- Our team are using multiple approaches to publicise our project and our team. By uploading promoting videos on social media and publishing scientific educational article on WeChat public number “SCIE PearlDelta” about our team and topic cerebrospinal fluid leakage, the public will get a clear understanding of our project and team.
- We aim to improve the public safety consciousness on sport injury, intending to avoid damage from sports. From our questionnaire researches, a major amount of people are lacking cautiousness about sport injuries. This carelessness of the public will increase the probability of cerebrospinal leaking and thus, ascending the rate of fulminant meningitis infection.
- Popularising the knowledge about brain health(particularly on cerebrospinal fluid, CSF) is our responsibility. We will widely spread and inform the significance of cerebrospinal fluids leaking in order to remind the public about the harmful results of such injuries.
- By popularising the concept of genetic engineering, genetic modification, and synthetic biology to non-specialities, we will help rising the consciousness of normal people about biology, thus making ease for the public to make account of sport injuries and to accept our project’s product.
- We will deliver the core value of IGEM Competition to ordinary people. By doing so, an increasing number of talented teenagers will have a chance to participate into the discovering of synthetic biology, which will increase the amount of future specialists in biology.
To improve the efficiency of the dissemination of information and knowledge, we chose the way of online lecture for its convenience and its ability to cover a wider range of listeners.
Figure 1 Poster of Online Lecture
From 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. on July 2, 2023, together with Dr. Zhao from Zhongshan Hospital we conducted an online educative talk about “into the Brain”. In this online education, Dr. Zhao first introduced the concept of stroke. He talked about the definition, causes, methods for diagnosis, and ways to prevent stroke. He specifically introduced ways to diagnose whether a person is having a stroke in great details. We hope that after this useful sharing people could tell more quickly if a person is having stroke which could improve treatment opportunities for the patient.
Figure 2&3
(Please click here to get the slides)
After his sharing, we also made a presentation about CSF rhinorrhoea and the brain health. We first informed our audience about brain functions, and then we introduced the possible causes and results of CSF rhinorrhea. We also informed our audience about how to protect our brains from the CSF rhinorrhea. We especially mentioned the major cause of CSF rhinorrhea— sport injuries— for we want our audience to realize that they could all be potential patients of CSF rhinorrhea so that they could pay more attention to sport injuries. We hope this online education can help our audience to raise their awareness of the importance of brain health.
The purpose of popularizing scientific knowledge is to make complex scientific concepts, theories, and discoveries accessible and understandable to general public. It aims to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the rest of the society, ensuring that scientific advancements are widely disseminated and appreciated. By popularizing scientific knowledge, we can foster a scientifically literate society. Science is an essential tool for understanding the world around us and making informed decisions.
In order popularize scientific knowledge on brain health, CSF, and synthetic biology, our team has set up an official account in WeChat, the most commonly used social software in China, to release scientific articles to the public. We chose the way of releasing articles on WeChat not only because it has an extremely large number of users, but also the way of conveying information by words makes the information convincing.
This mind map drawn by Xmind, displays different ideas of which our articles are distributed:
Figure 4
The articles we have posted have already received 1635 clicks. The articles inspire awe and wonder, stimulate intellectual curiosity, and encourage lifelong learning. They empower individuals to participate in discussions about science and its impact on our lives, fostering a culture that values.
Figure 5&6
Although reading articles is a great way to share and gain information and knowledge, it is believed that it is now the age for short videos. Rather than articles, people may prefer to get information by watching videos because they are more popular, understandable, and vivid. Therefore, to further popularise the knowledge about Synthetic Biology, CSF rhinorrhoea and Brain health, our team started a video account to contribute to the further promotion of scientific ideas.
In order to popularise those scientific concepts, we have produced two original education videos. In the first education video, we talked about the prospects of synthetic biology, including its application in medical fields, its function in environmental protection as well as agriculture. We aim to reduce the misunderstanding of synthetic biology and genetic engineering which is commonly seen in real life. We also give a detailed explanation of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea in the second video, which is closely connected to our project. Through talking about the formation, symptoms, and detection methods of this illness, we strive to erase people’s confusion about their aspect of brain science and raise the public awareness of brain health.
Figure 7&8
We sincerely hope that our educational efforts can create positive impact by continuously broadcasting. So far, our education video account on WeChat has achieved 2301 views and 58 followers, revealing our influence in the surrounding community. In the future, we plan to constantly produce high-quality videos and further expand our impact.
All the ways of education mentioned above are online, and we thought that all online activities are simply just exporting information. We agreed that we needed some more interactive activities, so we finally decided to host an offline lecture. As supported by questionnaire results, we think that encouraging young populations’ understanding to brain health to an confident level is vitally important.
On 4th of July, our team members visited Tianlin Street, Xuhui District, Shanghai, to give 20 children between the ages of 7 to 12 a lesson in order to popularise some scientific concepts about brain. The goals of this course include understanding the basic brain structure, understanding four types of common brain injuries, and the basics of cerebrospinal fluid.
Figure 9-12
At the beginning of the course, our team members encouraged the students to think about the keywords related to the brain, which aroused the enthusiasm and curiosity of the children. Then, our team members gave a vivid explanation of the four main components of the brain and neurons, making the complex knowledge easy to understand. After that, we carried out a small game to ensure that our students have completely understood what they have learnt. To get the exquisite gifts, the children have been actively raising their hands to answer. This process not only increased the interest in the lesson but also gave the children a deeper understanding of what they have learnt.
Brain injuries are sophisticated, but through the actions of the players, the children had a more concrete understanding of the four typical brain injuries and gained a deep impression of their potential harm. At the end of the lesson, we link the hydrocephalus to the cerebrospinal fluid and introduce its role and position in the brain to the children.
To make them having a deeper understanding of the knowledge, our team members provided papers and small pictures so that the children could gather what they have learnt within a poster. We see that what they have drawn reflects an excellent understanding to what the lecture has been talked about. Also, seeing students making progress in expressing what they have learnt shows a confident understanding of knowledge of which we have taught them, indicating purpose of the education is achieved.
Figure 13-16
(Please click here to get the slides)
From what we have observed from this programme, we found that youngsters love games to have information interacting with them. Also, the PowerPoints that contain animated images catches more attention from the audience. Thus, animated pictures and board games are considered to be useful in Education programmes.
In order to have interactive programmes for future activities, such as in recess time during our iGEM Extracirricular activities, we designed a recreational board game to enhance people’s understanding in brain health.
These boardgames are with animated drawings to make it more attractive for people to play.
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The pictures are about information related to brain health, such as parts of body, Chinese Brain Health Day. A game called Who is the spy （谁是卧底）is played using these cards.
Here are the basic rules:
The game typically requires 4 players. There is one player receiving card with a key word different to others, while others receive identical cards, called the ‘spy’. Nobody knows what cards others received.
The Spy's goal is to keep their identity a secret while trying to confuse others. The others aim to identify the Spy.
Distribute Identities: At the beginning of each round, one player acts as the referee, shuffles cards, and privately assigns a word or phrase to each player. This word is the theme of brain health, such as "concussion" or "cerebral hermorrages". There will be three identical words and phrases for three players, where the one player, the ‘spy’ receives another different word of phrase
Clues and Discussion: Players take turns speaking and describing things related to the word or phrase, but the Spy must be careful not to reveal their identity. Other players attempt to identify the Spy through discussion and observation.
Voting and Reveal: Within a set time, players can vote to decide who they believe is the Spy. The player with the most votes must reveal their identity. If the Spy is correctly identified, the three people win; if not, the Spy wins.
Figure new 1
Figure new 2
To make our project and characteristic more impressive and increase our publicity, we have to increase our spread and shorten the distance between young generations, online and offline. The online emoji is thought to be a good way for the promotion of brain health, because they are visually impressive and easily to spread via internet medium. People can thus have a further awareness for the brain health and CSF rhinorrhoea while using these emoji.
Figure 17&18
Therefore, we designed a cartoon character as our mascot and created a set of emoji based on it. We printed out these emojis as stickers and give them to children who participate in our education program. We also upload the set of stickers on WeChat emoji center to spread our idea and program to a wider population.
In order to spread the knowledge of the brain to younger generations, our team designed and painted picture books aiming at children between 7 and 12 years old. Our picture book uses cartoon character of the brain and cerebrospinal fluid to interest readers and introduce their functions and importances. These booklets made a great contribution to the subsequence offline education for the young children.
Figure 19-24
(Please click here to get the picture book)
Great-Bay Area Life and Healthcare Industry Innovative Zone lecture
In efforts to allow better knowledge of our project, we held another offline lecture in one of the industrial parks focusing on biotechnology in the south-eastern Great-Bay area. The lecture opened with an introduction about synthetic biology before our team member specified the definition of synbio, its day-to-day applications, as well as its future potential. We also took note of some stereotypes about synthetic biology in a Q&A activity prior to the introduction and rectified the inaccurate impressions afterwards.
Moving on, we brought forward our project by introducing what is cerebrospinal fluid and CSF rhinorrhea. Most of our audience showed signs of astonishment when we mentioned that CSF rhinorrhea can lurk behind other common traumatic brain injuries, and can cause severe complications, which suggested the criticality of our informative sessions.
Afterwards, we explicated how our test kit can efficiently detect CSF rhinorrheaquickly, as well as its high portability and handiness. We also highlighted how we’vewielded synthetic biology in designing our test kit by summarising the experimental procedures in our approach. The audience subsequently filled out a feedback form, and the results indicated a significant improvement in their understanding of synthetic biology and its uses. Therefore, we are confident to say that this lecture was yet another success in our entire education procedure.
In order to start impacting the younger generation, we should start in school by doing various interactive activities in various ways. The improvement and perfection in education programmes in one place may aid us, in future, impacting other young people and then more and more others.
On August 22, 2023, our team promoted the extraordinary extra-curricular activity, the iGEM competition at Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE). This captivating initiative essentially took the form of a club, which was meticulously designed to introduce newcomers to the intriguing realm of synthetic biology and the renowned iGEM competition.
Figure 26
Throughout the eventful day of August 22, our team orchestrated a well-thought-out series of activities aimed at enhancing the attendees' understanding of synthetic biology. One of them is by distributing leaflets which promote students joining iGEM. And another standout element was a visually engaging show that effectively conveyed the complex concepts associated with this field. We decide to incorporate visual aids, including intricate drawings depicting elements such as plasmids, ribosomes, normal and red proteins, regular bacteria, red bacteria, and a distinctive sequence gene, was both innovative and educational.
Figure 27&28
The mini-drama was carried out as following:
Student A will act as ‘E.Coli genetic control’
Student B will act as ‘Ribosomes’
Student C will act as ‘Phenotype’
Student A will collect and pass a picture of ‘normal plasmid’ to student B, and student B will collect a protein picture ‘normal protein’ and pass it to student C. Student C has a board in front of him called ‘No colour E.coli’.
When an audience comes with a leaflet with a picture of ‘Secret DNA’ to student A, student A will then collect a picture of ‘magic plasmid DNA’ to student A.
Student A will pass the ‘magic plasmid DNA’ to student B, and student B will collect a picture of ‘Red Protein’ to pass it to student C, which student C will turn the board around to see ‘Red colour’ on the back
Student A will explain what is going on.
The centrepiece of this captivating event was the live demonstration that showcased the intricacies of altering plasmids to engineer bacteria with specific traits. By elucidating how ribosomes functioned to produce both normal and red proteins from the plasmids, our team was able to vividly depict the transformation process. The insertion of the special sequence gene and the subsequent production of the red protein within the red bacteria served as a tangible representation of the potential that synthetic biology holds.
The outcomes of our efforts were truly remarkable, as evidenced by the attendance of nearly 150 students who displayed a keen interest in the field of synthetic biology. The fact that our event managed to attract such a substantial number of enthusiastic participants speaks volumes about its impact and the resonance it achieved among the student body. This successful venture not only fostered curiosity but also undoubtedly inspired the next generation of aspiring synthetic biologists.
Our team orchestrated an event that not only introduced the complexities of synthetic biology but also managed to captivate and educate the audience. Such initiatives play an invaluable role in nurturing a passion for science and exploration among students. As we continue to pave the way for scientific curiosity and knowledge dissemination, your efforts are poised to leave a lasting imprint on the educational landscape of SCIE.
The extracurricular activity intrigues students in joining iGEM competition, making the future world for iGEM a much greater event of the world. We do want to try our best in introducing massive power of young, potential scientists in contributing themselves in iGEM and synthetic biology and ultimately change the world!
During a previous extracurricular activity, we observed that even students with a strong interest in Neuroscience lacked sufficient knowledge about cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), including its role, associated medical tests, and CSF rhinorrhea. In order to address this gap in their understanding and enhance their overall neuroscience knowledge, we organized a 60-minute lecture during the lunch break on September 12th at our campus. Approximately 30 students attended the lecture.
The lecture aimed to introduce more complex concepts related to CSF, such as its production site, its functions, and specific medical tests associated with CSF analysis. The goal was to raise students' awareness of CSF-related issues and help them improve their understanding of this topic.
Following the lecture, the students who showed a keen interest in the subject posed in-depth questions, indicating that they had not only absorbed the information provided during the lecture but also independently contemplated the knowledge further. For instance, students asked about the mechanism of CSF absorption in the brain. This positive response suggests that the students not only learned from the lecture but also actively engaged with the material and deepened their understanding of CSF.
Figure 29
In order to promote the impact of Synthetic Biology and attract more talented students to participate in the iGEM competition, we have established a series of courses in school ECA (Extracurricular Activity). These courses aim to provide comprehensive knowledge and guidance to aspiring iGEM participants.
The first section of our curriculum focused on demonstrating some WetLab functions. We taught and reviewed essence of synthetic biology, by asking them some questions, such as:
Why do we need to use the central dogma?
Why do we need different types of proteins?
Figure 30a&b
Then we taught about the central dogma and its role in synthetic biology.
As part of curriculum for those fascinated in details about experiments, we talked about mechanism of ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) as a method to introduce practical methods synthetic biologists use to achieve their purpose. We began by explaining the process of antibody production and then delved into the binding of the antigen and antibody. Additionally, we explored the Beer-Lambert Law, which is also relevant to ELISA. By reading an actual protocol for ELISA, the students can take a closer look into an actual, detailed image of experiments an iGEM participant should face, and enhance their understanding in this topic. As ELISA is a method to identify specifically the ‘protein’ in the ‘DNA-Protein-Function’ cycle, we encourage students to explore other ways biologist use to design, build, test (identify), and learn the three elements. This section was crucial for understanding the fundamentals of the iGEM Wet Lab, especially for DBTL cycle.
Figure 31
For the second part of the curriculum, we emphasized the mindset required to become a successful researcher in iGEM competitions. We discussed the methodology involved in scientific research and emphasized the importance of reading research papers. This enabled the participants to comprehend the significance of conducting thorough literature reviews and extracting relevant information for their own projects. We talked about in detail, what are respectively DBTL, and introduced how our project have them applied. We Also introduced the challenges and difficulties that iGEMers may encounter during the competition. By sharing practical examples and personal experiences, we aimed to provide insights and suggestions that would be beneficial to potential new iGEM participants.
The third part is much more generally beneficial for more people, as it is about how to read a research paper. We taught about the general structure for one common type of thesis, ‘abstract-introduction-materials&experiment-results-discussion-conclusion’, which we analyse slowly through a real example, then giving students to complete a mindmap on another thesis. We read their mindmap to learn about how is their progress. We found that our method in clarifying the common structure in thesis is successful in making them understanding the logic of an unseen thesis.
An example of a good mindmap
Figure 32
We interviewed with students after lecture, and their feedback was excellent as they consider our lectures covers a wider range of information in different, underestimated but important aspects, such as our mentioning of paper-reading skills.
Meanwhile, to support the learning process, we also gathered feedback from the members via WeChat and dedicated time in today's section to address any questions they had. This interactive approach allowed for a more comprehensive understanding and ensured that the participants felt engaged and supported in their iGEM journey.
To understand more and aid students in their lives concerning brain health, we put interactive posters. The Questionnaire posters have two types, one of them one can stick stickers on it to show a result, one of them one must take off a piece of paper to show agreement to a certain topic. After seeing the problem such as people having not enough time to sleep, we made referring demonstration posters. The demonstration posters have signs that reminds people to live a life healthy and beneficial to their brain health.
Figure 33&34
Figure 35-41
We feel that a greater range of students should receive our offline education interactively, as it is crucial that our friends, our classmates, and our teachers, whom we see every day, is acknowledged of the dangers of various traumatic brain injuries that could potentially cause CSF rhinorrhea, since the probabilities of getting hurt in school sports sessions are not low. The monthly assembly has more than 400 students participating, thus it has a great range of students which we can closely interact with.
Figure 42
We spoke with our head of year to gain his permission to speak at the monthly assembly, and received full support for our lecture, as it is highly relevant to what stress, mental strain, and unhealthy routines the student body is facing and having, which we observed from activities before. Our talk is split into two parts: physiological diseases and psychological disorders. To begin each section, two members of our team presented a mini-drama that portrayed regular scenarios that we might face in our campus life: receiving a blow to the head while doing sports (in martial arts), and staying up late for studying and revision(which is bad for efficiency next day!).
Figure 43
Our fellow schoolmates related to this quite so as they laughed after their display. This was an effective intro as the students were captivated by what we addressed and listened intently in the following lectures about widely-seen brain injuries and psychological conditions, such as strokes, concussions, anxiety, eating disorders, and insomnia. We followed a similar procedure in which we coupled hydrocephalus and CSF, before presenting CSF rhinorrhea and our project’s test kit as a detection method.
Alternatively, our lecture painted a vivid picture of what it’s like to be in the iGEM competition, and as hosting our lecture in our school, with so much students enthusiastic with science, we’re proud to say that we have demonstrated both brain care methods and the fascinating features of iGEM, which will attract potential iGEMers in the near future.