Team:GreatBay SZ/Education
Science Communication
Our team did recognize the essentiality of science communications and the importance of spreading the concept of 'synthetic biology' to a wider range of audience. Therefore, we took the initiative and created a fascinating online game. The game serves to engage the player, and at the same time, improve their understanding of cells and synthetic biology. Through the form of an interactive simulation, we made the concept of cell structures, CRISPR, and CRISPR's working mechanisms more intriguing and understandable.
We also managed to produce an educational video, aiming to introduce synthetic biology and various gene-editing technologies to the general public. We presented the history, development, and future tendency of this field of study in a comprehensive manner. Since our target audience is mainly elementary and junior high school youngsters, we kept the video lively and linguistically simple. Recently, we had successfully uploaded the video onto Bilibili video media, (our local online video sharing platform) and we thrived to make synthetic biology an area that is more widely known in China.
Teaching CRISPR
On October 7, 2020, at local time, Chemistry Nobel Prize was granted to two scientists: Emmanuelle Charpentier from France and Jennifer A. Doudna from the United State. By granting them rewards, the Nobel Prize community acknowledged their contribution to the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism. The CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism is a revolutionary methodology to edit genes that extends artificial gene-editing technology to a peak. In our project of editing E.coli to produce nanowire and thus to generate electricity, CRISPR is used as a crucial tool to assist our experiments. Therefore, we decide to hold a public educational activity to introduce CRISPR-Cas9 technology to the mass and aiming to spread the knowledge to a wider range of audiences.
The forum was held on October 17, 2020, at Beijing Time. In the lecture part, we presented our video about the introduction of Synthetic Biology to give people a brief view and informed them about the essentiality of Synthetic Biology in our human history. Then, our team introduced the origin of CRISPR-Cas9, taking the Type II immune system as an example. Besides a lecture, we tried to visualize the process of CRISPR, and therefore we prepared a paper-cutting model for listeners to have better comprehension.
We were glad to see that there are a variety of people from families to working men, from elementary school children to college researches. Though some of them are currently at an early age (4-10 years old), we still strived to enlighten them with our neatly-prepared science education. After the form, we have received a handful of encouraging and constructive feedback from our audience. A parent affirmed our efforts and claimed that these educational activities are not only enjoyable but it also served as a source of inspiration for our next generation. He reckons that by doing this we gave people who are not working in the field of biology a chance to understand our current world from an utterly new perspective. From this experience, our participants as well as ourselves recognized that although CRISPR involves many ethical issues, it has irreplaceable significance to the development of human beings. Thus, the mission to popularize CRISPR-related knowledge to the public, especially young children is vital.
