According to the results of the preliminary social research, we learnt that the public thinks that it is very meaningful to strengthen the care for different groups from different regions over the world (92.5% of our respondent think local community needs to put more effort into caring for non-local with special disease), but the understanding of synthetic biology and the concepts of gluten and coeliac disease in our project are still unclear for people (only 34.2% of our respondents know the concept of “gluten” in China, and more than half of our respondents don’t know what is “celiac disease”.), so it is an urgent mission to popularize the concepts to the public as a whole.

Figure 4.1.1/2/3 The result of our social research.

Figures 4.1.4 The result of our social research about people’s understanding of synthetic biology and the core concept of our project.

Our human practice group had done a series of educational events by ourselves and collaborated with other iGEM teams. All these events helped us share knowledge of our project and synthetic biology with the public in a funny and relaxing way. Our education programme is a well-established system - at the offline level, we seek to demonstrate our inclusiveness to the whole society through diversified forms of education and popularization of science and technology, covering all children from young to old, from urban to rural areas, as well as increasing our efforts in caring for special groups; At the online level，we also used our Instegram, Wechat account and Youtube channel as the primary social media to promote our project online by the form of blog, graphics and video.

Documents. The different syllabus we prepared for different age's group of students.

Education event at Heishan village Primary School in Zhangye, Gansu

UM-Macau together with LZU-China to hold educational activities in each other’s region. We designed our powerpoint based on our teaching outline for primary school students and together with a local teaching group in Gansu province under the help of LZU-China, went to Heishan village Primary School in Zhangye, Gansu. This course our teaching group delivered a wonderful presentation to children as enlightenment, to introduce what is biological sciences, what is synthetic biology and how synthetic biology plays its role in real application based on our project.

Figure 4.1.6 The lecture faced to Chinese mainland primary school students.

The students listened carefully to our explanation, understood our project, and actively participated in our Q&A session. After our teaching presentation we gave souvenirs to the students who are most active in our class. Through this activity reaching out to remote areas’s primary school, we move our first step from our initiation of education plan and our inclusive object, as we have done a successful synthetic biological enlightenment on young children.

Figure 4.1.7 The reaction of students on our educational events.

Education event at Jiaxiang Foreign Language School in Pengzhou, Sichuan

At the secondary school level, we continued our journey into mainland China with a teaching activity to the Jiaxiang Foreign Language School in Pengzhou, Sichuan Province. For the high school students who have some basic knowledge of genetic engineering, we are going deeper into the iGEM project based on our and some of our friends' teams, to broaden their knowledge, stimulate their curiosity and encourage them to devote themselves to synthetic biology in the future.

Figure 4.1.8/4.1.9 The lecture faced to Chinese mainland high school students.

In the class, we explained the most commonly used tools in synthetic biology, such as promoters, fluorescent proteins, peptide tags, etc., and described in detail how we solve the problem of gluten intolerance caused by celiac disease through synthetic biology. Driven by curiosity, the students were very active on stage and interacted with the UM-Macau team members

Figure 4.1.10 The group photo of the educational event at Jiaxiang Foreign Language School, Pengzhou campus.

-Synthetic Biology Session at the Biomedical Summer Camp

Taking advantage of the biomedical summer camp organized by the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Macau for local high school students, UM-Macau seized the opportunity to organize a "Synthetic Biology Session at the Summer Camp". Given that the teaching of biology in Macau is different from that on the mainland, and that some of the on-site students are already doing research in high school labs - we adapted part of our teaching to show the students how we use Elisa, PCR and Gibson Assembly to achieve the two main components of our project, adhesion and release. At the end of the lesson, the students were eager to ask us questions about the practical aspects of their research, so it was clear that our goal of stimulating the interest of local high school students in research had been successfully achieved.

Figure 4.1.11 Education event on the Biomedical Summer Camp, special session on synthetic biology.

Figure 4.1.12 Students listen carefully in our class.

Because of our collaboration with LZU-China, the iGEM team of Lanzhou University, in the field of education, we also made use of another occasion of the "Summer Camp Synthetic Biology Session" to make use of the teaching materials provided by LZU-China to popularize basic synthetic biology and hypercholesterolaemia knowledge to the students of Macau, thus realizing the cooperation and mutual assistance with our Friendship Teams.

Figure 4.1.13 The joint educational event with LZU-China on the Biomedical Summer Camp, special session on synthetic biology.

-Booth promotion in UM campus during orientation session

For the undergraduate students, UM-Macau collaborated with the University of Macau Student Union, Faculty of Health Sciences Students’ Association during the orientation season of the new academic year, and introduced what iGEM is and the benefits for undergraduate students of participating in iGEM, the potential of synthetic biology in the future, etc., in the form of booths for the freshly enrolled undergraduates at UM-Macau. Meanwhile, aimed at promotion, our booth and souvenirs attracted many passers-by and even professors in our campus who were interested in our GEIG project. "Your project is very appealing to me, and I am sure that your endeavors will be able to play a very leading role in Macau," commented by a professor from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Macau.

-Souvenirs

We designed the badges and keychain based on our team logo and the cute version of our team mascot——Wheatty. Through this series of artwork, people can understand the core elements of our project including the gut probiotics and the therapy aims to deal with celiac disease. Meanwhile, the beautiful wizard Wheatty indicates the goal of our project: use the magic of synthetic biology to overcome the difficulties over the world!

Figure 4.1.14 The souvenir we delivered during our in-campus educational event.

-Posters

This year, three posters were designed and printed to show our project information to the audiences in different time periods. During the freshmen orientation session, we use two easy-standing posters to make our audience see the instruction of overall iGEM and our own project. We also prepare QR code on the poster, by scanning which using Wechat or Instegram the audiences can automatically browse our official accounts and more detailed information.

Figure 4.1.15/16The roll-up banner design of iGEM competition and GEIG.

-Leaflets

The leaflets can give passers-by an opportunity to read our project information afterward leaving our boot. Utilizing this advantage, we print a short but excellent leaflet with our information, photos and our cute mascots Wheatty on it, use this way our project gained a larger population in our UM campus.

Figure 4.1.17 The leaflets we delivered during our publication.

-Synbiorainbow together with other 10 iGEM teams

As one of the 11 core members, UM-Macau together with our friend created coloring books for children with autism, hearing impairment and Down syndrome based on the content of our projects. In addition to providing training opportunities for children with special needs through coloring and promoting them on the platforms of our iGEM teams to raise social awareness, we are also spreading the knowledge and concepts of synthetic biology to the children or their parents in a way that is acceptable to them.

Figure 4.1.18 In the UM-Macau part, the event was held together with the local Down Syndrome Association.

Figures 4.1.19/20 UM-Macau’s coloring book was delivered to children with hearing impairment in Hubei Province

Figure. Our colored book by children with the story of GEIG.

-2023 Synbio & SDG Science Exhibition at the Guangdong Science Centre

In order to bring synthetic biology and related SDGs concepts to the society, iGEM teams from South China University of Technology and South China Agricultural University, together with UM-Macau and other teams, held the Synbio & SDG Science Exhibition at the Guangdong Science Centre——the world's largest science center and a 4A tourist attraction, where UM-Macau and 12 other teams combined our project with the SDGs to educate and inform the public with a variety of mini-events. Leveraging on the huge traffic flow (especially for children) of the Guangdong Science Centre, UM-Macau combined our project with the SDGs to educate the public about synthetic biology, engage children and their parents in a variety of mini-games, and expand the platform for UM-Macau.

-The Gut Alliance Handbook

In order to promote gut health to the general public, several teams of 2023 Gut Alliance decided to jointly produce gut health brochures related to IBD, Hypercholesterolaemia, Celiac Disease and Colorectal Cancer based on the direction of the projects of our respective teams. At the same time, we use the WeChat public platforms, INS and other platforms of our respective teams to disseminate ours in both electronic and physical ways, so that we can let the general public use our platforms to build up a more comprehensive understanding of gut health, and pay more attention to their own intestinal health.

Figure 4.1.21 The cover of Gut Alliance Handbook

-iG20

In addition to producing brochures for the general public, the Gut Alliance, of which UM-Macau is a member, has joined forces with more than 20 other iGEM teams to educate the public about what synthetic biology is, what we are doing, and the commitment of all our iGEM teams to iGEM competition, together with the use of landmarks on our campuses or in cities cities. In this way, we are able to educate the public about synthetic biology in a more diverse and interesting form, and to bring more iGEMers into the public eye.

-Running Instagram and Wechat Public accounts to let the world know us

We have run our official Instagram account which is named igem_ummacau and the Wechat Public account UM iGEM with the aim of promoting our project, activities and team members to the public. We introduce our project and our team in a detailed and easy-understanding way. We frequently shared our public events and courses with the iGEM community. Many biology lovers, other iGEM teams’ official accounts and even the iGEM community has followed us. Meanwhile, this year we also joined the group of iGEM teams all over the world and seek collaborations there.

Figures 4.1.22/23/24/25 The Youtube channel, Instagram and Wechat public account of UM-Macau 2023

Video. The introduction video about celiac disease we promote on our youtube channel.