Best Education
Our work promotes mutual learning and dialogue a lot. In each of our education activity, we have set the dialogue session that took up a lot of educational time to communicate different ideas between us and the participants in various views. In addition, during each of our education activities, we tried our best to collect feedback from participants involved in our educational activities. For example, in our journey to the primary school located in Chengdu, we encouraged every student to share their opinions on the application of synthetic biology based on our brief introduction to synthetic biology. Also, through our education activities, we tried to exchange different knowledge or experiences between us and our participants. For instance, when communicating with patients with chronic patients in Shenzhen First People's Hospital, we gradually had a better understanding of local policy on chronic disease clinics from patients. In turn, we educated them about the benefits of self-management of chronic diseases.
Of course. All in all, we believe that our education section is unique and cannot be replicated. On the one hand, based on our project and the main idea of the iGEM competition to spread synthetic biology to more people, we have divided the people who need education into students who represent the hope of the future, chronic patients who represent the practical significance of our project, and the broader general public who represent a wider range of perspectives and diversity. To be specific, for different groups of students, we put forward different requirements and hopes for them based on their stages of growth. For example, for the middle school students we educated, we hoped that they could answer the question through our education - How could I form my own creative ideas? And then, they could be further excellent knowledge generators. On the other hand, based on the holistic reflection model, we divided every education activity into the origin, the process, the feedback, and the experience for future teams. Especially, in the section of the experience for future teams, we have put together a series of presentation materials and lessons from the educational process. In addition, based on our responsibility to the social aspects associated with the project, we decided to educate people with chronic diseases about chronic disease self-management and our project - DEVISE (Drug Delivery System via Type VI Secretion System) closely related to synthetic biology. In this education activity, we also introduced patients to a range of possibilities for synthetic biology to treat chronic diseases in the future.
Yes. We have educated students who represent the hope of the future, chronic patients who represent the practical significance of our project, and the broader general public who represent a wider range of perspectives and diversity. For every group of these educated people, we have prepared a targeted core question, including Primary school students (How could I form a good habit), Middle school students (How could I form my own creative ideas), Undergraduates (How could I put our ideas into practice), Patients (How can I manage my body more efficiently), and the General public (How can we participate in synthetic biology). Also, as mentioned above, based on the holistic reflection model, we divided every education activity into the origin, the process, the feedback, and the experience for future teams.
Yes. The answers to the above questions can prove this. We have carried out our education activities both in and out of school and online and offline, which showed the diversity and inclusiveness of our education. To be specific, we went to Wuhou Experimental Primary School in Chengdu to give a lecture on bacteria and synthetic biology to primary school students. Then, we joined a volunteer teaching program and gave a lecture online about the history and techniques of synthetic biology to middle school students living in Danzao Town of Foshan. Also, we held a professional presentation related to synthetic biology to freshmen at SUSTech. To further promote our program and synthetic biology, we went to Shenzhen First People's Hospital to educate patients with chronic diseases about our program, the importance of chronic disease self-management, and the prospects of synthetic biology in the treatment of chronic diseases in the future. Finally, to better encourage people to participate in synthetic biology, we participated in the 2023 iGEM Intercollegiate Synthetic Biology Science Conference online and joined the SynBio & SDG exhibition at Guangdong Science Center.