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Overview

In our human practice, we conducted numerous surveys and communication activities related to our project and products. Through these interactions, we gained a comprehensive understanding of the needs of stakeholders associated with our products and provided practical recommendations for product implementation.

Simultaneously, we placed significant emphasis on public science education. We seized every opportunity to promote and popularize the emerging field of synthetic biology to the general public. Our goals were as follows:
· Improving Scientific Literacy :By disseminating synthetic biology, we aimed to enhance people's understanding of modern biotechnology, thereby boosting their scientific literacy.
· Arousing Public Interest: We aimed to engage the public in the field of synthetic biology through various activities and increase their awareness of it.
· Alleviating Public Concerns:New technologies often raise public anxieties. Our science outreach efforts aimed to reduce misunderstandings about synthetic biology, thus lessening unnecessary panic and concerns.

We organized 10 science education events, with over 5,100 participants spanning 5 different groups: children, middle and high school students, university students, adults, and special groups. For each event, we tailored the content and format to meet different participants' needs, considering their backgrounds, interests, and levels of understanding. This personalized education approach enhanced effectiveness, ensuring that participants could engage efficiently.

Radio Station

"Spreading the Voice of Synthetic Biology"

Radio is a highly influential media format capable of disseminating knowledge to the public. We are honored to have accepted the invitation from Huizhou City Radio to share information about biology, synthetic biology, and biopesticides.

The radio show mainly targets teenagers and middle-aged listeners. We explain the basic principles and research methods of synthetic biology in an easy-to-understand way, helping the public grasp this new technology, its applications, and its effects on our world. We also discuss biopesticides and their importance for sustainable agriculture and the environment.

Listening data indicates that over 1,900 people have watched our program online. The radio host commended our explanations as engaging, interesting, and relatable, allowing listeners to clearly grasp the concepts of synthetic biology. This has been a meaningful experience for the audience. Furthermore, our radio content has been uploaded to Himalayan Radio, China's largest radio platform, where many listeners have left messages expressing their newfound knowledge. We are greatly motivated and encouraged by this positive feedback.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Carnival

"Share our innovative ideas"

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Carnival was held by Shenzhen University.The 2023-SZU-China team jointly participated with members of the 2022 and 2021 SZU-China teams to jointly showcase their projects and products. This event is a platform to showcase the achievements of innovation and entrepreneurship, attracting the participation of many innovation and entrepreneurship teams and related innovative enterprises. Everyone displayed their projects, products and innovative ideas through booths. It provides entrepreneurs and innovators with an opportunity to communicate, learn and cooperate with each other.

Considering that this event is aimed at college students and entrepreneurs, our booth has prepared different display formats:
· College students: We have prepared games related to synthetic biology, specially designed peripherals related to synthetic biology and igem-related peripherals, and popularized knowledge about synthetic biology.
· Entrepreneurs: Presented our project design and product concepts, as well as future business plans

Our booth attracted many participants at the event. We actively showcased our achievements and solutions, interacted with visitors, and explained relevant issues. Our project design caught the interest of entrepreneurs who recognized our future business plans and prospects. They believe that environmentally friendly and green biopesticides are a widespread trend with significant growth potential. Additionally, these entrepreneurs shared their own entrepreneurial stories and experiences with us, offering valuable suggestions for our future business plans.

Charity Sale

"Spread knowledge and spread love"

The Deep Blue Charity Fair, organized by Southern University of Science and Technology and Shenzhen University, is a large charity event. Its main goal is to raise funds for children's growth and education through students' stalls selling goods. SZU-China, SUStech_OCE, and BASIS China jointly ran a synthetic biology stall at the event, offering engaging activities.

· Synthetic biology drift bottle:Participants select synthetic biology elements to personalize their own vases. We explain the applications and significance of these elements, guiding participants into the world of synthetic biology.
· Synthetic biology knowledge contest: We set up a set of synthetic biology knowledge questionnaires to popularize science among participating college students.
· Peripheral delivery: We designed small peripherals and postcards with synthetic biology elements to arouse the interest of participants

In this way, the iGEM team not only raised funds to support public welfare projects, but also contributed to the dissemination and promotion of knowledge in the field of synthetic biology. This cross-school, cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing helps promote innovation and education, while also promoting a public spirit.

Parent-child biology summer camp

“Both children and parents can involve fully”

On an afternoon in August, we collaborated with the Shenzhen University Town community to hold a special parent-child summer camp. This event was mainly aimed at children aged 6 to 10 and their parents. Our goal is to design differentiated activity content so that participants of different ages can fully participate and benefit. For these two different age groups, we have adopted a series of carefully planned activities to ensure that they spend a meaningful time in the summer camp:

Children (6~10 years old): We've created engaging, age-appropriate activities, including comics, to spark curiosity, nurture their interest in science, and enhance their understanding of scientific concepts in a fun and educational manner.

· Introduction to microorganisms:Introduce children to common microorganisms in life, stimulate their interest in the world of microorganisms, and help them understand the importance of microorganisms in nature and in our lives.
· hand washing importance awareness: we conducted a simple experiment. Each child received two agarose culture media plates. One was inoculated before handwashing, and the other after. We sealed them with film to prevent contamination. After a few days, children compared the colony counts in the two plates.
· Tomato gray mold cartoon:We drew a vivid cartoon to tell children how tomatoes are infected with the disease and how our team prevents gray mold. We prepared a comic for each child, and the children liked it very much.

During the event, children enthusiastically participated by eagerly raising their hands to answer questions. They learned about various microorganisms and their functions, as well as the importance of handwashing through a simple bacterial culture experiment. This experience helped cultivate their awareness of health and hygiene. After the event, many children engaged in positive discussions with us and expressed their happiness in participating.

Parent group: In response to the needs of parents, we provide more in-depth scientific lectures and parent-child interaction sessions. We introduced specific diseases on tomatoes and current prevention and control measures to parents, and introduced greener and more environmentally friendly biopesticides, as well as the basic principles of RNAi pesticides, and the certification standards and labels of organic vegetables. Corresponding questionnaires were distributed to understand parents' evaluation of the lectures.

In the questionnaire, most parents said that they learned more about biopesticides through our popular science lectures, and reported that the explanation of the principles of RNAi effectively eliminated their worries and fears about new technologies.

Popular science activities for teenagers

“Comprehensive science popularization is more interesting”

In mid-March, 45 students from the Experimental Middle School Affiliated to Shenzhen University came to our laboratory. We designed many interesting activities for young people.

· Popular science on synthetic biology and introduction to iGEM: In this session, team members introduced the relevant background of synthetic biology and the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) to the participants, stimulating students’ curiosity and interest in synthetic biology.

· Synthetic Biology Card Game: This session designed a creatively challenging card game that transforms the concept of synthetic biology into an interactive experience. Players must collect cards with various functions and then collaborate to assemble these cards into a genetic pathway to produce a target product. Through this game, it provides a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles of synthetic biology.

· Introduction to experimental instruments: Through a combination of explanation videos and on-site operations, students were introduced to common instruments in molecular biology laboratories, such as PCR machines, micro-volume spectrophotometers, ultra-clean benches, etc. This vivid introduction method enables participants to understand the operating principles and experimental uses of these instruments, providing a foundation for their more in-depth scientific exploration in the future.

Teenagers have some knowledge base and great interest to explore. We carry out this comprehensive science education activity in the hope that it will help make complex scientific concepts easier to understand and allow young people to better integrate into the field of synthetic biology.

College student lectures

"Lecture Series, Sharing Knowledge"

2023 iGEM Inter-school Synthetic Biology Science Popularization Conference

The 2023 iGEM inter-school synthetic biology science popularization conference is organized by BNUZH-China in collaboration with SZU-China, USTC, SYSU-SLS-CHINA, SYSU-Software, SUSTech-CHINA, SUSTech-Shenzhen, SUSTech-MED, SUSTech-OCE, USTC, and SCAU-China. Its aim is to promote synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. The event combines online and offline formats, with multiple schools hosting branch venues. This approach overcomes distance barriers between schools while allowing for in-person interaction. By sharing insights from various iGEM teams, more students can appreciate the broad applications of synthetic biology in medicine, agriculture, biomanufacturing, and other fields, fostering a love for science and a passion for exploration.

During our engagement with college students, we provided a comprehensive overview of our project's key aspects and delved into the specifics of biopesticide safety. We fostered interactive discussions and shared knowledge on these topics with our fellow students. Following our presentations, students showed great enthusiasm by actively posing questions. They inquired about the precise operational procedures of our product, safety assurances, application processes, and storage requirements. Furthermore, they shared their own insights and opinions, which we highly value as they contribute significantly to the advancement of our project.

Shenzhen University Lecture Series

We also held a series of lectures on synthetic biology at Shenzhen University, aiming to gradually guide college students to gain a deeper understanding of this field. This series of lectures was divided into two sessions, each providing further insight and knowledge to the participating students.
Session 1: Understanding Synthetic Biology and iGEM Competition
In this lecture, we first provide college students with an overview of synthetic biology, including its definition, background, and importance. We discuss the potential of synthetic biology for scientific research and practical applications, and how bioengineering approaches can be used to design and build biological systems. Special emphasis was placed on the background and goals of the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM), as well as the role of iGEM as an academic competition and scientific community. The goal of this lecture is to arouse students' interest in synthetic biology and iGEM.

Session 2: Introducing the specific architecture and basic principles of synthetic biology
In the second lecture, we further explored the specific architecture and basic principles of synthetic biology. We explained the tools, technologies and methods commonly used in synthetic biology, such as gene synthesis, design and construction of biological components, genetic regulation, etc. We also describe how biological pathways can be designed and optimized in synthetic biology projects to achieve specific production goals. The goal of this lecture is to help students gain a deeper understanding of how synthetic biology actually works so that they can better participate in and contribute to the field.

Through this series of lectures, we aim to provide Shenzhen University students with a solid foundation of synthetic biology knowledge, stimulate their scientific interests, and lay a solid foundation for their future research and participation in the field of synthetic biology. Students are encouraged to actively participate in discussions and ask questions so that they can better understand this exciting field.

Synbio-rainbow

"Care for Special Group"

During our educational activities, we also took into consideration special groups, especially children with autism. We aim to ensure that these children have equal access to educational resources. Therefore, we collaborated with several universities to create a picture book about synthetic biology called "Synbio-rainbow." We have submitted this picture book to institutions such as the Nanning Smart Kids Rehabilitation Center, the AusMing Tangxin WanChang, the Macau Down Syndrome Association, and the Macau Special Olympics Association. This initiative is aimed at providing more educational opportunities and support for special-needs groups.

Synthetic Biology Merchandise

We have created exquisite synthetic biology merchandise, including comics, tote bags, keychains, postcards, memes, and more. These products not only provide a more accessible and intuitive way to showcase elements related to synthetic biology and our project but also help disseminate knowledge and concepts of synthetic biology, promoting the popularization and understanding of science. These merchandise items have been warmly embraced and welcomed by the general public and have served as prizes for various events.

Media

"Reach a wider audience"

We actively utilize various media platforms to promote and publicize our science outreach activities. This approach helps ensure that our scientific knowledge and educational content can be rapidly disseminated and reach a wider audience.

We have published over 30 popular science articles on our WeChat official account, covering topics such as iGEM project introductions, synthetic biology popularization, and retrospectives of the HP series of events, among others. These efforts have garnered over 1,600 followers.

Human Practice Series

Project Interpretation

Science Outreach Activities