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EDUCATION

Tailor the teaching methods to each individual's unique situation.——Confucius

1
Introduction

Education and communication are key elements in promoting public participation in iGEM. We used the ICII website, self-designed newspaper, Na-alginate activity, and nursery rhyme as innovative educational tools to conduct a series of outreach activities. Through adapting diverse activities to people of different age groups, we managed to connect people and our project. We carried out education covering almost all age groups .Through the education process, we attached great importance to the awareness of public values like food safety, hunger and sustainable development. Besides, in every link, we illustrated some basic knowledge behind the science, engineering, biology, and synthetic biology. Meanwhile, we encouraged students to explore science via raising questions and exchanged ideas to promote bilateral learning.

  1. Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics affiliated kindergarten
    science
  2. Nanjing Agricultural University affiliated primary school&Anhui Fuyang city Xingliu town central primary school
    biology
  3. Nanjing University of Science and Technology affiliated middle School
    biology
    engineering
  4. Nanjing Normal University affiliated high school Qinhuai Science and Technology High School
    synthetic
    biology
  5. Nanjing Agriculture University
    synthetic
    biology
    project

inside the school

  1. Nanjing Qinhuai District Chaotiangong Street Zhangfuyuan community volunteer teaching
    biology
  2. Nanjing S&T Museum
    synthetic biology
  3. Nanjing Agricultural University community
    synthetic
    biology
    project

off the school

All the photos taken during the activities had been granted permission, and all the measures followed the safety policy.

2
Science summer camp: Synthetic Biology - the new era of natural development(Age group 5-14)

Nanjing Science and Technology Museum has a good platform for voluntary activities, so we went there, and organized a science summer camp for children between 5 and 14 years old on the 24th of August. The purpose of this outreach activity was to promote the knowledge of synthetic biology and the awareness of food safety.

Our activity consisted of three parts:

A brief introduction to synthetic biology

First of all, we showed a picture drawn by special bacteria which can change their colors under lights with different wavelengths. Then, we pointed out that these bacteria were transformed by synthetic biology technology, so that they could be used as pigment. Besides, we brought in the concept of building blocks to help children better understand the concept of synthetic biology. During this period, we encouraged children to ask questions and express their thinking. Many children raised their hands to signal that they would like to take part in the discussion.

The awareness of food safety

We are living in a well-supplied city, while many other people in other parts of the world are suffering hunger and lacking sufficient food. Some food are polluted due to various reasons, which make the food production worse. It is necessary for us to raise children's awareness of food safety and hunger. We introduced the mycotoxin which may mildew the food, and wrote a nursery rhyme to remind them of ensuring food safety from small actions like washing grapes. We use this nursery rhyme as an innovational tool to raise their awareness of food safety.

"Adding wings to a tiger" Na-alginate activity

We simplified the classical hypothesis deductive method proposed by Mr. Mendel into 5 steps: observing the phenomenon—raising questions—analysizing questions—reaching the conclusion—practising.

We use the Na-alginate activity as an innovative educational tool to let children experience the scientific process. Firstly, we squeezed the naalginate with color into the CaCl2 solution, and asked the children to observe the phenomenon. They can see that the liquid naalginate turned into solid. Secondly, we encouraged the children to ask why and explain the phenomenon to them. Thirdly, we discussed together, and came to the conclusion that a chemical reaction occurred between naalginate and CaCl2. Last but not the least, every student could use the “pigments” which were colored naalginate to splice a picture with their imagination in the “canvas” which was CaCl2 solution indeed. This was an interesting game that the children need to make biological parts via the “pigments” and spliced them into a picture in the “canvas”, just like the principle of synthetic biology. Some children attracted us by adding a pair of wings to a tiger, so we named this game “adding wings to a tiger”.

Through this experience, we learned that children were really curious and active to explore the scientific phenomenon, and they were willing to guess the principle audaciously. We would be very honored if we could plant the seeds of synthetic biology in the hearts of children.

3
Kindergarten Affiliated to Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics(Age group: 5-6 years old)

Kindergarten children are full of creativity and curiosity. In order to cultivate children's interest in natural science, including biology, and establish a basic awareness of food safety, we have planned educational activities for them. Thanks to the outreach of a Nanjing local NAU-CHINA team member, we were invited to Kindergarten Affiliated to Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics for an afternoon lecture.

On September 13, 2023, our team NAU-CHINA went there for volunteer teaching activities to educate the children around 5 to 6 years old. All the team members were divided into four groups for all four classes from the senior grade.

We started with some questions to break the ice and activate the kids' interests in science. “Do plants breathe?” “What does a bacterium look like?” “Why do we need to sleep at night?” “What are the differences among human, monkey, and chimpanzees?” The kids answered the questions with their fabulous imagination, and got fascinated with our explanations. Later, we gave the kids a general introduction to the classification of living things. In order to prepare for our later actions of raising food safety awareness, we emphasized the classification of micro creatures.

Then, we asked the kids a question, “Can we eat the moldy food?” To our delight, all of the kids have already developed an awareness that moldy food is not edible. We have further explained the common types of mycotoxins in mold, their hazards and other related knowledge, and consolidated the kids' concept of food safety.

Finally, like what was conducted in the science summer camp, a Na-alginate activity was conducted. However, considering the kids' safety, we only showed them how the experiment worked. They didn't get the chance to operate by themselves.

At the end of that afternoon, we took pictures together with all the kids, and answered all the questions proposed by them with the best of our knowlege. When we were leaving, a girl came to us, and asked us with light in her eyes, “Will I become a girl scientist like you?” “Sure you will”, as we answered, “You can be anyone you wanna be.”

After this afternoon, we have learnt a lot. Even though the kids couldn't completely understand the rules and principles behind the phenomena, their imagination could help them to observe the beauty of nature. Thanks to all the kind kids, we have experienced the marvelous feeling of teaching and being admired by children.

4
Primary Schools

With the purpose of promoting biology and the awareness of food safety, we went to two schools to carry out our outreach activities among primary school students.

Primary School Affiliated to Nanjing Agricultural University(Age group: 11 years old)

On September 15, 2023, team NAU-CHINA went to the Primary School Affiliated to Nanjing Agricultural University to conduct a volunteer teaching activity with the theme of popularizing biology and building food safety awareness. Thanks to the long-standing friendship between the Primary School and Nanjing Agricultural University, our contact with the Primary School was particularly smooth.

In this activity, we worked with five classes in Grade Five in their auditorium. Students in the fifth grade are at a special age. According to China's conventional education system, formal and systematic biology education starts in junior high school, which means that biology is a relatively unfamiliar subject for most fifth-graders. In the meanwhile, the fifth-graders have already formed a certain self-learning ability, driven by their personal interests, so it is possible that some of them have a reserve of biological knowledge.

Our activities undoubtedly ignited the students' enthusiasm for biology. In their speeches, we learned about their expectations for the future of biotechnology. In the process of our communication, we found a boy with a rich reserve of biological knowledge, who can clearly explain the defenetion and function of base pair, and even reach the level of high school students. After interviewing the boy, we learned that he has held an incredible interest in insects since childhood, so he has self-taught the biology textbooks of middle school and high school, and has read a lot of related extracurricular books. His performance really broke through our expectations on primary school students.

Through this activity, we are lucky to see so many young generations having an interest in bioscience. Hopefully, our lecture can make their middle-school biology learning easier.

Anhui Fuyang City Xingliu Town Central Primary School (Age group: 10-12 years old)

During July 7th to July 15th, a member on NAU-CHINA model group participated in a seven-day volunteer teaching activity during summer vacation. In the activity, he integrated the basic principles of biology and the introduction of mycotoxins into the curriculum he designed. In seven days, he aroused the students' interest in biology and strengthed their awareness of food safety. Also, he had established a deep friendship with the local children, and now, he keeps in touch with them, carefully answering the biological questions they encountered in daily activities.

5
Nanjing Qinhuai District Chaotiangong Street Zhangfuyuan community volunteer teaching(Age group: 6-12 years old)

On July 18, 2023, a member from the NAU-CHINA wetlab got an opportunity of one-day volunteer teaching through the volunteer teaching platform of College of Plant Protection, NAU. In this activity, she introduced some basic knowledge of biology to the young students who were 6 to 12 years old in the community and shared our food safety nursery rhyme. The rhyme was catchy and had already left a deep impression on the children.

6
Middle School Affiliated to Nanjing University of Science and Technology(Age group: 13 years old)

On September 8(th), 2023, we went to Middle School Affiliated to Nanjing University of Science and Technology to teach the students around 13 years old. Through the relationship of a local team member's parent, we were very honored to get this opportunity to organize the outreach activity in this middle school.

The aim of this activity was to promote biology, and engineering and the awareness of food safety. Starting with some simple questions of biology, we quickly aroused middle school students' interest in this class. Through the PowerPoint presentation, we carefully explained some basic ideas and scientific methods such as “Geneticcentraldogma” behind the biology. In order to ensure that the students did not feel too simple and boring, or too profound to understand, we have designed a set of innovative teaching standards - interconnection between biology and engineering, opening up new perspectives for them to have a better learning experience.Then, we encouraged them to talk about the contamination of food in their life, which was related to our project, and some solutions to prevent such situation in order to raise their awareness of food safety. Lastly, we spent about 10 minutes for discussion about future application of biology. Many students expressed their thoughts. An answer from a boy really surprised all of us. From his perspective, the technology of biology would be widely used in the field of immunology such as car-T treatment. We were surprised because the car-T treatment is a professional concept usually taught in university. We see in this child a future biological scientist.

7
High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University (Qinhuai Science and Technology High School)(Age group: 15 years old)

In May 2023, our university set High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University (Qinhuai Science and Technology High School)as the high-quality student base and established a good cooperative relationship. Taking advantage of this, we actively proposed to this high school to organize an educational outreach activity. Luckily, we were given a golden opportunity to educate all the high school freshmen who were about 15 years old in their auditorium on September 20th.

The purpose of this activity was to promote the future application of synthetic biology and the scientific knowledge behind it. We also introduced our project to them. Through the PowerPoint presentation, our team leader explained some basic concepts in synthetic biology, such as genome editing. These were totally new to the freshmen. We had a good interaction. When understanding what the RBS structure was, all the freshmen even clapped their hands to show their happiness. After presentation, many freshmen crowded around our team leader and discussed their puzzles about the synthetic biology. Some even asked about selecting biology as a subject in Chinese Gaokao. This shows that our activity have influenced some freshmen to choose biology for their future research.

We also conducted interesting games after the presentation. We invited the high school freshmen to leave anything they would like to say to us on the white board. We also invited them to join the Story Relay, that is a story consisting of sentences from different students, just like the synthetic biology. The freshmen were required to write a sentence related to biology, following the previous sentence one by one. It really astonished us that some students even use ancient Chinese and classical English to continue writing the story.

In China, biology is not regarded as a good choice of promising future when students select their major in college. If we could encourage more students to pay attention to the biological research through this activity, and stimulate their deep love for scientific research, we would be greatly honored.

8
Nanjing Agricultural University(Age group: 18 years old and above)

Campus stall activity

Every year, the Science and Technology Association of College of Life Sciences in our university holds a stall event to promote the iGEM competition which carries the idea of synthetic biology. Without exception, we hosted it successfully this year on September 24(th), and a lot of students showed their interest in our project.

To promote synthetic biology and our project more vividly, we made the project content into a display board, and held three interesting games. The first game was to fill out a questionnaire. Students who had submitted their feedback about our project through the questionnaire would be given some gifts made by our team. The second game was to draw a picture related to synthetic biology. As shown in the picture, after reading the board, some drew our team's logo, some drew the Pipette gun used in the laboratory, and others drew a bunch of grapes related to our project. Those who participated in the drawings included students from different grades, teachers from different departments and some school staff. The third game was Story Relay, that is, writing a story collectively by taking turns to write down sentences. We provided the first sentence and the participants continued the story according to their biological knowledge. Different from the one played in high school, we provided three story entrances rather than one, which meant that more people could participate in this game.

We were really gratified that many people came to discuss with us and exchanged some ideas. They were interested in the scientific knowledge behind our project and eager to join us in the future.

iGEM 2024 Recruitment Session

On September 24th, we held the iGEM 2024 Recruitment Session in our university's lecture hall to give students a comprehensive introduction of iGEM competition. We hoped that students could understand the whole process of using the knowdage of synthetic biology to address a problem in the world and encouraged them to join us.

Each group introduced their tasks with PowerPoint show, and offered time for discussion. Students raised questions actively and were enthusiastic to exchange their understanding with us.

We saw enthusiasm and interests in them, and we were looking forward to enrolling students with a passion for synthetic biology in the next team.

9
Interview in Nanjing Agricultural University community(Age group: senior and young adults)

Considering that some senior and young adults may not have access to the education of synthetic biology, we went to the Nanjing Agricultural University community to interview on September 19th.The purpose of this event was to let more people know about synthetic biology and the awareness of food safety.

First of all, we asked people if they were willing to be interviewed. After receiving a positive response, we asked what they know about fungal contamination in grape food. Then, we used our project to promote synthetic biology through communication and a newspaper which they can download on the ICII website. Finally, we took a group photo after asking for permission.

Through this communication, we learned that some old people tended to attach great importance to food safety, especially when washing the fruits like grapes. Besides, compared with the knowledge of synthetic biology, they usually payed more attention to what the application of synthetic biology could bring to their life.

10
Survey

With experts' guidance, we carefully made up a survey sheet and sent it out to be filled out. The aim of this survey was to find out what people know about the wine and food safety issues. Through this survey, we also aimed at making more people communicate with our project and raising their awareness of food safety. We received good feedback from people who filled it out. The survey data would be used for research only .

11
iG20

We were invited by LZU2023 to participate in iG20 in order to let more people know about synthetic biology. Each participant posted the final video on their social media, for example, Bilibili, Wechat, Instagram, to promote it. By doing so, we hoped that as many people as possible around the world could get to know about synthetic biology. We were very happy to receive people's comments on synthetic biology through video massage area and bullet screen.

12
ICII

This year, we built a popular science website ICII (into China into iGEM) to make more people know not only synthetic biology but also the science and the public values behind it. A total of four schools participated in this ICII activity. Each participant was required to make an electronic newspaper which contained the scientific tool like SpyTag-SpyCatcher and the public values, for example, food safety. We used this website as an innovative educational tool where people can read our newspaper online and we can receive people's feedback through our iGEM mailbox provided on the website. What's more, we printed the e-newspaper and used it as our leaflet to interview those who can't use the internet proficiently so that they can directly know our program by reading the leaflet.

13
Conclusion

We realized the purpose of educating people of almost all age groups. Not only did we promote the awareness of public values related to our project like food safety and hunger, but also we designed lessons of different levels for different communities to acquire a better result of education. Using our innovative educational tools like Na-alginate games, the ICII website and the self-made newspaper , we hoped these people could better understand the knowledge we conveyed to them. Through the education process, we encouraged children to discuss and exchange our ideas to build a two-way dialogue. From the experience of education, we have learned that many children harbored strong desire for science behind synthetic biology. This desire even pushed them to acquire new knowledge by themselves. Besides, we learned that our project owned a strong impact that some students may choose biology as their major in college when preparing for Chinese Gaokao (entrance examination to college).

The age axis of education

For children, we hoped that we can plant the seed of science in their hearts and arouse their enthusiasm for biology. For young people, we hoped we can build up their scientific awareness and encourage more people to work in the area of synthetic biology. For adults, we hoped they can get a brief understanding of synthetic biology and put the awareness of protecting the food safety into practice. Lastly, we hoped that we can provide the guidance for other iGEM teams in the future and inspire them to continue the work of education and communication based on our work.