Team:BNU-China/Education

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    We regard science communication as a bridge for knowledge exchange between the public and scientific researchers. This year, BNU-China has made a lot of efforts, trying to draw the public attention to synthetic biology and our project as well as eliminate knowledge misunderstandings.
    Due to the limited conditions under the epidemic situation, this year, most of our science communication was carried out online. Besides, we combined different kinds of methods to carry out offline science communication. As a result, we increased public knowledge of iGEM, synthetic biology and life science.
    Generally, our work can be divided into four parts according to the type of audiences: primary school students, high school students, undergraduates and the public. The following is a detailed description.

Primary School Students

   Primary school students are always full of curiosity, so we used creative ways to show the wonder of the biological world to them.

   We cooperated with community welfare organizations and popularized science to students there. To attract students, clay and other hand-made materials were used to make models of gene-editing. (Figure 1 and Figure 2) Besides, we organized interesting games to let them know the importance of bio-safety. This popular science class attracted them very much. We also established long-term cooperation with relevant public welfare organizations.

Figure 1. Showing the models

Figure 2. Making the models

High School Students

   Aiming at making synthetic biology more accessible for high school students, BNU-China conducted a 6-day online course "2020: Synthetic Biology from Scratch" together with Tsinghua, Peking, CAU-China and FAFU-China. (Figure 3) The course combined knowledge with examples got great feedback.

   After being promoted on various social platforms, this activity has received great social attention. We also got support from the Education and Research Center of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, Xicheng District, Shunyi District, Shijingshan District, Fengtai District, and Daxing District Education Commission.

Figure 3. "2020: Synthetic Biology from Scratch"

   The course was broadcast live on bilibili, a popular video site in China. In the course, BNU-China was responsible for expounding diagnostic treatment/new technologies and synthetic biology. In the first section, we showed students a video about the current COVID-19 detection methods. Then we introduced some projects of other teams in 2019. Finally, we elaborated on our project and encouraged the audience to discuss it in the comment section. The average number of audiences for each live broadcast was about 3,500, and the cumulative number of audiences was over 20,000. In addition, videos and summaries were provided on bilibili and WeChat Public Platform for everyone to review.
   After the course, we sent out questionnaires to investigate the audiences' evaluation of the course. The results showed that most of the audiences were junior high school students. More than half thought highly of the course and all of them deepened their understanding of synthetic biology and iGEM after the course. (Figure 4)

Figure 4. Questionnaire results of the course

   What's more, we worked with the Shouren volunteer teaching team to provide education for students in mountainous areas. (Figure 5)

Figure 5. Volunteer teaching class

   We took "Biological Magic" as the theme. It was combined with practical problems such as obesity to popularize "what is synthetic biology", "what can synthetic biology do" and "ethics norms of synthetic biology". Students were full of interest and expressed their ideas in class.
   It can be seen from the questionnaire after class that our volunteer teaching activities have achieved positive results. (Figure 6)

Figure 6. Questionnaire results of volunteer teaching

Undergraduates

   On the WeChat Public Platform, we introduced iGEM to undergraduates and posted some educational videos concerning the operation of instruments in our laboratory, such as PCR Amplifier, Gel Imager System, Centrifuge, and Nanodrop. (Figure 7) At last, we encouraged outstanding students from multiple majors to continuously innovate and solve social concerns and scientific cutting-edge issues through synthetic biology.

Figure 7. Educational videos of instruments operation

Public

   Most members of society tend to think over when facing synthetic biology products because the unknown triggered their fear and rejection. So it’s necessary to conduct popular science for the general public. We first collected basic data from them. The content involved their basic understanding and attitude bias towards gene-editing technologies, the tendency to choose science popularization methods and their recognition of our gene-editing research in the laboratory.
   Based on the questionnaire result, we found that the popular science handbook was the most welcoming way to spread knowledge. The main reason was that it is readable, interesting and easy to understand, so we carefully designed our handbook and greatly stimulated the interest of the public.
   Our science manual was divided into two parts. The first part mainly included the introduction of synthetic biology and iGEM. We showed the concepts, methods and goals of synthetic biology in vivid language. The second part was used to introduce the popular topics——gene-editing and CRISPR/Cas9 technology. We explained the mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9 through cartoons and introduced the wide application of it.
   We spread it both in printed and electronic forms，and set up delivery points in some related organizations to distribute them to the public. (Figure 8) Through the popular science manual, we helped more people understand biology knowledge better. We put the electronic manual on the WeChat Public Platform and other platforms so that the public can browse it online.

Figure 8. Distributing and expounding the manual

   Moreover, we tried some other methods to communicate with the public. We worked with CSMU_Taiwan and NCKU_Tainan and introduced the relationship between lineage tracing and cancer in the form of posters. (Figure 9) Our final product was shown on FaceBook and received much attention.

Figure 9. Our poster

   Despite some limitations, we still tried our best to communicate with different audiences. And the results were pretty satisfactory.