Overview

We have made outreach to all groups a very important aspect of our team, especially young people. We have therefore embarked on a longer-term campaign.

From May to August, social groups are the main target of our activities. For this purpose, we carried out 5 activities in different cities in venues such as science and technology centers, museums, and online live platforms with high traffic.

From August to September, we shifted our target group to schools, including summer care schools, primary and secondary schools, and student groups participating in out-of-school activities.

The content and form of publicity and promotion were also tailored to the different target groups, and as a result, they were all very rewarding. The following are the details of our work.

In May：

On May 20, the team went to Hangzhou to attend a science and technology exhibition—National Science Week in China Hangzhou Low Carbon Science and Technology Museum.

We understand that the visitors to this exhibition are mainly parents and children, so we have brought a lot of things that they do not commonly see in their normal life, hoping to arouse their curiosity, in order to more efficiently popularize what biological knowledge!

First, we brought a jigsaw puzzle of DNA strands, which attracted both younger children and interested adults. Many parents with young children also participated in the activity, the youngest child is less than 10 years old, at a young age to understand the DNA, may have more interest in biology and even genes. With the help of the team members, people have a certain understanding of the bases of ATCG.

Secondly, we also prepared a microscope, which is usually not often touched by many people. The world under the microscope will bring people more interest.

Thirdly, we prepared the drawing part. By drawing what you know about biology or the cell structure you see through the microscope, you can deepen your memory and understanding of your knowledge. At the same time, everyone can show their knowledge and get a sense of achievement through drawing. From the scene, we can see that the most familiar biological knowledge is just cells and cell structures. So we used this as an entry point to introduce DNA, the genetic material in cells, and the relationship between DNA and synthetic biology to help people understand synthetic biology more easily.

Finally, we prepared a knowledge contest for everyone, and everyone liked the atmosphere of the contest, so there was a lot of enthusiasm, and many people participated in answering the questions and were able to apply some of the content they learned in the field.

 

In July：

1 ”Synthetic Biology” Lecture

On July 15, we had a live broadcast with 7 teams from iGEM，they are Shanghai-SDG,Shanghai-BioX,Shanghai-MedX,Hangzhou-SDG,Hangzhou-BioX,Nanjing-SDG,Guangzhou-MedX. The eight teams have different research directions, which we think can attract more people to participate in our live broadcast, and we have about 2000 viewers in the whole broadcast. During the live broadcast, each team had a certain introduction to their topic. We introduced Clostridium tyrobutyricum, as well as the background and prospects of the project. Some videos from the lab were shown to add interest. We know from the comments section that people are very interested in us, some of them gave us valuable, innovative and interesting comments on our topic. We also set aside some time for questions from the audience. The audience asked some questions we didn't expect, which showed that the audience is becoming more knowledgeable about biology.

2 Are you concerned about carbon emissions? --Thematic awareness-raising activities

Our topic of carbon emissions may not generate widespread interest, thus we decided to go to the Nanjing Museum. Visitors to museums, comparatively, may be more interested in social issues like global warming, making our efforts potentially more impactful.

On July 16, our team presented our campaign at the Nanjing Museum. We were in the museum square informing and explaining to visitors from diverse countries, cities, fields, and ages. We discovered their limited knowledge of carbon emissions and pollution, with a primarily negative perception of the topic. Nevertheless, their awareness of the severity and contributing factors of pollution was relatively low. The team's explanation contributed to an enhanced understanding of the topic among the visitors. Furthermore, numerous individuals have demonstrated concern for problem-solving strategies regarding issues like pollution and will sustain their attention towards such matters in the future.

 

 

3 Synthetic Biology Quiz Challenge

On July 23rd, the members of Nanjing-BioX and Nanjing-SDG teams entered the Jiangsu Science and Technology Museum to communicate directly with the visitors to increase public awareness and knowledge of synthetic biology.

By distributing a synthetic biology quiz and rewarding participants with 80% correct answers, we succeeded in arousing the public's interest and attention to synthetic biology.

We set three different levels of difficulty for the quiz, with questions not only about the basics of biology, but also about life.

Participants were enthusiastic and actively tested their knowledge of biology. To encourage more people to participate, Nanjing-BioX and Nanjing-SDG set a challenge goal: as long as a participant achieved a correct rate of eighty percent or more, he or she would have a chance to win a generous prize. This incentive quickly drew the attention of the visitors and made the atmosphere of the event more enthusiastic.

After the event, the team members carefully counted and evaluated the questionnaires. The results showed that more than eighty percent of the attendees successfully answered most of the questions and excelled in their knowledge of synthetic biology. This also means that they will be honored to receive carefully prepared prizes.

This science outreach activity demonstrates the scientific appeal of synthetic biology, and we are very grateful to the Jiangsu Science and Technology Museum for providing the team with this valuable opportunity. Through close interaction with the public, the team not only helped the public understand the development and application of synthetic biology, but also inspired more young people to be passionate about scientific research.

 

In August

1 Children Learning in Games

In Nanjing, China, in the summer of 2023, nearly two hundred summer care centers were opened for children during their summer vacation, and we learned that summer care centers not only take care of children, but also let them learn some science and practical courses. So we contacted a care center in Xuanwu District, hoping to provide some science courses for these children.

In order to make synthetic biology more accessible to the children, we designed our lessons in the form of games in which we lead the children to learn new things.

In the first game, we introduced the children to the world of DNA through videos, props, and explanations to help them understand what DNA is and what the structure of DNA is. Then we let the kids do their own base pairing.

In the second game, we drew a simple version of the cell structure picture with different colors on the board and repeated it many times to help the children remember the name and appearance of each structure. Then we organized the children to work in pairs to complete the cell structure game.

In the third game, we asked the children to take turns saying the words related to biochemistry that they knew, making them really feel the close connection between our daily lives and science.

The children said they had never seen DNA and cells so intuitively, and it was a fun way to learn. In addition, through learning the game, many children have begun to develop an interest in science, and they even began to think and ask the question "how does the cells make organisms be active".

 

2 “Sustainable Development”Live Streaming

 

We decided to promote the project together because we and the Nanjing SDG are working on the same bacterium ---- Clostridium tyrobutyricum, although we have different research directions. Considering that offline promotion activity is always limited by time and space, we decided to broadcast live online to expand the promotion group as much as possible. We started with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and found out which ones are relevant to our topic. We linked our topic to the Sustainable Development Goals, introduced the topic and highlighted the Sustainable Development Goals behind it. Finally, we connected it to everyone's daily lives. For example, our team is doing a carbon reduction project, so we will cover the issue of carbon emissions in the live stream and what you can do every day to reduce carbon emissions.

The livestream had a good effect, and many people were willing to help us promote the livestream, so the final number of likes of the livestream reached 14,000.

 

3 Genetic Engineering & Synthetic Biology meetup

From August 14 to 18, while we were conducting experiments in the laboratory of Nanjing Tech University, a group of students from the Biological Exploration Camp were also there. We found that they were interested in genetic engineering, so we decided to have a deeper discussion with them, The team also prepared some questions for us to discuss with each other, such as climate change, environmental pollution, the goals of the United Nations, we had a little debate, where people of different minds exchange ideas, and the collision of ideas leads to more ideas and knowledge development. In the end, we learned a lot from their ideas, and the biology camp students learned a lot from us.

This event not only gave them a window into synthetic biology, but also cultivated more followers and supporters for the future of synthetic biology research.

In September

1  iGEM Handbook of Biological Science Popularization

The significance and meaning of a carbon reduction project is not only in the project itself, but also in popularizing science to more people.

We understood that in order to attract the attention of secondary school students, we had to make the promotional activities both informative and interesting. So we designed and produced a science brochure about iGEM and synthetic biology, and carried out a series of promotional activities in September in 6 secondary schools, including Hangzhou International School, Guanghua Qidi Education, Ningbo Xiaoshi School, Nanjing Foreign Language School, Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus, and Xi'an Tie Yi International Curriculum Center.

Through these outreach activities, these students learned not only about a major biology-related competition, but also about the immense value of synthetic biology.

 

Download iGEM Handbook of Biological Science Popularization

2  “Sustainable Development Explorer”

We contacted schools in 15 cities in Jiangsu，Shandong and Anhui provinces to conduct a joint campaign across the provinces. Together with Nanjing-SDG, the 2023 iGEM team, we sent our own "Sustainable Development Explorer" brochures to the schools.

Under the guidance of our team members and school teachers, the students read the brochure carefully. In the booklet, we linked "sustainable development" with "adventure" and presented it in the form of cartoons, which made the students feel more immersed in the process of reading the booklet.

Each school carried out a sustainable development "adventure" in different forms according to the actual situation, for example, thematic reading activities，and some students even competed to be "explorers" and gave their own sustainable development actions.

This event was an unprecedented experience for both us and those students, as we felt the energy of the youth and their concern for social issues.

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