For our team, education would be the cherry on the cake. We aimed to promote DECOLOGY
through a variety of approaches, from iGEM Day to ebooks to high school workshop, we hoped more could understand
our
project and gain awareness regarding environmental issues.
To ensure we could reach as many people as possible, while ensuring our educational means are efficient, we
decided
to assign different plans of education to different groups of people. Our main goal is to raise public awareness
of
preserving water. Letting the publics know how badly the trend of fast fashion has caused.
Our project has an important mission in terms of societal education. We hope to achieve the following goals
through
various innovative approaches:
1. To introduce more people to iGEM and generate interest in it.
2. To raise awareness about the value of water resources and the importance of water
conservation.
3. To promote our innovative solutions to societal issues within the community (to
inspire
more innovative problem-solving approaches).
We understand that education varies across different age groups, and the knowledge to be imparted also differs.
Therefore, we have carefully designed educational activities for different age groups, categorizing our audience
into the following age brackets: elementary school and below, middle and high school, and college students.
These are our goals for students in different ages:
Ebook for kids
We did some research on what could be the best way for children under the age of 12 to absorb knowledge, and
finally settled down on the idea of creating a colorful picture book.[1]
Our ebook "Where
do our clothes go?", primarily focused on pictures, can be read to children by teachers and parents. The
story included very
basic concepts of synthetic biology and was also about a girl's clothing use cycle. These elements could
help
kids
understand the importance of conserving clothes to save our water resources, which is also what we wanted to
convey
through our project.
“Where do our clothes go?” have both Chinese
and English
versions. We also present it to the public.
Our team and the participants of NANSHAN High School
One day workshop
In Taiwan, most teachers and students often prioritize exam subjects over other learning experiences due to
prevailing societal perceptions. This leads to students paying less attention to subjects not covered in exams,
and
many areas of iGEM are not frequently addressed in exam content. In order to raise students' awareness of
the
field
of synthetic biology, we mentioned how synthetic biology is relevant in various university majors in our morning
session, and also addressed students' concerns about future academic paths and university majors. We
emphasized that
learning about synthetic biology outside of regular curriculums or participating in iGEM activities can have a
significantly positive impact on their future studies and career prospects.
In the afternoon session, we introduced some fundamental knowledge of synthetic biology that is understandable
to
high school students, and also introduced the iGEM competition, with our team members serving as lecturers
during
this period.
Following the presentations, we recognized that a one-way educational approach may not always achieve the
maximum
impact. As a result, we conceived a bilateral interactive course. Each of our team members led groups of high
school
students in a qualitative analysis of carbohydrates experiment that they hadn't conducted before.
Our members teaching high school students
Why arrange this experiment?
Our project DECOLOGY aimed to break down toxic synthetic dyes through enzymes, achieving a change of color.
Hence,
we wanted to find a simple experiment for highschoolers in which the color of samples could be altered, which is
why
we chose the qualitative analysis of carbohydrates as our experiment. It's one of the experiments mentioned
in
high
school textbooks, involving color changes due to reactions with Benedict's reagent. We hope this experiment
could
help students understand how synthetic biology can apply seemingly mundane textbook knowledge to solve important
societal issues.
Evaluate the results and review for improvement
After leading students through the experiment, we also placed great importance on assessing the practical
impact
of
our actions, so that our subsequent iGEM team could improve educational activities on a better foundation. Our
method of evaluating the workshop's effectiveness involved randomly selecting participating students to
fill
out
Google Forms feedback questionnaires. In the data analysis, we received a 4.7/5 feedback rating in terms of
overall
satisfaction. In course design, we similarly earned a high rating of 4.7/5. Additionally, we received a
significant
amount of written feedback from students, with many offering positive affirmations and noting that they learned
a
lot of new knowledge. Furthermore, we received a lot of encouragement and praise from school teachers, with them
even proposing a long term collaboration. Finally, we were featured in the school's magazine, with
thousands of
copies printed and this report shared with all the students throughout the entire school.
33 out of 44 students were satisfied with our one-day activity
The feedback we received was quite positive.
Educational events for college students
In Taiwan, university life is very different from that of junior and senior high school. University students
have
more autonomy, and the activities they participate in and the locations they frequent are quite different. We
understand that to maximize the exposure of our iGEM activities, it's necessary to promote them in places
where
university students often gather in their daily lives, such as at the entrance of academic buildings and club
fairs.
This is what we call mobile booth promotion. We can then further invite them to participate in our indoor
educational events.
Mobile Booth Education Promotion
The primary goal of setting up mobile booths is to reach as many students as possible with our educational
outreach
and to regularly appear in various areas of the university to enhance students' impressions. After
inquiring
about
the areas with the highest student traffic and events with significant campus participation, we have decided to
conduct educational promotion at the university club fair, the entrance of academic buildings, and the library.
Club Fair
The club fair is one of the few events throughout the year where the entire school comes together. It typically
attracts around a thousand participants each year. Our team sets up our own booth at the fair, featuring posters
outlining our project. Team members move through the crowd with laptops and tablets, capturing students'
attention
and promoting iGEM, synthetic biology, and the importance of water resource conservation. In order to gauge the
effectiveness of our outreach and enhance our promotional efforts, we give out stickers to every student we
promote
to. According to our team's statistics, we reach over 200 students with our presentations, and we have also
noticed
a significant increase in our team's Instagram followers.
We shared ideas to college students in our booth!!
iGEM Day
To create a deeper impression of iGEM and synthetic biology among university students, we designated September
28th
as iGEM Day at our school. This date is significant as it coincides with Teacher's Day in Chinese culture,
symbolizing the importance of knowledge, which is vital for iGEMers. On that day, we set up booths at the
entrance
of academic buildings all day long to celebrate Teacher's Day and promote synthetic biology. We conducted
2-minute
introductions about our project, three simple questions for our listeners, and held LINE sticker giveaways to
increase engagement with iGEM. By spreading these messages, we aimed to make more people aware of synthetic
biology.
Collaboration with CSMU school Library
Due to the multifunctional uses of the library for university students, the number of people coming in and out
of
the library is quite significant. Therefore, we collaborated with the head of the school library to set up a
event
called "SDGs corner". On one hand, we made posters for students to have a better understanding of Sustainable
Devolopment Goals and synthetic biology. To have a deeper connection with the library, we listed out some
recommended booklist, which is related to above topic, for students to borrow.On
the other hand, we set up several interactive questions about our project and synthetic biology for students to
answer.
We even made posters to promote the event.
Some pop-up quesitions for participants to share their thoughts.
Indoor Lecture Education Activities
Our plan involves attracting students interested in synthetic biology within schools through our mobile booth
and
then conducting more lectures led by our team members inside classrooms. We have divided the lecture sessions
into
two categories: Club Courses and Customized Lectures.
Club Courses
These lectures are part of our structured, weekly teaching sessions that take place every Tuesday night. We
offer
systematic and progressive instruction, covering topics ranging from how to reference and read research papers
to
advanced concepts in synthetic biology. We aim to provide a logical sequence of courses that enable college
students
to gain a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and the iGEM spirit.
Customized Lectures
We have designed another type of lecture where we visit various departments within schools and tailor the
content
based on the specific expertise areas of each department. For example, when interacting with medical students
from
the CSMU Medical Department, who excel in laboratory work, we introduce them to aspects of synthetic biology
related
to laboratory experimentation. On the other hand, when dealing with students from the Medical Informatics
Department, we focus more on topics related to dry lab work and website development.
