Science, particularly synthetic biology, should never be confined solely within the laboratory. Synbio, as a nascent field offering numerous benefits to people's daily lives, still lacks widespread recognition. As members of the iGEM community, we recognize the responsibility of inspiring, encouraging and engaging our audience to participate in this field.
Coupled with the pressing need to raise awareness about parasitic infections from GAS (Giant African Snail), we utilized versatile methods, from online lectures to picture books, targeting learners across all age groups and nationalities.
After careful evaluation of the knowledge level of our audience to ensure specificity, we have chosen and designed the most adapted educational approaches for each audience. Further, our education was never one-way only. Our team highly values pre- and post-activity assessments, through which we make modifications and adjustments based on feedback. This approach ensures a two-way dialogue that fosters mutual learning.
Kindergarten children have a limited level of comprehension are still in the early stages of development. Nevertheless, we consider them an essential part of our audience, aiming to spark their curiosity about the field of synthetic biology.
To connect with this specific group, our team has crafted an original, hand-painted bilingual picture book titled "Humanity & Bacteria: From Enemy to Friend." We have developed an intriguing storyline that vividly and precisely illustrates the fundamental working mechanism of the cutting-edge gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. While maintaining age-appropriate language suitable for kindergarten children, we have visually conveyed the basic concept of using synthetic biology to transform disease-causing bacteria into a valuable tool for us. Through the journey of our two main characters, Cathy and Robbie, children will gain insight into the other side of bacteria and discover the world-changing power of CRISPR through our book. It reveals how synbio can transform harmful bacteria into useful tools that humans can harness.
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
We have also translated the picture book into English and created an electronic version with audiobook available which provides convinience for the teachers and other educators. We want to ensure that our picture book is understandable for as more children worldwide as possible in order to engage more youth mind to participate in this potential field. Our team kindly donated these books to elementary schools, bilingual kindergartens and local community. Through these approaches, we extended the reach of our story to as many children as possible.
Finally, we reached out to one of the inventors of CRISPR technology, Dr. Jennifer Doudna to learn about her insights on how we can effectively convey CRISPR technology to the public and the importance of raising awareness about this transformative technology.
(Fig.1 Chinese version printed picture books)
For the purpose of implementing our picture book teaching module and gathering direct feedback from the targeted audience, our team conducted an interactive lesson with Shenzhen Longhua kindergarten.
Considering Giant African snail as an local problem, we also felt the urgency and necessity of educating elementary kids regards to the health threat associated with GAS as kindergarten-age children are most vulnerable to the infection shown by our previous research. We have also gathered even more worrying information on the Internet stating that not only children themselves are unaware of the danger of GAS, but also teachers in kindergarten and elementary school have lack of recognition to the potential health harm. Therefore, our team incooperated education related to GAS in addition to our picture book story lesson.
On October 7th, three of our team members visited Shenzhen Longhua Kindergarten to deliver an educational lecture to children. Using our original picture book, we taught them the basics of synthetic biology. Our goal was to unveil the captivating potential of synthetic biology technology, aiming to spark their interest in the subject. We believe that these young minds represent a bright future with infinite possibilities, and they can make significant contributions to the synthetic biology community.
To fully gauge the impact of our lesson on the children, we decided to conduct two feedback sessions, one before and one after our presentation. Initially, we engaged the students by allowing them to use stickers to express their understanding on a whiteboard. This pre-activity feedback session set the stage for our lesson.
(Fig.2 Kindergarten kids putting stikers on the feedback board)
During the lesson, we focused on teaching the children about the dangers of GAS (Giant African Snails), explaining why they are harmful and what to do when encountering them. Recognizing that young children may have shorter attention spans during longer lessons, we continually asked brief questions and encouraged children to participate.
At the end of the lesson, we conducted a second feedback session with similar questions to the initial one, such as "What harm do snails pose to us?", "What is the role of DNA?" and "Can bacteria have positive effects?" Once again, we employed stickers and a whiteboard to collect feedback. To our satisfaction, we observed an increased number of stickers in the correct option area after the lecture, demonstrating that our lesson had been effective and made a positive impact on these children.
Following this session, we read our picture book to the children in both Chinese and English. To our surprise, we discovered that the children were highly engaged with the story and illustrations. They quickly grasped the concept of CRISPR technology through our two likable main characters, Cathy and Robbie. In fact, the children were so captivated that they kept asking our members questions about synthetic biology after the lesson, showing a strong attraction to this new subject they had just learned.
With the goal of continuing our educational activities in the future, we provided ten copies of our picture book, our read-along video, and the PDF English version of our picture book to each class. We also offered insights and suggestions on how they could integrate our teaching materials into their classrooms.
Overall, by analyzing the feedback and the students' responses, we believe the students became aware of the dangers of GAS, and they were inspired and intrigued by synthetic biology after this session. On our end, we gained valuable suggestions for improving our lessons in the future. Quoting the teachers, they suggested that it would be beneficial if we provided a more detailed lesson plan for them to review before the actual lesson and that we should consider using simpler language when explaining synthetic biology to the children.
(Fig. 3 snapshots of kindergarten interactive lesson)
GreatBay-SCIE being a high school team was committed passionately to educating our peers. As teenagers, we recognize our mission to engage with fellow students, promote Synbio, and connect with potential iGEMers who can make further contribution to the community. With compassion and enthusiasm, our team members have meticulously designed and executed comprehensive education initiative tailored to the understanding and knowledge levels of adolescents. These efforts aim to bridge the knowledge gap and introduce young minds to advanced technologies in the field.
At our school, Shenzhen College of International Education, we established an iGEM club, a platform open to all staffs and students to share synthetic biology. In addition to continuing the club's tradition of hosting weekly Synbio lectures, we introduced engaging games and interactive lab sessions this year to present synthetic biology as a tangible and holistic field of study to our club members.
(Fig.4 snapshots of iGEM club lecture session)
Our club course outline this year focuses on fundamental synbio knowledge that a synbio beginners should acquire. This included topics such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and the central dogma.
(Fig.5 snapshot of iGEM club lecture session)
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: A synbio journey with yeast
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: Introduction to iGEM and synthetic biology
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: Central dogma
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: Parts and biotechnology
Practicality is a key aspect we cannot overlook. We wish to provide our club members with hands-on experience of working in a Synbio lab just like a professional scientists . Thereby we have incorporated two simple yet classic experiments into our club activity: DNA gel electrophoresis and E. coli indigo staining. We commence each session with theoretical explanation, ensuring that our members grasp the concepts before diving into the practical work. This approach allows our members to visualize the concepts and immediately apply the knowledge they've learned.
(Fig.6-7 snapshots of iGEM club lab sessions)
(Fig.6-7 snapshots of iGEM club lab sessions)
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: Gel electrophoresis
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: E.coli indigo staining
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
Through our previous survey, we discovered that synthetic biology still appears to be obscure for the majority of adolescents at school. In order to make the subject more pleasant and amiable along with our other education activities, we created a modified game to help our audience learn the definitions and applications of synbio terminologies.
Inspired by a game that our team members like to play at party——"who is the spy" which is a recreational game that players are given same words with 1-2 spies given different yet similiar word, non-spies will need to identify the spies through discussion on the words while the spies will try to blend in. GreatBay-SCIE created our own "synbio version"of the game. With the purpose of expanding our audience, we developed 3 levels of the game with varying difficulties that people with all scale of knowledge can have fun with.
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
We initially introduced our game to our iGEM club at school. In the feedback survey, approximately 90% of our participants acknowledged its effectiveness as a learning tool for synthetic biology. However, we also received advice on how to improve the game. The feedback can be summarized into three main points: 1) Vary the difficulty levels to cater to players with different abilities, ensuring that everyone can have fun and learn a significant amount of knowledge. 2) Provide definitions to eliminate any ambiguity. 3) Foster interaction between the host and the players to ensure engagement.
(Fig.8-9 snapshots of club members playing the synbio version of "who is the spy" games modified by GreatBay-SCIE 2023)
(Fig.8-9 snapshots of club members playing the synbio version of "who is the spy" games modified by GreatBay-SCIE 2023)
Our team highly value the implementation of the "solution-feedback" loop. We always tried to build a two-way dialogue with our audience, thus we aimed at polishing our education tools so that they are well-adapted for our target audience. By reviewing through the feedback collected and referring to senior's opinions, we made improvement to our word bank and classify them into 3 level of difficulty: basic level, advanced level an professional level. Gathering students together, we held the game session again.
This time, after a brief overview of the keywords, we divided our club members into groups of 5-8, each with 1-2 seniors. The game starts with the distribution of word cards designed by our team to the players. Before the first round of discussion, we provided a definition pool compiled by us, players were given 5-10 minutes to read through it. To ensure the game's challenge and engagement, we also include similar terms into the definition pool.
We were surprised to receive much positive feedback the second time that approve our effort on adjustment.
(Fig.10 snapshots of the second game session)
Having received considerable praise for our modified version of the game 'Who Is the Spy?' we are determined to further refine it. Our team recognizes that an effective educational approach should be not only impactful but also long-lasting and self-sustaining, without requiring constant guidance from its original creators, which, in this case, is our team, GreatBay-SCIE.
To fulfill this vision, we have created an instructional guide that accompanies our cards and definition pool. This comprehensive instruction includes guidance on word selection and instructions for the game host.
The game pack was implemented during our visit to Shenzhen Taining Primary School. We brought along our updated version of the game "Who Is the Spy?" with the instruction sheet and delivered a lecture on the development of synthetic biology. After gathering feedback from the primary school teachers, we found that our modified synbio "Who Is the Spy?" game was highly successful, and they approved of its potential for teaching additional content. After the visit, we provided our guidance sheet to the teachers who later update us the great application and adaption of our instruction sheet.
(Fig.11 snapshots of Shenzhen Taining primary school lecture session)
By following this guide, our users can use the game flexibly to learn a broader range of synthetic biology concepts. This transformative approach turns the game into an independent educational tool with the potential to facilitate the learning of synbio to its fullest extent.
Fig.12 group photo with Shenzhen Taining primary school students
Considering most in-person demonstrations of synthetic biology we did cannot be preserved for future review and rebuild, a series of online interactive sessions are essential for the knowledge and work to be spread. To engage a wider range of peers and students to engage in the contribution and participation of synthetic biology journey, we have collaborated with another high school team in Shenzhen called AIS-China to produce a series of synbio courses of 10 lessons, targeting on our peers who cannot easily access synthetic biology resources in their curriculums or on-campus education. This covered topics like central dogma, DNA gel electrophoresis, PCR and parts. Two teams both benefit from this cooperation as we distribute the videos at various situations to different audience. AIS-China team members utilized the videos as an engaging educational tool in the iGEM club at their school.
Fig.13 snapshots of AIS-China member using our synbio online lessons in their iGEM club
Most of the lessons produced are accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations and handwritten notes, which can innovatively draw the attention from the audiences and help demonstrate most of the abstract conceptions in synthetic biology with a visualized and readable approach.
Our team then posted these meticuously created videos on our official account of Bilibili, a prominent Chinese video-sharing platform that captured hearts of million of users across the globe. This social media has become a dynamic culture among Chinese teenagers in recent years, an increasing amount of Chinese adolescents are looking for study materials on this platform. Thus, we grasp the opportunity to upload our online lessons on Bilibili to ensure that maximum number of peers are connected.
Fig.14 our team's Bilibili account profile page
Understanding Giant African Snail infection as an local problem in South China, but besides the striking data and numbers published online, we were also curious about whether the species invasion is a global concern that will affect the daily lives of ordinary people all around the world. Gathered information from the Internet, we realized that snails might be part of the local diet in some African areas, where the snails originated. Therefore, we contacted Marlboro Gardens Secondary School in South Africa via email, explaining our purpose for multi-cultural communication regarding the opinions on invasive species, which would significantly enrich the definition of the impacts of our project.
Building on our initial motivation, our team recognizes the importance of introducing synthetic biology to this specific group. Synthetic biology, being a relatively new field, remains less accessible, particularly to teenagers worldwide. As adolescents ourselves, we've been fortunate to be finanacially and physically capable of access to synthetic biology laboratories and conduct experiments. However, we also recognize the disparities in access to synthetic biology education, especially in African schools.
To address this gap, we firstly provide our synbio online lessons pior our online. These documented education material will help our friends to eastablish primary understanding of synbio which ensure a smooth discussion later. Furthermore, we believe that this long-lasting form of teaching can make synbio more inclusive for teenagers across the globe.
During our communication, we shared the aspect of how these snails are portrayed as dangerous animals in China. We also introduced possible treatments for the victim when one is infected and methods to avoid infection when encountering these snails. According to the feedback from the African students that is contrary to our knowledge, snails are in fact not a staple diet in the African community, and there was a mutual understanding between both schools that it is unadvised to consume Giant African Snails due to the A. cantonensis present in them, which greatly support our motivation to initiate project-related education from global perspectives.
Fig.15 snapshots of online communication session with African school
For the next section of our meeting, our team members talked about the concepts in synthetic biology, in particular the two compounds (alpha-pinene and isoamyl acetate) that we decided to produce as the main attraction thread to invite snails into our hardware device. We led the students through the main concepts of how synthetic biology may provide a comprehensive solution to treating Giant African Snails, more importantly, let students in Africa realize how closely can synthetic biology related to our daily lives.
Lastly, this interview ended with a Q&A session as we answered a few of the student's questions and collected feedback from our presentation, and we were very excited to see their thumbs up regarding their interest in keep exploring synthetic biology. Our team believed that this online session was a valuable opportunity for both sides. On our side, we were able to clear our previous misunderstandings, learn more about the GAS issue in local Africa and further evaluate our project with its global significance, while they were able to take a glimpse into synthetic biology, bioethics, and our iGEM project as a whole.
Fig.16 African students showing their thumbs up
The general public, being the most extensive demographic, comprises individuals with varying levels of knowledge. Synthetic biology, as a nascent field, has not been widely disseminated among the masses. Therefore, there is a pressing need to increase the spread of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, we aim to raise awareness of our project in light of the health threat posed by the Giant African Snail, which is a significant local concern in South China.
Therefore, our Wechat official account called "SCIE iGEM" was created, aiming to introduce the basic knowledge of synthetic biology to the public in the most popular and accessible way.
Fig.17-18 daily change in the number of clicks and number of viewers of the articles; figure: daily number of new followers, with a total of 816 followers by 2023-10-02
Specifically, feedback collection was emphasized as we include our team email at the end of each article and invites readers to comment below, so we can also acquire advice and inspirations from our viewers for improvements. For example, in the article of introduction of our project GastroPurifier, a question in the article was noticed as inaccurate by an anonymous reader, who then contacted us to bring up this mistake. We actively corrected the mistake and re-published that article.
Fig.19 chat history with the reader who came up with the question
Our collaboration with other iGEM teams was also promoted through this activity. For instance, we posted an article discussing the CRISPR-Cas system and SHERLOCK technology that was writen by team GreatBay-SCIE and SMS-Shenzhen which has delightful outcome.
Fig20. online video meeting with SMS-Shenzhen team members discussing the cooperation in the article
Posting synthetic biology-related notes or films on social media platforms can effectively facilitate the dissemination of knowledge pertaining to synthetic biology, while concurrently promoting awareness of our project. Our team has selected three main platforms: RED, Bilibili and Wechat (the last two are mentioned before) as they are the most trending and influential media in China with millions of enthusiastic users. RED, a platform with a recreational nature provides a diverse range of content forms, including textual, visual, and audiovisual elements for people to share their daily lives.(such as notes, plog and vlog). Here, we integrated our education with the characteristics of this platform to share warm and interesting stories of our daily lives in iGEM journey, revealing how charming synthetic biology labs may look like. This multifaceted approach enhances our ability to effectively communicate our message and captivate the interest of users, hence optimizing the dissemination and appeal of synthetic biology within various demographic segments.
Fig.21 our team's RED account profile page
In response to the feedback from Human Practice activities that there are insufficient efforts contributing to a systematic and standardized operating system regarding the integrated control of Giant African Snails (see Human Practice), and also aid our hardware potential users(see Hardware), we create a Wechat mini program, called Snail Locator, to actively engage our project with the general public in our surrounding society. The printed QR code is presented everywhere at our neighbourhood, anyone who is interested in could scan the code and open the mini program, supported by officers in Wildlife Protection Bureau and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in our Human Practice. Then our users can read through information regards to local Giant African Snails issue. As they scroll down, users can upload the geographic locations of where they've seen GAS and attach photos of the snails. On the admin site of this software, we can gather data of areas where GAS congregate or occur frequently. Therefore, our team can offer this information to our Hardware users for recommending distribution site, as well as to local governments to issue responsive and effective guidelines for the target regions with high density of Giant African Snails.
Understanding that GAS-associated nematode infection is a local concern that might affects all citizens in our area and following with the issue of the Snail Locator mini program, educating our community about the Giant African Snail (GAS) and safe practices for daily encounters has become a necessity. To fulfill this responsibility, our team members created pamphlet containing selected yet detailed information. The pamphlet outlines the threats posed by GAS as both an invasive species and a disease vector, along with recommended actions that can be taken at the individual, community, and government levels.
Furthermore, we aimed to ignite the general public's interest in learning about synthetic biology through simple, household-friendly experiments. Our team purchased materials and made fruit DNA extraction experiment kits. We kindly included the simplified experiment protocol in the kit, wherein users can scan the QR code on the protocol to access a video tutorial filmed by our team members and carry out the experiment with the equipment provided in the kit and materials available at home.
Fig.22-23 pamphlets and fruit DNA extraction experimental kit prepared by GreatBay-SCIE 2023
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
Our team distributed these materials during a holiday at the biggest and most popular shopping center called Mixc World at Shenzhen. There were thousands of visitors with different ages, genders and cultural backgrounds to ensure the diversity of our audience that correlates with our initiative of popularizing synbio to as wide audience as possible and raising people's awareness of GAS associated parasitic infection.
Fig. 24-26 snapshots of distribution of the materials at shopping center called Mixc World at Shenzhen
We observed that any of our audience are passionate about learning more about our project. They have verbally expressed that this was a great opportunity for them to delve into the field of synthetic biology. Our hands-on experimental kit and pamphlet have piqued their interest, they were all motivated to scan the QR code and subscribe our Wechat official account for further information.
Considering that majority of our education has been slightly scattered and random, we are eager to establish more direct conversation with our audience and listen to thier genuine thoughts. Moreover, we have come to realize that the older generation often holds a negative view of gene technologies, with some even refers gene-edited vegetables as "carcinogenic". To dispel the misconception, we organize a introductory lecture facing adult at our labaratory.
This time, we shifted our focus onto the discovery and development of synthetic biology as an scientific subject. Instead of concentrating on the professional terminologies and specific techonologies, we aimed to help our listeners perceive synthetic biology as a subject that allows us to "understand life from the perspective of designing life". This lecture was given both online and offline. Participants who came to our lab also had experienced microbial plate painting experiment as well.
Fig.27 screenshot of online introductory course to adults
Fig.28-29 snapshots of offline experiment session with adults
After we finished the introductory lecture to the adult, a feedback was asked to fill in. According to the feedback, the adults’ understanding to synthetic biology which was very was boosted by our introductory course. Most importantly, all of them strongly agreed that this kind of face-to-face introductory lecture and practical session were an fantastic approach for education. We are so delighted to have received many constructive feedback that recognize our effort. Our team felt extremely proud that we impacted more adults to change their attitude and become willing to know more about this field.
Click Here for Downloading the PDF: Adult Education's Courseware
Communication with the scientific community could never be excluded as part of our initiative to promote synthetic biology and contribute to improve the environment of our shared community. We aimed at establishing reciprocal conversations with other synbio professionals by taking innovative approaches which reflect high-schoolers' unique perpectives on the issue. Our actions are inspiring to other iGEM teams and synbio origanization in which we believe that will trigger a chain reaction that is conducive to the community.
Our project GAStroPurifier involves human interruption of regular activities of organisms, In order to carefully evaluate our synbio project, we conducted an interview with Dr. Guo on bioethics (see Human Practice)
Ethics has always been an essential aspect of synthetic biology. The public survey we conducted revealed a significant prevalence of misconceptions regarding bioethics among the general public. Under the guidance of Professor Guo, we have compiled a handbook that encapsulates our learnings from the aforementioned interview.
As a set of comprehensive feedback and reflections to our explorations in Bioethics, the objectives of developing this bioethic handbook are as follows:
1)To inspire the scientific community to pay attention to ethical considerations when conducting synbio projects by illustrating the relationship between Bioethics and scientific development;
2)To establish standards that clarify common misconceptions and provides bio-ethically appropriate course of actions;
3)To summarize the guidelines for future iGEM teams to involve bioethical consideration during their project initiation, and to evaluate the projects related to invasive species.
(Click Here for Downloading the PDF Document)
Biosafety's significance was explored through our journey of synthetic biology labs. Through our research, we discovered inconsistency of safety regulation across different laboratories as a serious problem that will cause potential biological threats. So we drafted a proposal to standardize management rules across different labs.
However, through our interviews with relevant professionals engaged in synthetic biology (see Human Practice), we came to the conclusion that the current relevant regulations in China have already been comprehensive and complete. But the access to resources are extremely complicated, particularly due to the own regulations of different departments. Consequently, we decided to work on building a platform with the governments to organize the pertinent channels.
The establishment of a simpler and more convenient channel summarization platform is conducive as it fill the vacancy of gap to allow individual with an interest in synthetic biology to delve deeper into synthetic biology study and research - such as a more thorough and rapid understanding of synthetic biology research biosafety guidelines - and gaining clear understanding of current national regulations, in order to set up synthetic biology laboratories efficiently. In addition, some corporate laboratory regulations are communicated verbally, so these regulations can be compiled into a document that can be used to educate the relevant personnel, ensuring their operations in biological lab and their biological projects are good and responsible for the world.
