Communication is the most important way to achieve education, and education is the ultimate goal that communication aims to achieve. We believe that the education and popularization of synthetic biology (especially the prevention and treatment of acne) should have universality. Therefore, we carry out targeted educational activities targeting different age groups such as children, college students, middle-aged people, and the elderly. At the same time, we also fully tap into social needs and form educational activities targeting special populations. We hope to contribute to the treatment of acne and the spread of synthetic biology through this opportunity.
Communication and education are a closely connected loop, and the feedback obtained through communication will greatly promote the improvement of education quality. Hattie's feedback model has had a profound impact on global education research, policy formulation, and practice. Effective educational feedback requires going through three feedback channels: feedforward, positive feedback, and backward feedback, including "where am I going", "how am I progressing", and "where am I going next?" This aligns well with the ideal type of educational work in our iGEM competition.
To this end, our team has incorporated the three processes of "feedforward", "forward", and "backward" into our education work based on Hattie's feedback model. At the same time, we have made corresponding modifications to the third and fourth levels of the original model, allowing everyone to have a more intuitive view of our work in education.
Education for young children
The biological coloring book activity "Using pens as wings to imagine the future"
Einstein once said, "Interest is the best teacher. When educating young children, we transform their knowledge of synthetic biology into a more accessible coloring book, replacing existing cells with more vivid cartoon images, and maximizing their interest in synthetic biology. We hope to use this to play a role in the enlightenment of synthetic biology.
Our team contacted Tuanjie Kindergarten in Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province and jointly completed this activity with professional kindergarten teachers. Children exhibit rich imagination in the activities, and through their paintings, they can see the most primitive and naive synthetic biology world of children.
Education for college students
Biology Monthly
In college life, students do not yet have a unified channel to understand the cutting-edge information of synthetic biology, which is also a major obstacle in college education work. Our team aims to provide a window for college students to learn and exchange synthetic biology, and has established the "Biology Monthly". It introduces readers to the cutting-edge technologies and products of synthetic biology at home and abroad, past iGEM antimicrobial peptides/skin disease excellent team learning, collaborative team project introduction, team member interviews, and more. The electronic version of the publication is sent to the WeChat public account "Haida iGEM", and offline we will bind the monthly magazine into a book and give it to interested students for free.
We fully consider the cultural level, acceptability, and knowledge needs of the audience of the Biology Monthly. Starting from the fundamental needs of the audience, widely collect synthetic biology data, and always pay attention to the application of new technologies and the development of new products in the academic community. Meanwhile, considering communication with other teams, we have included modules such as my team's self-expression and introduction to collaborative team projects in the monthly magazine. On the basis of understanding academic news, provide a direct way for readers who are interested in collaborating or gaining a deeper understanding to obtain information.
Lecture on Synthetic Biology and Lecture on "Being at ease and with me"
Before conducting lectures on synthetic biology, our team fully considered the fun of the lectures. Therefore, we focused on the issue of college students being prone to "acne" and combined "acne prevention" with lectures on synthetic biology knowledge, effectively avoiding the inefficiency of previous lectures due to their long duration and profound problems.
We invited Dr. Wan Xinyi, a high-level talent introduced by Hainan University, to give a lecture on synthetic biology knowledge. Starting from the obvious problems of natural sensors and demonstrating the diverse functions of new sensors, she explained in detail the four obvious characteristics of synthetic biology, also known as engineering biology, namely abstraction, standardization, generalization, and rational quantitative design. She used a very appropriate metaphor to compare the construction process of synthetic biology to Lego building blocks, and showed us in detail the interrelationships between sensing module signals, processing module, and output execution module. She also compared computer engineering with synthetic biology, and introduced a mysterious and rich biological "frontier" to everyone in detail.
CCiC Game - "Summer Treasure Hunt"
Our team, as the organizer of the 10th CCiC, has designed the "Summer Treasure Hunt" game to meet the needs of the participating teams, combining contemporary youth entertainment aesthetics and game preferences, with the goal of promoting synthetic biology, promoting team communication, and connecting intimate bonds. On the basis of drawing inspiration from traditional treasure hunting game models, we strive for theme innovation, self-made cards, and leverage the advantages of all HP and art teams to create a game that aligns with synthetic biology.
The participating team completes the biological related tasks shown on the task card by searching for information cards and function cards. Tasks include completing photosynthesis, digestion processes, synthesizing plants, building alveoli, completing transcription, and building a gene expression model. In addition to the name, the information card also contains a detailed explanation of the information, which to some extent supplements the knowledge of synthetic biology. During the treasure hunting process, each team exchanges information with each other to help identify card tasks, guide the search for routes, share information cards, and connect team projects with specific tasks. The process of building models provides new ideas for experimental projects, forming a task oriented - element integration - tool assisted thinking mode, and better assisting in the development and improvement of team projects. The feedback from each team was good, praising the card design's painting style, game fun, playability, innovation, and other aspects that exceeded expectations. Especially in terms of game design, it is in line with the concept of synthetic biology and combines teaching with entertainment.
Synthetic Biology Knowledge Competition
College students are a semi scientific educated group with a certain knowledge foundation, so we believe that competitive educational activities will be more suitable for this group of people. For this purpose, our team collected and produced two sets of "Synthetic Biology Knowledge Competition" test questions, one for offline exam scoring and the other for online "Questionnaire Star" link answering. We awarded our cultural and creative products to students with excellent results and gave the monthly magazine free of charge to participating students.
Synthetic Biology History Comics
In order to strengthen cooperation and exchange with various iGEM teams in China, eight iGEM teams from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, Beijing Normal University, Hainan University, Ocean University of China, Wuhan University, Tianjin University, and Guangxi University jointly launched the SynBio History Science Popularization Activity, aiming to use the simple and beautiful form of comics to popularize the development of synthetic biology to the public.
Our team is responsible for Chapter 4 "Discovery of Plasmids". Let's follow in our footsteps and watch the manga of synthetic biology together~
Education for middle-aged people
Mid Autumn Festival Special Edition - The Collision between Synthetic Biology and Traditional Chinese Culture
The Mid Autumn Festival is a precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, embodying the longing for one's hometown and loved ones. Due to middle-aged people being a high-risk group for acne, our team hopes to hold a "warm" science popularization activity during this holiday, allowing team members and parents to participate in the two small games we have developed and designed, making this love more practical.
Mini Game 1- Biology Collaborating Music
Our team's small game is based on intelligent puzzles, without aimless repetition. If the original picture is pieced together, it will pass the level smoothly. In the game, if you encounter difficulties, clicking on the elf in the upper right corner will prompt you, and clicking on the blue note will sound background music. Your game duration will also be recorded in the leaderboard.
After the game is cleared, the background music "Victory" will sound, and the leaderboard will be closed. You will see a knowledge card on "dry skin properties". There are three cards in total, which pop out in sequence. Listen to the background music of grand victory, learn about biological skin knowledge, and enrich your gaming experience in leisure and relaxation.
Mini Game 2- Jumping Rabbit
This game is a level breaking game. In the game, biology is the main element and the introduction of synthetic biology is interspersed, which not only allows players to enjoy the fun of challenging levels in the game, but also allows them to understand the relevant knowledge of biology.
There are three buttons at the bottom of the game interface, namely left move, right move, and jump. After the game starts, players need to pass the level according to the game design. During the game, they need to avoid and jump obstacles, and ensure that the characters do not fall off the platform. Each game character only has one chance to pass the level. If they fail, they need to watch relevant knowledge and science popularization before choosing to do it again.
Mini game 3- Biosynthetic version 2048
The mini game takes the hierarchical structure of the biological system as the synthetic element of 2048, and adds two additional elements, atoms and molecules, to form exactly 11 elements of 2048. During the synthesis process, players continuously deepen their understanding and memory of the hierarchical structure of the biological system. This mini game not only provides puzzle, but also popularizes basic knowledge of biology.
Use the mouse arrow keys or swipe the screen to merge the same hierarchical structure of the life system. Each successful synthesis will accumulate points. After the game ends, you can click "try again" to play again. The mini game also has the function of recording the highest point, allowing players to play multiple times and strive for better results. Come and explore the mysteries of the biosynthetic version of 2048 together!
Education for the elderly
Love Volunteer Activity - Synthetic Biology Reflected by the Sunset
Our team believes that the education and popularization of synthetic biology should be broad and have strong universality. Therefore, we hope to enter the elderly group to carry out educational activities. Our team went to the Fengxiang Street Comprehensive Elderly Care Service Center in Qiongshan District in August for a "Science Popularization+Volunteer" synthetic biology education activity. During the process, we briefly explained the skin manual in their easy to understand "Hainan dialect". At the same time, we learned that when they were young, many people would suffer from skin diseases due to backward medical conditions and lack of personal hygiene awareness. However, now they seem to only stay in memory of these diseases, which further strengthens our confidence in contributing to synthetic biology.
Education for special groups
Audible reading materials - "Himalayas" for special groups
The production of Himalayan audiobooks is aimed at all age groups. Whether it is used as bedtime reading for children, daily knowledge popularization, or as a backup force for the team, it is one of the effective ways to promote synthetic biology. Copywriting, audio recording, and cover illustrations are all self-made, making unfamiliar and obscure synthetic biology knowledge easy to understand through storytelling, suitable for all age groups to listen to. The audiobook includes two parts: the Synthetic Biology Classroom and the Team Agenda Record. The Synthetic Biology Classroom connects synthetic biology with daily necessities from various aspects such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation, guiding the audience into the gate of synthetic biology, recognizing that synthetic biology has been integrated into our lives and interacting with us day and night. Through the fifth phase of science popularization, the public has realized that synthetic biology is not a technology that exists on machines, but has effectively served the public and pushed past dreams into reality. Through team schedule records, it is possible for the audience or other teams to understand our team, truly feel our conversation with the audience, enhance intimacy with them, render authenticity and visual sense, have strong narrative, and the audience is willing to listen.
We have fully considered the audience characteristics of audiobooks and found that they are not only suitable for listeners of all ages, but also for hearing-impaired individuals who hope to acquire biological knowledge through audiobooks. In order to contribute to the promotion of synthetic biology and pay attention to the spiritual needs of special populations, we have decided to present our audiobooks on the mature reading platform "Himalayas".
Write at the end - education for future teams
During the preparation process, our team has gained a deep understanding and learning of previous iGEM teams, and has formed learning records. We would like to share the summarized learning records with future iGEM participants, providing them with more convenient references and minimizing learning time.
Finally, in order to better document our activities, we present our proud "shining points" in a standardized table format!
