Overview
Our public participation work is divided into two main parts, the public part and the student part. In the public part, it is difficult to communicate offline with the public because of pandemic this year. Thus, we flexibly adopt the form of online broadcasting, which not only enables the public to learn synthetic biology without leaving home, but also reduces the risk of crowd gathering. Our activities go well and feedback is gratifying.
In the contact with students, we communicate with students of different ages: College students have a good knowledge base and can learn from each other to promote the development of IGEM; Primary school students are full of curiosity and imagination. We introduced the knowledge of biology and learned about their innovative views on biological problems, which opened our minds.
Our capacity is limited, but through our work, more people realize the concept and importance of synthetic biology, and can scientifically understand biological issues in our life, which is much more meaningful.
iGEM Competition
Propagation
In Beijing University of Chemical Technology, we held an iGEM competition propaganda lecture for freshmen, and invited teachers and students from the College of Life Science and Technology to participate. We transformed our poster into display boards and placed them all over the campus. In the lecture, we introduced the spirit of iGEM and the progress of “Legolas·Microcysin”. Some freshmen in the life college also showed their strong interest in this competition.
Live broadcast
- synthetic biology class for the public
For those who don't know synthetic biology and don't have much biological knowledge, there are always
something about "chemicals" and "biological products" that make them feel uneasy. They sometimes easily
believe the unscientific rumors going viral in social media.
As a part of iGEM science communication, we conducted three live broadcasts on the Chinese Knowledge Q&A app "Zhihu" (like "Quora"), with the main themes of iGEM, synthetic biology and dispelling of popular rumors. The live broadcast effect was very good, with an average audience of about 10,000, which contributed to the public publicity of iGEM and synthetic biology.
Mini synthetic biology lessons-Nankou Primary School
In Nankou primary school, we held a mini-lecture on iGEM competition for children, and invited students and teachers from all grades and departments to participate. In order to let more children and teachers know this, we have made posters and distributed brief leaflets. At the class, we introduced iGEM, synthetic biology, transgene, virus, vaccine and other issues related to synthetic biology in life. The students who attended the lecture also raised many questions. Children's thoughts are very unconstrained, and also give us some inspiration.