that they can not only learn about the biology behind the ecosystem that surrounds them, but also the mechanisms inside their bodies. This section leads into our next topic on cells, in which we will reevaluate previous concepts at a microscopic level. Afterwards, we introduce model organisms that are used in experiments as well as foundational concepts and lab equipment used for synthetic molecular biology. These sections prepare the readers to understand specific innovations in the frontline of synthetic biology. Written in second person point of view with informal register, the book is interactive with leading questions, so it ultimately achieves our goal to deliver the message that “science is fun!”. Aside from the benefit of education, 60% of the proceeds from selling Biodoodle was donated to an educational program.
The diagram below illustrates the basic logic and structure of Biodoodle:
Excerpts from the final BioDoodle booklet
§ 4. Take it on a tour
How did we make the materials accessible to a wider audience?
4.1 We made it available on the internet for wider access.
♦ Weidian is an online platform with total customer size of 0.6 billion. The platform has easy access to everyone, including kids and their parents.
♦ The price is reasonable compared to the income level in most big cities. Parents usually buy books on this level on a regular basis.
♦ The revenue will all go to the Tecent Charity Fund for kids. Also for kids in less developed area, we have planned giving-away activities.
4.2 We made a proactive efforts to bring it to our audience, trying our best to enlist collaborational help of teams to reach out and arrange activites in schools, because BioDoodle works the best when the children can both color and get their questions answered at the same time.
We collaborated with BIT-China to offer the children our doodle book. BIT-China contacted an elementary school and arranged after-class educational events. The children loved it!
We also asked our partner CKWA-China team to introduce the book in their school. CKWA-China team's school host both secondary school department and elementary school department, and they promoted the doodle book as well as syn-bio knowledge in a public lecture to the school students.
Team Keystone had invited us to join in their SynBio Fair, where teams will introduce their project to the general public as well as synthetic biology knowledge. We iBowu-China team promoted our BioDoodle on this event as well, and we were surprised by the honor that KEYSTONE's school teacher offered to keep one of our BioDoodle book in their library! The teacher also donated to the charity fund, and we are ever so grateful!
4.3 Languaged in English, Chinese version underway; Multi-lingual version is welcomed for your collaborations.
We created the first version of our BioDoodle in English to target a greater audience internationally. This international perspective is in the gene of BioDoodle because many iGEM teams around the world contributed to this project. On the other hand, there are still many Chinese school students who can not fully comprehend the meaning of the English descriptions, like suggested by the BIT-China team in their promotional event. We are currently working on creating a version with Chinese descriptions as well.
Some Amazing Facts about BioDoodle
Documentary Video on Traditional Chinese Medicine, its Culture and Safety
Our project has a strong connection with traditional Chinese medicine——licorice is one of the most commonly used ingredients in TCM remedies, because its sweetness can compensate the bitterness of other herbs. There is a special bond between the older generations of China and TCM. Previous to the thriving of modern medicine and extraction technologies, people used TCM to cure cold, inflammations etc. Inspired by Cindy (student leader of GreatBay_SZ 2019), we decided to make a documentary for Chinese on how to make choice on drugs.
What are people's concern about the traditional Chinese Medine? What problems exist in people's understanding about it? In order to learn these, we carried out a survey and disseminated the survey through our social networks, our classmates, our friends and our family members.
Data:more than half of the people we surveyed struggle on what drug to use when they get sick
The majority is not familiar with pharmaceuticals that contain extracted compound from herbs.
On the Correct Usage of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Bioethics Talk to College Students
We presented to college students outside of biology majors about bioethics issues, in a collaboration with BIT-China
In a collaboration with team BIT-China, the two teams exchanged ideas about education and outreach with each other in WeChat. iBowu-China thought of teaching biology to liberal arts students, and BIT-China suggested that they should talk about some biological knowledge closely related to life, which could fit well with their majors, such as the integration of synthetic biology and law.
We iBowu-China brainstormed an interesting idea that together we can educate society about some misconceptions about synthetic biology. For example, some people believe the rumor that gene sequencing can predict whether you are smart or not. iBowu-China is planning a follow-up collaboration.
Later, We iBowu-China team, together with BIT, BIT-China and BUCT-China teams, held a joint seminar presentation on "The Ethics of Synthetic Biology in the Classroom" in September 2021. iBowu-China presented on the distinction between ethics and morality and introduced what bioethics is. BIT gave a talk on biomedical ethics based on their team's project this year. BUCT-China gave a presentation on the ethical aspects of artificial meat based on their team's project this year. BIT-China gave a lecture on ethics in artificial life based on their team's project this year.
The students listened carefully and actively participated in the interaction, discussing their questions with the team and discussing their views on ethical issues in biology.
BioGallery
BioGallery can be seen as the BioDoodle’s complementary project. Using illustrations from BioDoodle as well as a collection of 30 pictures documenting IGEM experience in the lab and “did you know” fun facts about biology, we created a weekly academic calendar. We asked teams to submit team photos alongside a project brief to raise awareness to their project concept and the issue being addressed, which simultaneously serves as an example for the public audience on how synthetic biology can be applied real-life problems! This serves as a comprehensive multi-purpose guide to biology as it alternates between trivia facts, doodle drawings, beautiful photographs of the lab, and project introductions from fellow iGEM teams to showcase the remarkable versatility of biology.
Educational Videos on Synthetic Biology 101
1. a brief introduction to synthetic biology
Early in the project when we just started to learn about synthetic biology, we were so excited by the new realm it opens that we were enthusiastic to share our understandings with the general public. Since most people nowadays acquire information from video sources, such as YouTube or Bilibili (an open-access video platform popular in China among the youth), we decided to make a video walking through the basics in synthetic biology.
2. a brief introduction to synthetic biology open language (SBOL)
The first video was released both on YouTube and Bilibili.tv. Never before had we made any videos and the video was welcomed warmly all around by the team and families and friends. Regardless of all the difficulties and hard-working required to complete one video, passionate Helen and Rachel started out on a second episode. This time we went a bit further to introduce more hard-core stuff, i.e., the Syn-bio open language.
Synbio Merchant
1. Glycyrβ Sachet
This sachet is designed to let more people understand the role of Chinese herbal medicine. One side has our team's logo, and the other side is our mascot: A Little Bacteria. This is also a sign of recognizing us. Through the promotion of our sachets, including the charity sales and giving them out as gifts, we hope that people and other teams can realize that the help of Chinese herbal medicine in our lives and our contributions.
Early in the project when we just started to learn about synthetic biology, we were so excited by the new realm it opens that we were enthusiastic to share our understandings with the general public. Since most people nowadays acquire information from video sources, such as YouTube or Bilibili (an open-access video platform popular in China among the youth), we decided to make a video walking through the basics in synthetic biology.
The first video was released both on YouTube and Bilibili.tv. Never before had we made any videos and the video was welcomed warmly all around by the team and families and friends. Regardless of all the difficulties and hard-working required to complete one video, passionate Helen and Rachel started out on a second episode. This time we went a bit further to introduce more hard-core stuff, i.e., the Syn-bio open language.
This sachet is designed to let more people understand the role of Chinese herbal medicine. One side has our team's logo, and the other side is our mascot: A Little Bacteria. This is also a sign of recognizing us. Through the promotion of our sachets, including the charity sales and giving them out as gifts, we hope that people and other teams can realize that the help of Chinese herbal medicine in our lives and our contributions.
We use this sachet as souvenirs when we connect with our collaborators, our friends and most of all, our fellow iGEMers! They loved this little gift! Here is a picture showing our event on the KEYSTONE team's syn-bio fair, and our sachet is warmly welcomed by all. We hope they and their friends will get inspired by this adorable gift and get a chance to learn more about the synthetic biology knowledge in herbal medicine!
2. Wechat Emoji
As the most popular social networking application in China, Wechat hosts a large body of active user on the scale 100 million. Most users use Emoji developed by Wechat and other users, and thus this platform offers a great chance for syn-bio lovers to inspire the general audience with adorable synthetic biology related Emoji. Many iGEM teams have taken this chance to advertise biology and their projects, and this year iBowu-China developed a set of emoji impersonating E. coli, both to entertain our team members during endless hard labwork, and to share the passion among the general community.
The emoji set was uploaded in July and three months later up till now, our emoji set was downloaded 362 times (user) and have been used in chatting 4,958 instances, and 48 users gave us a big upvote. We are glad to see our creation was welcomed by the general public.
The design of this Wechat sticker pack is inspired by our mascot drawn by our team members. it is just a fun project for us to motivate ourselves and promote our project. Some people learned about our team through the promotion of this sticker. A friend of mine who in American high school found me through this sticker pack and told me she is also doing iGem.