Education is a tree shaking a tree, a cloud to promote a cloud, a soul awaken another soul.
——Karl Theodor Jaspers
In this era of rapid development of science and technology, people are constantly driven forward by emerging technologies and resulting flood of information. However, on account of the understanding of many technologies requires the audience to have a certain accumulation of knowledge, it takes a lot of time and energy to let people understand them truly.
However, in this era of fast-food reading, it seems that people are no longer willing to devote too much time to learning a new thing with a high threshold. Our survey data also shows that a whopping 67.8 percent of people have not heard of synthetic biology at all or know very little about it. Therefore, our goal this year is to help synthetic biology come into the public eye through our efforts, towards a wider society. We are very happy to see that our education and science popularization have received good feedback, and many people are willing to participate in the communication with us, so that education has changed from the traditional one-way communication to a benign interaction.
Target groups: Elementary school students
Object of activity: In order to communicate with younger groups, broaden their horizons, and inspire children to think about biological phenomena in life, our team came to the primary school affiliated to Huazhong Agricultural University and launched a science popularization education activity.
Activity process: From July 5th to 7th, team members Leyang Huang and Meng Sun introduced common biological knowledge to the children in easy-to-understand language, such as: trees can use sunlight to provide energy for themselves, there are countless small Living organisms around everyone that are difficult to see with the naked eye, and everyone is made up of many cells...... These are common knowledge for us, but they are very new for children. After the members' explanation, they raised plenty of interesting questions: Why can't people product energy just like tree? Can people take on all kinds of shapes like Transformers? ... Our popular science inspired the children to think about biological knowledge, and encouraged them to carefully observe various biology-related phenomena in life.
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In addition, team member Yutong Chen also led the children to make many models, guiding the children to express their ideas related to biology in a concrete way.
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Through this campaign, we hope to make the public aware that science has no age group and that everyone can become an audience for science. It is also hoped that through this popular science education, children will have an initial interest in biology and even a wider range of natural sciences, which is conducive to scientific penetration and cultural feeding.
Target groups: Senior high school students
Object of activity: According to the data obtained from the case investigation conducted by the team members in the early stage, we found that many people do not understand synthetic biology, especially for the high school students who are about to enter the university. Although they have learned some ideas of synthetic biology in the textbooks, they really have little understanding of synthetic biology. Not only that, but also many students showed a strong interest in the related knowledge of synthetic biology. Based on this, the team decided to carry out educational activities with the theme of "Leading high school students into the world of synthetic biology" to broaden their understanding of synthetic biology and stimulate their interest in synthetic biology and even biology.
Activity process: On July 12, the preaching team came to team member Sun Xincong's Alma mater, Changle No. 1 Middle School in Shandong Province. Here, the team conducted a series of educational activities. This educational activity was carried out in two ways online and offline, among which the total number of viewers on the online platform reached 48, and the number of offline participants reached 400.
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Our science promotion activities cover two parts:
· Synthetic biology lecture
In this session, the members presented what is synthetic biology, the development history of synthetic biology, the application of synthetic biology, the experiments related to synthetic biology, the cutting-edge achievements of synthetic biology and other knowledge closely related to synthetic biology in a simple way. By presenting a systematic and complete synthetic biology framework to students, students have a more in-depth and detailed understanding of synthetic biology. At the same time, the members also promoted the HZAU-China 2023 project and the iGEM competition, increasing the awareness of the team and the iGEM competition.
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· Q & A
In the question and answer session, the members gave detailed answers to some students' questions and distributed the creative products of our project to the active students who participated in the questions. After listening to the lecture, the students asked questions on specific topics, ranging from the rumors of genetic modification in daily life to the relationship between brain science and synthetic biology, from the implementation details of the C.A.T project to the overall research direction of iGEM competition.
Not only that, some students showed us their strong desire to apply for biology-related majors and asked us about relevant subject knowledge; Some students are eager to join the iGEM team, participate in the research, and experience the technology and achievements of synthetic biology, which reflects everyone's in-depth thinking and careful observation of the lecture content and biological knowledge in daily life, and also reflects the great success of this educational activity among high school students. Inspired their passion for synthetic biology, iGEM competitions, and the biology profession as a whole.
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Synthetic biology is the future of the "Exploitation of the Works of Nature", with the help of synthetic biology, we have more and more opportunities and possibilities to understand and transform the world. We hope that through our educational activities, more and more people can realize synthetic biology, and more and more young blood can join the discipline construction of synthetic biology, so as to make the world a better place!
Target groups: College students
Object of activity: To enhance the public's knowledge and awareness of the physiological structure of pet cats and to enhance the public understanding about the C.A.T project.
Activity process: From 15:00 to 16:00 on May 27, the team members organized students to visit the Herbarium of the College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine. In the course of the activity, the staff of the Herbarium gave vivid and detailed explanations on the growth and development process, bone structure, physical features and living habits of pet cats, which enhanced the in-depth understanding of the public and team members on the main body of the C.A.T project.
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Target groups: College students
Object of activity: Let the students understand the mechanism of the project in a concrete and interesting way, so that the project can be accepted by more students including non-biology majors.
Activity process: On May 31, 19:00-21:00, the team members organized and led the students to conduct an antigenic antibody peekaboo activity on the campus of Huazhong Agricultural University. During the activity, the team members introduced the basic knowledge of synthetic biology and the relevant principles of the C.A.T project in vivid language. Not only that, the team members also combined the principle of this year's project with the peekaboo game to optimize the final antigen antibody peekaboo game, so that students can feel and appreciate the principle of C.A.T more intuitively in the joyful atmosphere of the game.
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Antigen antibody peekaboo enhanced the public's understanding of C.A.T. The team integrated synthetic biology knowledge into games, which promoted the dissemination and popularization of synthetic biology knowledge and iGEM competition among the public, and also enhanced the social identity of the project.
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Target groups: College students
Object of activity: In order to enhance the awareness of synthetic biology itself and team project in the public, to understand the attitude of college students to team project and synthetic biology, and to answer their doubts.
Activity process: At 3pm on September 24, we held a "Two schools Together to meet Friends" project promotion activity at 102 College of Life Science and Technology. First of all, Ruichen Shen from HZAU-China briefly introduced synthetic biology and iGEM competitions. Then, Yan Xu from HZAU-China and a member from HUST-China introduced their team's project respectively. Finally, the debate competition was brought by the members of the iGEM teams of the two schools.
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Not only that, after the game, iGEMers participated in the interaction with the audience, and everyone had a deeper understanding and understanding of this issue.
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After the presentation ended, students showed a strong interest in our iGEM competition. A large number of students visited our iGEM laboratory. They asked questions about the knowledge and skills that are required to join our iGEM team, as well as the specific roles in each group. iGEM team members provided detailed answers and encouraged them to participate in the selection of team members for the next year's project.
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First of all, in terms of public publicity, we use wechat, QQ, bilibili and other platforms for publicity, pushing interesting popular science knowledge, event warm-up and event summary, so that HZAU-iGEM can enter the public's vision in a more diversified form.
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In addition, we also designed a beautiful products. We believe that keychains and medals are a good way to spread knowledge among young people, so we distribute them to active participants at various events to stimulate their interest in the C.A.T project and the iGEM competition as a whole.
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