For the education and engagement part, we separated into 3 lines: social media, offline education and offline voting activity. Here is the mind map for our educational activities:
Figure 1. Our mind map of education
Due to our pervious survey, we realized that the public's awareness of E. coli is very low, so we decided to post science articles on social media to increase the public's awareness and increase the visibility of our team.
We have established our official accounts on WeChat and Little Red Book, which are highly popular platforms among the general public in mainland China.
Figure 2. Screenshots of our WeChat official account and Little Red Book Account
To begin with, our article is divided into two parts, firstly to arouse the public's attention and interest, and then to introduce the concepts and the application of the theoretical knowledge in practical life. In the first half of our article, we introduce the concept of E. coli disease through an example to familiarize the public with the causes and transmission of E. coli disease, which will be used to give the public an in-depth understanding of the topic.
We want to enhance the public's knowledge of the basic biology and pathology of E. coli, so our first article is aimed at a population that lacks a basic knowledge of this. The second half of this article starts with the definition and classification of E. coli. First, we popularized the general definition of E. coli, including its morphofunctional characteristics, life activity characteristics, and living environment and habit differences. Secondly, we introduced the classification basis, biological characteristics of different species of E. coli respectively.
Figure 3. Screenshot of our first post title on The Little Red Book Account
Figure 4. The content of our first post screenshot
In our second article, we hope to popularize the knowledge of E. coli so that people can be more aware and concerned about this issue. In this article, we detail the ecological niche of E. coli in the human body and its relationship with us humans, as well as its effects on our health. In addition, we further analyze how the ecological mechanism of E. coli affects our health. It may bring newer knowledge to those who are not too concerned about this issue and lack relevant knowledge.
Figure 5. Screenshot of our second post on Little Red Book
Figure 6. The content of our second post screenshot
We have not explored further the negative effects that E. coli can have on our bodies, including various diseases. It is not our aim to spread fear of a particular bacteria, on the contrary, we hope that through a comprehensive introduction, the public will abandon the fear of disease and the unknown, and face any kind of bacteria or disease with a more rational attitude in order to find a solution.
Moreover, we will follow up with more popularized articles on our WeChat official account so that people can increase their interest in E. coli through our introduction, thus raising the attention of our further research.
Currently, there is a lack of systematic popularization of E. coli knowledge, both online and offline, targeting preschool children and the elderly population. Therefore, in our popularization activities, we set our target population at children and the elderly in the community, because this group generally possesses less medical and biological knowledge but has a higher probability of getting sick compared to young people.
Figure 7-8. Offline education
In order to achieve our goal, we organized an offline seminar in a local community in Shanghai, spreading knowledge about E. coli, genetic material, and gene editing technology in healthcare and biology to more than ten preschoolers and seniors. Our team members used interactive games and animations to help them understand the basics of biology so that they can be more familiar with diseases and bacteria. With the help of PowerPoint and videos, we vividly introduced genetic material and gene editing technology to arouse the public's interest in scientific research as well as the help of our research topics. In addition, we attached great importance to adding Q&A sessions to the science popularization process, encouraging children to use their existing knowledge and rational thinking to reflect and innovate. In the process, the elderly's questions and answers further deepen our thinking and exploration of the topic, and inspire us to continue to spread scientific knowledge and thinking to other people and the next generation.
Figure 9-11. Our education poster and slides
(Click here for the slides attachment - 1)
(Click here for the poster attachment - 2)
In order to let more young people know about the gene editing technology of Crispr-cas9, we conducted an offline polling activity at Xuhui New Oriental in Shanghai, which allowed more young people to read about gene editing, think about it, and participate in the polling of related issues.
Figure 12. Our polling activity
Our team wrote a plan for the polling activity, cooperated with Shanghai Xuhui New Oriental, and placed posters in the halls of thier high-traffic area to display the content of science popularization, which mainly introduced the gene editing technology, and emphasized the risks of gene editing applied to the human body, as well as the introduction of the gene editing technology of Crispr-cas9. We asked two ethical questions about the use of gene editing in human beings (Do you think it is unethical to use gene editing in human beings?
Would you be willing to modify your genes? For example, to become smarter or taller, or to correct defects and cure diseases). To stimulate people's thinking, they could put sticky notes below the options to indicate their attitudes and thoughts.
Figure 13. The content of our poster
-Why we ask these two questions about whether they agree with the use of gene editing in humans?
When people are faced with congenital or major life-threatening diseases, they may have considered using gene editing technology to modify their defects and remove disease-causing genes to have a healthy body. However, gene editing technology is not yet mature, and people need to do experiments to verify the idea, probably starting from animal experiments at the beginning, and will it be experimented on human beings at a later stage? And some people think it is a sign of disrespect. In the face of immature technology, when altering human genes, might there be gene editing errors that could change a person's life? These questions may involve moral and ethical issues, i.e. the perception of society.
Figure 14. Our members
After two days of presentations, we conducted data collection and plotted it into a table to more intuitively reflect the students' thoughts on the use of gene editing technology in the human body. Facing the moral and ethical issues, the students had the same ballot status, and in the option of disagreeing with gene editing, there were students who did not understand why it was against the moral and ethical issues. This triggered our reflection that our team should explain in detail the relationship between these issues and the society's view of morality and ethics. Some people think that the first question depends on the purpose of gene editing, while it seems that more students are willing to change their own genes, and they favor gene editing technology to improve their genes, to become smarter, to cure diseases, and to compensate for their shortcomings. But some people worry that in the future human beings may tend to be homogenized.
Figrue 15. Results
Through these activities, we have established stronger links with our local community and have contributed to a greater awareness of gene editing among a broader audience. In the future, we will continue our efforts in this field.