Background

Synthetic biology is a technology of engineering living systems, which has important application value and development potential in many fields. The emphasis on synthetic biology will promote the better development of synthetic biology, and its effects will benefit the entire human world. Therefore, it is the mission of iGEM participants to educate the public about synthetic biology.

In addition, the fashion industry is a huge industry, but it is also an extremely wasteful industry. Waste water, gas and waste generated in the production process will pollute the environment, which is not conducive to the goal of environmental protection and sustainable development. But the public's understanding of the fashion industry is still limited.

Therefore, we aim to popularize the knowledge related to synthetic biology and environmental protection to the public through popular science education, based on the content of our projects. We hope that through education, the public can not only understand the relevant scientific knowledge, but also guide them to pay attention to the fashion industry, realize the importance of environmental protection, and make them become active participants and promoters of environmental protection. We look forward to our education section contributing to the advancement of synthetic biology and the goal of promoting sustainable development!

Educational Idea

Adhering to the philosophy of responsibility and participation, we aim to disseminate our research results and scientific knowledge to the public, and help primary and secondary school students, especially those in impoverished areas without sufficient educational resources, gain access to scientific knowledge beyond their textbooks. Our goal is to broaden their horizons while bringing synthetic biology and our programs to the public's attention.

Through targeted questionnaire surveys, we carry out science popularization and environmental education on synthetic biology projects for people of different regions and age groups, with the aim of achieving optimal educational outcomes. We design various teaching programs based on their knowledge levels, encouraging students to actively participate in the process of exploration and practice, unleashing their creativity and promoting their all-round development.

We hope that our actions will promote public understanding of synthetic biology and iGEM, guide the public in correctly comprehending and utilizing scientific knowledge, and enhance both public scientific literacy and environmental awareness.

Questionnaire

In the early stage of education, our goal is to better understand the public's perception of the fashion industry, and we can be more clear about the direction and focus of science popularization and education. To achieve this goal, we have designed a questionnaire to understand the public's perception of the fashion industry so that we can better carry out popular science education. Through the collection and analysis of questionnaire data, we can understand the public's cognition and attitude towards the fashion industry, so as to adjust and optimize our popular science education content to make it more targeted and effective.

As of August this year, we have collected more than 700 valid questionnaires, which provide us with a wealth of data. Through the analysis of the questionnaire, we drew a lot of conclusions about the public's awareness of the fashion industry. Some results are shown below, and all results are displayed on the details page.

In terms of public awareness of leather products, as shown in Figure 1, 27% of respondents said they were unclear about the origin of the leather they used. On the question of whether leather is environmentally friendly (Figure 2), 11% of respondents think it is, and 43% do not know. This means that there is still a long way to go, we need to communicate the concept of environmental protection to the public, and call on people to reduce the use of animal and plant leather. That's why we're committed to education.

In the public perception of fashion industry pollution, as shown in Figure 3, we find that only a few people know that it will also produce pesticide pollution and thermal pollution. It also shows that the public does not fully understand the type of pollution caused by the fashion industry. We need to strengthen the science popularization of environmental pollution for primary and secondary school students, so that more people can have a more comprehensive understanding of the environmental pollution that the fashion industry may bring.

Through the collection and analysis of questionnaire data, we have learned the public's cognition and attitude towards the fashion industry, and will conduct targeted science popularization according to the analysis results. We will strengthen the publicity about the pollution of the fashion industry, and hold more science popularization activities to let more people know about the pollution of the traditional fashion industry to the environment. At the same time, we also need to convey the concept of environmental protection to the public, and let more people understand and support our projects, and jointly contribute to environmental protection.

Starlight Market

Starlight Market is one of the activities held to celebrate the 121st anniversary of the founding of Nanjing University, sponsored by the Communist Youth League Nanjing University Committee, and carried out in Weihua Stadium, Xianlin Campus of Nanjing University. The "merchants" of more than 100 stalls in the fair were selected from the school and college organizations, societies, departments, teachers and students of Nanjing University. The booths included a variety of interactive games, project promotion and cultural and creative activities, showing the extraordinary creativity and youthful vitality of NJU students. We want to use the platform of the Star Market to publicize our iGEM project and let more people know about synthetic biology and textile related knowledge.

We popularized iGEM and Nanjing-China programs with visiting teachers and students. After a brief introduction, we will answer questions and explain to curious tourists, bring the scientific spirit and values behind iGEM to everyone, and let everyone feel the charm of the frontier field of life science.

In addition to popularizing science in iGEM and Nanjing-China projects, we prepared raw materials for making dried flower bottles for our booth, and designed rich knowledge questions. The questions range from textile knowledge to iGEM results and are rich in content. We discusses pollution in the fashion industry and explores the possibilities of iGEM applications. Through our activities, we have successfully made more people know about the projects of iGEM and Nanjing-China, how synthetic biology has transformed our lives, and opened the door of knowledge to students of different majors.

This is the first time that our project has been promoted to a large number of non-professional peer groups and received good feedback from them. This enlighten us that we should do more publicity and communication to the public and shoulder the social responsibility of knowledge transfer. In the future, we will carry out targeted publicity and science popularization to more people in more fields, and actively promote the concept of microbial production of colored fibers, so that more people can understand it, and at the same time, let the environmental protection and scientific awareness behind our project be more deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Jianye Community Lecture

Children between the ages of 6 and 12 are at a stage where they are curious about the world, receiving external education, and gradually forming their own worldview. We hope to plant a seed in their hearts about bio-environmental materials and synthetic biology, increasing their acceptance of scientific technology and technological products. We hope that in the future, they will support the field of synthetic biology and provide assistance for the development of related projects.

We introduced the solar term knowledge and phenological changes of Grain in Ear to the children through poems. They showed great interest in what was being told, actively interacting and discussing throughout the process. Many of the customs of Grain in Ear are related to textiles, which is why we chose to introduce our project in combination with Grain in Ear. During grain in Ear, ancient Chinese people would eat eggs to pray for health, so the custom of fighting eggs and weaving egg pockets came into being. After the knowledge introduction, We led the children to weave egg bags with colored fibers, and introduced the textile knowledge related to our iGEM project to them in plain language, so that the children could become unique "Rainboweaver".

In this educational science promotion, we did not cover specialized biological knowledge in the curriculum due to the limited knowledge and acceptance capacity of the students. Instead, our main focus was on conveying scientific ideas. In today's society, there is a significant portion of the population that has doubts and resistance towards biotechnological products, and there are many misconceptions circulating on social media platforms. We hope to help students develop a positive perspective on bio-environmental materials and synthetic biology through hands-on games, and enhance their acceptance of new things. This is intended to contribute to the improvement of human living standards and the development of synthetic biology in the future.

Nanning No.3 High School

According to the results of our survey, we found that high school students around the age of 18 have a high level of interest and acceptance towards our project. Therefore, high school students are an important target audience for our education efforts. We hope to introduce our project and synthetic biology to high school students, allowing them to learn more about the ideas, design, and processes involved in biological research. We have chosen to give a presentation to the second-year students at Nanning NO.3 High School in Guangxi, as it is one of the top high schools in the region. Additionally, this particular class at Nanning NO.3 High School consists of students who are interested in science and are likely to pursue research in subjects such as biology and chemistry in the future. Therefore, our presentation to them is expected to be more successful, and they will benefit greatly from it. In order to make our education efforts more professional and meaningful, we have actively reached out to WHU-China to collaborate with us in our education activities.

We arrived at Nanning NO.3 High School and first introduced high school students to the concept of synthetic biology. We explained that synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies engineering principles to biological research. In synthetic biology, we modularize many biological macromolecules and engineer them to achieve our design goals. Next, we introduced iGEM and its development history, the original intention of the competition, and the grandeur of the event, which deeply attracted the students.

We provided a detailed introduction to our project this year, Rainboweaver, from Nanjing-China. We explained the initial intention and background of our topic and emphasized the importance of reducing pollution in the fashion industry. Then, we presented our proposed solution - using K. xylinus to construct a biosynthetic system for direct production of colored cellulose. The students showed great interest in our project and expressed their enthusiasm, saying that synthetic biology is a cool research field! They also expressed a desire to participate in iGEM in the future.

Our collaboration partner, WHU-China, also conducted informative and engaging science popularization activities. They presented their project to the students in the form of science popularization videos, which deeply captivated the students.

At the end of the presentation, we encouraged high school students who love biology to consider pursuing it as a major in college. For those interested in synthetic biology, we encouraged them to explore their ideas and utilize various biological techniques to solve real-world problems and contribute to the betterment of human life.

This education effort is very meaningful. The students who attended our presentation are highly interested in natural sciences and are likely to become researchers in the future. We are delighted to have the opportunity to introduce synthetic biology and our project to them. What's even more exciting is that they have shown a strong interest in our project and synthetic biology.

Although Guangxi is considered an underdeveloped province in terms of education in China, there are still many students in Guangxi who love biology and are passionate about it. Unfortunately, most of them may have no knowledge of iGEM and synthetic biology. This highlights the significance of our education efforts. We hope to reach more people and introduce them to synthetic biology, and encourage them to join the iGEM community.

Lecture on environmental protection in Yunnan

In order to make the iGEM and Nanjing-China project's science popularization lectures available to school children in remote areas, and to make our knowledge transfer benefit more children in different areas, Nanjing-China team cooperated with Yueyun Tongzhi Nanhua Detachment. Went to Nanhua County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Nanhua Siyuan experimental school for science popularization. The target of science popularization is primary school students, so we designed the environmental protection curriculum according to the acceptance and knowledge level of primary school students. The content of the course includes knowledge presentation and manual production. The manual production is based on students' understanding and application of the knowledge presented, so the knowledge presentation is the main link and takes a long time. Through this science popularization, we hope to let students have a deeper understanding of the pollution of the textile industry and stimulate students' awareness of environmental protection. We also hope that by integrating the introduction of iGEM and the project into the curriculum, more people will know about our project.

In the class, we started with the common pollution around us, so that students can intuitively feel the serious pollution in our lives. We then systematically explained the basics of pollution, including the types of pollution and how it relates to life. With the foundation of pollution knowledge, we introduce the pollution that may be caused by the whole production process of the textile industry, so that students can form a deep understanding of the pollution of textiles. We introduced ways to reduce waste such as clothing recycling and recycling, and encourages people to choose a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. During the crafting session, we guided the students to depict their environmental concerns on pure white T-shirts. The ingenious patterns on the finished products highlight the students' creativity and pure understanding of environmental protection.

We separated iGEM and project introduction into different knowledge points and integrate them into the curriculum, with the main purpose of transmitting scientific concepts. The students were very active in our course, cooperated with us to complete every question and interaction session, and showed a good understanding and application of the course content in the final handmade session.

In this presentation, we vividly presented the importance of environmental protection issues in the textile industry to these children. In this way, we hope to let children understand the pollution produced by the textile industry and establish an awareness of environmental protection from an early age. At the same time, we also hope that by integrating the introduction of iGEM and the project into the curriculum, more people will understand and support the concept of our project.

This is our teaching plan:

This is our teaching PowerPoint:

Lecture on microbiology in Yunnan

In order to ensure that school-age children in remote areas can also receive science popularization lectures on iGEM and the Nanjing-China project, and to extend the reach of our knowledge, the Nanjing-China team collaborated with the Yunnan Branch of Nanyue Village Support Mission of Nanjing University "Yueyuntongzhi". Together, we went to Nanhua Siyuan Experimental School in Nanhua County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province to conduct science popularization lectures.

In order to spread science knowledge among junior high school students, we designed a microbiology course based on their knowledge level. The course consisted of two parts: knowledge presentation and hands-on activities. We chose microbiology as the main theme of the course because it is closely related to our project. To help students understand engineering bacteria and microbial production of colored fibers, it was important to establish a foundation of knowledge about microorganisms. Additionally, mushrooms are a unique feature of Yunnan cuisine, but incidents of mushroom poisoning frequently occur in the local area. As mushrooms are a type of fungus, which is a microorganism, we aimed to educate students on how to safely consume mushrooms through our course.

Due to limited educational resources and the limited knowledge level of the students, we did not focus the science popularization on synthetic biology and iGEM promotion. Instead, we incorporated principles of synthetic biology into the explanation of microbiology during the course, and briefly introduced our project. This approach allowed us to convey scientific thinking related to synthetic biology while providing the students with fundamental microbiology knowledge.

In the microbiology course, we started with a simple definition of microorganisms and introduced four types of microorganisms: bacteria, fungi, cyanobacteria, and protozoa. We used pictures and videos to give students a more intuitive impression of these microorganisms. Then, we discussed pathogenic bacteria that are harmful to humans, beneficial bacteria that are beneficial to humans, and engineered bacteria. We explained the different relationships between microorganisms and humans, and promoted the correct attitude and methods for dealing with microorganisms around us.

In the hands-on activity section, we guided students to use clay to design microorganisms that do not exist in nature and give them the desired functions and appearance. We encouraged each student to introduce their own work, and their creations were not limited and filled with all kinds of imaginative ideas. The students enthusiastically showed their results and used the knowledge they learned in class to explain their designs.

We successfully conveyed microbiology knowledge and the principles of synthetic biology to this group of students, adding a possibility to their future. They are passionate about biological science and possess unique talents, but unfortunately lack sufficient educational resources and opportunities. We hope that through our educational efforts, we can inspire more people to choose to support or even engage in the field of synthetic biology.

This is our teaching plan:

This is our teaching PowerPoint:

A Resource-aggregated Education Platform

We have collaborated with the Postgraduates Voluntary Teaching Corps of Nanjing University and Lecture Team of School of Life Sciences to leverage university resources in order to disseminate the concepts and knowledge of synthetic biology to a wider and more diverse audience. Simultaneously, we've made the most of the resources from our former high school to conduct outreach and provide a more personalized introduction to synthetic biology.

Furthermore, it's worth noting that our educational initiatives have had a lasting impact. Subsequent teams have continued to build on our work, extending the reach and influence of our project. In total, our education initiatives have reached individuals of various age groups across three provinces, impacting over 200 people. We have successfully harnessed resources from multiple directions to expand the influence of synthetic biology, spreading greater awareness of concepts related to life and health, synthetic biology knowledge, and the concept of microbial fibers, thus ensuring the sustainability and continuity of our project's mission.