Better be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune. -- Plato, Ancient Greek phiosopher

We felt like we should make it a priority to raise awareness about big issues the world is facing, such as hunger and inequality. Moreover, our encounters with different stakeholders (biotech industries, agricultural organizations, law makers, consumers) throughout the journey led us to understand the great importance of communicating about the different steps and actors that enable us to have enough food. Agriculture in general and all the jobs that are part of this field deserve to be put under the spotlight and we wanted to contribute to that.

The purpose of this year's education is to break the barrier that keeps people from getting in touch with the cutting-edged knowledge in synthetic biology and other fields. We first consulted some experienced people working in education and even experienced scientific research on a research vessel in Vermont. In this way, we know what a successful education program should be.

As for the design of our own education program, we try to reach as many communities as possible. We organized activities in primary school as well as high schools, in urban areas as well as rural areas. Also, we pay great attention to equality, both economical and sexual. Education programs are carefully designed to better fit certain audiences.

Educational activities are the link between us and society. So our educational activities are not just one way. At the end of each event, we collect feedback from participants with a view to improving our educational approach and program design based on their input.

We did a survey on crop diseases control and synthetic biology, which allows us to learn about the current situation of people's understanding of the two topics and offers guidance to our education programs.

Please see the Public Survey for the detailed information.

Jianlong Li2023-04-01

"Popular science is not just about interesting stories and good-looking cartoons. The most important thing is scientific and accurate knowledge." We planed to organizen our education and public engagement activities based on this rule.

Please see the Jianlong Li for the detailed information.

Mitchel Resnick2023-07-01

In today's society, the ability to create something becomes particularly important. And the learning is more effective when children are actively engaged on a project. So we decided to organize a lesson for high school students based on experiment, so that they can understand synthetic biology more deeply.

Please see the Mitchel Resnick for the detailed information.

research vessel Marcelle Melosira2023-07-10

We were honored to experience scientific research on the University of Vermont's new research and teaching vessel Marcelle Melosira. A student organizer told us that this kind of scientific education is popular among the public. We are greatly inspired and decided to find a way that can allow participants to better engage.

Please see the research vessel Marcelle Melosira for the detailed information.

Shiyuan Li2023-08-10

Shiyuan Li value the kernel of education, which is the knowledge itself. We decided to offer more objective application descriptions and future prospects in our education.

Please see the Shiyuan Li for the detailed information.

Because primary school students have relatively little understanding of biology, and are mostly stranger to synthetic biology. So we chose a topic that was more suitable for them, which is food. In fact, we chose this topic concerning crop diseases partly due to our wish to solve the global food crisis. By getting in touch with the knowledge of food science and food safety, even kids can make a difference by affecting the consumption habits of his or her family.

On April 20, 2023, Lu Qian and other two students from the College of Food Science of Zhejiang University went to the Affiliated Second Primary School to carry out a food science popularization activity.

The theme of this lecture is "Those Fun Facts about Food". We analyzed "food rumors" for primary school students based on interesting daily cases, and tells related food knowledge, such as "instant noodles are junk food, can it be digested in the body for a month?" "Constipation, a banana to help moisten the bowels?" . We also shared "How to identify and prevent food rumors" and proposed specific measures for students to identify food rumors scientifically. The members of the tour group exchanged and interacted with the students, and the children actively raised their hands to answer. After the class, the children also said that they had a deeper understanding of food knowledge, and basically mastered the identification method of food rumors.

In the sharing session, we learned the details that entrepreneurs should take note of when designing their business blueprint. In order to go for a better presentation of the business plan, you need to use tools such as Gantt Chart, UVP, IP strategy, etc. We have applied the business knowledge we learned in this sharing session on our business design page. You can refer to our entrepreneurship page for details.

The revitalization of rural education is not only the basis of rural revitalization, but also the intellectual support of rural economic development, rural cultural construction, rural governance system and governance capacity modernization, and also the requirement for the growth of new professional farmers. The development of rural STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics education) is not only the embodiment of educational equity, but also an important starting point for training modern agricultural talents. It will help urban and rural education from extension to connotation direction, and then contribute to the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and the construction of a high-quality education system. However, the current urban-rural dual development thinking still exists. Many people believe that STEM education is only an elite education for a few people, and even produce one-sided views such as "who is qualified to be a scientist, who is good at science, and who belongs to the elite of the STEM community of practice." We are eager to break the barrier that keeping the kids from rural areas from STEM education.

Moreover, it's important to raise people's awareness of education in rural areas. According to the survey we conducted in Qinghai Province, many parents want their children to pass on their skills and carry on the family heritage instead of supporting them to go to college. So we worked hard to let children understand that they undoubtedly have the opportunity to study and work in the STEM field.

However, many schools or educational institutions in rural areas may lack sufficient resources such as teachers, teaching equipment and teaching materials. Through college students' volunteer teaching, educational resources can be shared between urban and rural areas. Volunteer teaching of college students can provide professional knowledge, new teaching methods and advanced educational resources for these areas, also stimulating the students' potential and self-confidence. According to Sir Ian L. Boyd, the resilience that must be built into some of the poorest countries, should be built upon self-confident people using open and shared scientific knowledge to pull themselves out of their misery.[1]

Loving the Green

In July 2023, the members of Team ZJU-China, with their enthusiasm for rural education and ecological environment, brought a rich and interesting classes to the students of Minzu Middle School in Huangnan, Qinghai Province. Under the guidance of volunteers, students got in touch with the field of crop pest control and learned about cutting-edge synthetic biology knowledge. Moreover, they participated in the discussion of genetically modified food and sustainable development issues. After getting a more scientific, objective and comprehensive vision of scientific and technological development, they came up with some green and effective ways to cope with crop diseases. Although the protocols are not that practical, their environmental awareness, creative thinking, scientific literacy and scientific spirit were improved in the process.

When children hear the word "scientist," their eyes always light up with admiration and longing. So what's the life of a scientist like? How are seemingly advanced experiments done in textbooks? With the help of Dingding meeting (similar to Zoom meeting), the students "visited" the laboratory of the Biological Experiment Center of Zhejiang University, and learned some basic principles of molecular biology experiments in the explanation of experimental equipment. "Online laboratory visit" gives full play to the advantages of online volunteer teaching, bringing laboratories thousands of miles away to the students, so that they can more intuitively perceive the life of scientific research workers and research environment. Scientists are also ordinary people who constantly explore the unknown. What we want to convey is that, as long as there is courage and enthusiasm for exploration, anyone is likely to make their own contribution to scientific development.

HER Digital Future Bootcamp

It is estimated that by 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Globally, only about 1/3 of students in STEM-related fields are female. China is the same. Girls in rural areas face a lack of resources for science and technology education, and we want to change that. HER Digital Future Bootcamp is organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and aims to open up a new digital learning world for young girls aged 12-18 in China by working with academics, technology companies, public welfare organizations and social media around the world.

(1) Real-life findings: Girls are encouraged to look for social issues that need to be addressed in daily life, which are related to four sustainable development goals (SDGs) -- good health and well-being, life on land, reduced inequality and quality education. Through practice, they will improve their insight into social phenomena, increase their understanding of the SDGs, and stimulate research interest.

(2) Deep Learning: Each village girl participating in the camp will learn through a series of courses to increase their knowledge of STEM fundamentals and learn how to use digital technologies to solve problems. After completing the corresponding course tests, they will receive a certificate of completion issued by UNDP.

(3) Teamwork: During the camp, girls can form teams of 3 to 5 people, and collaborate on a proposal on "how to use digital technologies for sustainable development".

Girls x STEM communities: We work to build trust with local schools, organizations, and communities to form Girls x STEM communities for Creation Camp participants and provide long-term support. In addition, we will continue to open the online community of the Creation camp to encourage girls to communicate and give play to wisdom and innovative thinking, exploring unlimited possibilities.

Feedbacks from Students

(1) This lesson let me know a lot of knowledge that I did not know before. Although the road to knowledge is difficult, I feel excited every time I know a piece of knowledge in class. Transgenic engineering has brought a lot of convenience to our life, of course, there are also disadvantages. I hope that the progress of science will improve these bad aspects, come on.

(2) I had the honor to participate in this summer camp, during which I got to know the charm of biology. We know that biology is a natural science based on experiments, so the teacher let us watch the biological laboratory of their school through a video and introduced the function and application of these experimental equipment in detail. This video greatly broadened my vision and increased my curiosity for the experiment. Because there is no experimental equipment in my school, the teacher often let us watch on the powerpoint. That's boring. But after watching this video, I have a goal to enter the university. This class also increased my understanding of the natural world, and enabled me to better understand the vein of life, so as to better protect it. All in all, I will not forget this class, so as to study hard and learn more about life in the future.

(3) I think genetically modified food is good and bad. The advantage is that many nutrients can be added, such as: carotene, vitamin C and so on. The downside is that we don't know if there are any health risks. Finally, I hope these products will enter the market when there is a certificate of conformity.

On August 1st, ZJU-China's representatives exchanged views with Professor Li Mingyuan, Vice President of the Chinese Institute of Medicine, University of Macau, and Ni Jun, Associate Professor of the School of Life Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The topics covered medicine, environmental protection, agricultural production and other fields. The conversation allowed us to see the infinite possibilities of synthetic biology, which can be applied to the development of new drugs, for example, the synthesis of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and other diseases that seriously endanger human health and life. Synthetic biology can also help achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, such as the use of carbon negative cell factories. The modification of photosynthetic microorganisms can directly convert greenhouse gas CO2 into valuable products. However, it's not easy to apply synthetic biology technology into production. Since there is no small difference between laboratory results and market demand, we should fully understand the market status quo, in order to do valuable scientific research for social development.

On August 5th, we were invited to participate in the "Approaching Synthetic Biology - 2023iGEM Exchange", attended by BIO+SHANGHAI, BIO+CHINA, OTIA HANGZHOU, ZJUT-China and ZJU-China. At the meeting, each team exchanged brochures. The representatives of each team made a detailed introduction and presentation of the research projects of their teams this year. After the presentation, the students and teachers of other teams put forward questions and suggestions. We also exchanged experiments and preparation experiences before and after the meeting. For our project, a teacher asked us about the source of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). In fact, RdRp is responsible for the replication and transcription of the RNA virus genome. It had already been used for antiviral drug targets and mRNA vaccines. The groundbreaking aspect of our work is its application to plants.

There is also concern about the feasibility. For example in the application of transgenic, Agrobacterium needs to pass through the callus to play a role. Can spraying make Agrobacterium infect the leaves? We decided to look into the problem in more depth.

We went to Xuejun High School in Hangzhou to conduct synthetic biology science and share the Flora Sentinel project with the high school students. During the sharing session, we encouraged the students to ask questions freely and we answered each question carefully. We collected feedback questionnaires from each of the students after the session, asking for their opinions on synthetic biology and Flora Sentinel.

We treasure every opportunity to communicate with others. It was our honor to present a lecture on synthetic biology to younger students. We were pleasantly surprised that many students showed great interest in synthetic biology after the lecture.

According to the feedback from the students, their initial impression of synthetic biology was "interesting". They were surprised and impressed by many previous iGEM projects. In the questionnaire feedback, the average acceptance of synthetic biology products for pesticides was higher than that of synthetic biology products for pharmaceuticals and food, which gives us a glimpse of the commercialization prospects of the Flora Sentinel project (for more information on this, please refer to our Entreprenuership page.)

We were also pleasantly surprised by the number of students who came up with ideas and suggestions for the Flora Sentinel project. For example:

"Is it possible to spread antibodies between plants of the same species on their own?"

"How well do farmers accept biopesticides?"

"If these pesticides are used on a large scale, will there be any unintended consequences?"

"How long can it last for one spray to be effective?"

Regarding these questions, we conducted extensive research, consulted with experts in various fields, and ultimately refined our project step by step, as you can see on our ihp page.

Synthetic biology is an important field that is deeply rooted in our society. However, based on our survey, we realized that many are foreign to the field of synthetic biology. To expand our audience even further from the schools, we decided to upload educational content to ZJU-China Bilibili channel. Bilibili is one of the most famous and popular video sharing social media platforms that over 3 billion people use, a wider audience and increased accessibility is guaranteed through the upload. We have created videos to help our viewers learn about iGEM and how synthetic biology is related to different parts of our lives. Moreover, we explored richer forms, sharing our everyday life in the lab, which is undoubtedly more attractive to the general public.

We also post tweets on Wechat platform about our team members, iGEM and synthetic biology. We used as much language easy to understand and vivid metaphors as possible to introduce our project, such as calling it a "plant vaccine," to help the public understand it better.

In fact, due to the barrier of GFW in China Mainland, it's difficult for us to post videos on Youtube or post podcasts on Spotify. We plan to collaborate with Team INSA_Lyon1. They are planing to organize awareness campaigns in China, and we are also eager to expand our reach to France. Recently, we have exchanged ideas and help each other with the questionnaires through E-mail. In this way, we are able to know what the French view towards synthetic biology and crop diseases is. We are looking forward to further collaboration with them, in the hope of talking to the world.