Overview

After recognizing the knowledge gap in the general public regarding heart-related information, in 2023, SHSBNU-China has designed a series of educational activities aimed at reaching a wider audience. We are committed to conveying our project and ideas to a broader audience, making more people aware and understand our concept. Therefore, we have conducted various promotional activities in different fields, targeting all age groups. This year, we have created a questionnaire promotional videos, project-related games, and used posters for promotion in hospitals.
We conducted a public survey aimed at understanding the public's knowledge of heart valves and their support for our valve materials and related projects. We received a total of 646 responses to the survey. The questionnaire primarily focused on two aspects: firstly, the public's understanding of heart health and valves, and secondly, the public's views on the treatment of heart valve diseases and our projects. We posed the following questions:

1. Are you familiar with heart valves?
2. Do you know the important role of heart valves in the heart?

3. What are the common causes of heart valve diseases?
4. Which of the following are common symptoms of heart valve problems?

5. How significantly do heart valve diseases impact individuals?
6. Can heart valve diseases be prevented?
7. Which treatment methods do you think are related to the treatment of heart valve diseases?

8. Are you familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of mainstream heart valve replacements currently available for surgery?

9. We have been researching a new biological approach to manufacturing heart valves, which can enhance their performance. Would you support the specific implementation of this project?

10. Do you have any suggestions or expectations regarding the treatment and research direction of heart valve diseases?

Understanding of Heart Valves

The survey questionnaire primarily focused on two aspects. Firstly, we asked the public about their level of understanding regarding heart health and valves. According to the survey results, 52.94% of respondents indicated that they have limited knowledge about heart valves. This suggests that there is a need to enhance public awareness and understanding of heart valves.
However, from the answers to subsequent questions, we can see that the public remains highly concerned about heart valve-related diseases. For example, when asked about the impact of heart valve diseases on individuals, only 2.78% of respondents believed that it has little effect, while 45.9% and 40.19% of respondents respectively believed that heart valve diseases can be life-threatening and affect normal life. These two categories combined account for over 80% of the respondents, indicating a certain level of awareness about the dangers of heart valve diseases.
Treatment of Heart Valve Diseases and Perspectives
We also surveyed the public's perspectives on the treatment of heart valve diseases and our projects. The survey results showed that 79.65% of respondents have limited knowledge about mainstream heart valve replacements. This suggests that most people are still not well-informed about the specific treatment methods for heart valve diseases.
Lastly, over 60% of respondents expressed support for our research on a new biological approach to manufacturing heart valves. This indicates a high level of anticipation and support from the public for novel heart valve technologies.
Overall, although there is room for improvement in public understanding of heart valves, they do have a certain level of awareness and concern about heart valves and related diseases. Therefore, the public's support for our project is meaningful.

Suggestions and Expectations

Based on the suggestions and expectations from the public regarding the treatment and research direction of heart valve diseases, we have summarized the following recommendations:
1. Increase public awareness and knowledge about heart valves and their diseases by providing more relevant information through education and awareness campaigns.
2. Implement more preventive measures targeting heart valve diseases to reduce the number of affected individuals.
3. Enhance research on treatment methods for heart valve diseases and promote the development of innovative technologies.
4. Provide a wider range of safer and more reliable alternatives for heart valve replacements to benefit patients.

Educational Explanation

research, we have found that the current understanding of heart knowledge in society is not comprehensive and widespread. Conducting educational outreach to students will help expand social awareness to some extent.
In order to better promote our project to all age groups, our team members have recorded an approximately eight-minute promotional video. It includes basic knowledge about the heart, a brief introduction to our iGEM project, heart valve diseases, and related preventive measures.

Within our capabilities, we have pursued offline explanations to achieve better promotional results. Through communication with middle school teachers, we have conducted project promotions to multiple classes in middle schools. In order to connect the project content with middle school knowledge while promoting the project, we have specifically selected simple and easy-to-understand illustrations similar to middle school textbooks, as well as interesting and imaginative metaphors to facilitate middle school students' understanding of the project.

Similarly, in our high school synthetic biology club, we also conducted relevant promotional presentations. However, unlike with middle school students, when facing high school students from international schools, we focused our explanations on promoting and explaining the iGEM project, building upon their existing knowledge of synthetic biology. To achieve better promotional results, we opted for more authentic and detailed English illustrations to enhance the effectiveness of our presentations.

In offline lectures, whenever we finish the explanations, we conduct a Q&A session, creating a perfect feedback loop. During this session, middle school students had their doubts addressed through our careful explanations, and some expressed interest in biology, looking forward to further study in high school. High school students, on the other hand, provided interesting ideas for our project design, allowing us to further develop in the future.
To better promote our project across all age groups, our team members recorded an approximately eight-minute promotional video for better outreach. In situations where face-to-face communication was not possible, we chose to send our video as a supplementary means of promotion.
For adults who showed interest in our project, we approached them and promoted our team's project, gaining recognition as well.
Targeting our main audience, the elderly, we contacted nursing homes and presented our lectures in the form of videos. In these lectures, we focused on popular science and prevention of heart valve diseases, making the project more relevant to the needs of the elderly.
Finally, we uploaded our video on the Bilibili platform to reach a wider audience. It has gained a good number of views and received affirmation from many online users.

Game

The game took inspiration from "Minecraft" and pixel games in terms of programming style. Students with a computer background independently developed the game by modifying scenes, characters, and plots within a fixed template, making the game more interesting. At the same time, the storyline is closely related to the production process of heart valves, allowing players to gain knowledge about heart valves while experiencing the game. It is a promotional format that combines fun and education.

Card Game

Based on the game Monopoly, we have added elements related to the heart and adjusted the difficulty level. Players can also gain an appreciation for the challenges involved in the production of heart valves upon successfully completing the game.

Poster

We created an iGEM poster and hung it in a hallway of a hospital where one of our team members' mothers works. The poster is easily visible to patients and their families, increasing awareness about heart health.

Merchandise

(Trifold stands, grating cards, keychains, stickers, notebooks)
To further promote awareness of synthetic biology and our project, we designed various merchandise items to be distributed to participants attending our presentations and playing the card game as souvenirs.

The stickers feature hand-drawn designs inspired by laboratory equipment such as pipettes, test tubes, and alcohol bottles, which are familiar tools to biology enthusiasts who frequently engage in experiments.
The grating cards are postcards with patterns that change under different lighting conditions, showcasing two different designs. They are visually appealing and serve as collectible souvenirs.

The trifold stands feature the iGEM logo, team emblem, and an illustration with our signature slogan, representing our team with strong school colors and symbolism.
The keychains feature our team emblem and are practical and convenient gifts for participants.
The notebooks have a black base with a pink heart pattern, featuring bold color combinations that highlight the heart. Our team name and slogan are printed at the top, making it a practical and special commemorative item.