The pandemic is sweeping the world, many of iGEM teams' activity of science communication and public engagement have moved from offline to online. In general, lectures on synthetic biology or project-related topics are offered to groups with a lower level of expertise. The audience is relatively fixed (usually the students and teachers of iGEMer), lacking diffusive power and influence. Therefore, we are looking to
▶ How to bring synthetic biology closer to the younger generation?
▶ How to promote synthetic biology principle to the whole field of life sciences, from engineered bacteria construction to synthetic immunology?
▶ How to design STEAM course in Synthetic Biology whose breakthrough is not only the elaboration of simple principles and experimental operation of learning, but also make the youth exposed to “building life to understand it" from passive descriptive analysis to active constructive synthesis about nature and life in science, and new insights into the nature of life?
The content that develops with afore-mentioned viewpoint as the core has Advanced science news @ John Wiley & Sons,Inc.
——spread synthetic biology to users of Wiley’s official WeChat Our team member was invited as freelancer in Life Science Field of Wiley（Figure1. a）, one of the world’s leading academic publishers. Advanced Science News is Wiley’s official account on WeChat to share scientific research consultation and forward progress transmission (Figure 1 b), whose users’ education level are mainly B. M. and Ph.D in life science (Figure 1 c.d.).
Figure 1.
b. Wechat official qr code of Advanced qr code. If your daily language is Chinese, welcome to follow the official account for frontiers in life science field.
c.d. The analysis of user education structure and contents of interest.（data source： marketing department of John Wiley & Sons,Inc.；permission has been granted.）
Based on this, we have published a review of the frontiers of cell-free synthetic biology with the reading volume reached about 1500. One has been published so far, and two have been drafted, unnatural base pair & artificial life and DNA storage.
Figure 2.
Figure 2. This review introduces the basic concepts of cell-free synthetic biology, and selects three high-level articles published in June for interpretation.We hope to extend the advances and design concepts of synthetic to life science researchers in China to promote synthetic biology principle in immunology medicine and other directions.
If you want to share scientific news or frontiers in synthetic biology, please contact ASNChina@wiley.com; if your native language is not Chinese, you can contact SCUT_China iGEM team 201830880422@mail.scut.edu.cn, we would happy to help you convert it to an easy-to-read Chinese version. Deepen collaboration, grow together @ Better Life Science. Inc
——Promote synthetic biology and iGEM to teenagers BETTER Life Science Education, affiliated to Guangzhou Bojiangyi Bio-technology Co.,LTD, is the first ever education organization operating with a core of providing open laboratories of life science for primary school and middle school students in China. With its headquarter located in Guangzhou International Bio Island, BETTER Life Science Education also has branches in other parts of Guangzhou, such as Nanzhou Junyi Building, Guangdong Science Center and even outside Guangzhou, in Xinyi and Chengdu, covering an area of over 7000 m2.
We hope that through our joint efforts to dedicate to promote high-quality science education to teenagers and cultivate their interest and the spirit for science.
Figure 3.
(b) We have established a strong collaboration with BETTER Life Science Education.
Our cooperation are as follows:
(1)Interview with Ph.D Wu
We have a preliminary understanding of the requirements of science communication work.
Interview summary
interviewee: Meng Wu (Dr. of infectious diseases, Sun Yat sen University, founder of BETTER life science, former doctor of infectious disease department of Guangzhou Eighth People's hospital)
1. How BETTER Life Science carries out various forms of science communication activities?
Online, BETTER Life Science registered official accounts on the TikTok platform and released science communication videos regularly. Tiktok has developed rapidly in recent two years, and has a wide audience. It has users of all ages. Meanwhile, many pseudoscience, rumor and other information come from the middle aged and elderly people. So BETTER chose TikTok to carry out science communication.
Offline, the development of our research courses has a complete set of logic, and all research courses will have three core contents: a set of knowledge learning, a mastery of experimental technology and a research product taking away. Mastery of knowledge is power given to children, learning of technology is an entirely new experience, and taking away products is a witness to their experiences and a bridge between BETTER and their parents.
2. Views on science communication.
The core of science communication is the understanding of professional knowledge and the ability to tell stories. A strong professional knowledge base is the premise to ensure the correctness of what you say. Then, we should constantly exercise the ability to tell stories. We should be able to simplify complex things, concretize simple things, and visualize specific things. At the same time, we must be able not to make mistakes while simplifying complex things. Science communication is a direction and will certainly become a profession and an industry in the future. This is the trend of national development. Many people will become the workers of science communication research. College students can pay attention to science communication, because in the early development process of science communication, there will be a shortage of talents. College students have unique advantages: they have certain professional knowledge, and the most important thing is that they are able to get along with young people and improve their storytelling ability through exercise. In the future, the people who become " science communication experts" are not those who engage in research, but those who have certain knowledge, who are involved in every field and can tell stories at the same time.
(2)Online science communication based on WeChat about superbugs & antibiotics
We are closely around the problem that we set our eyes on at the beginning, carry out science communication practice to influence the young generation.
Figure 4.
better_online superbugs & antibioticWe cooperated with BETTER Life Science to produce a newsletter about superbugs, which was posted on BETTER Life Sciences' WeChat public account. The video is mainly for young, middle and primary school students, and the text is supplemented by a fresh and lovely style of drawing and easy-to-understand explanation, to communicate the knowledge of superbugs and the use of antibiotics for young, middle and primary school students, which received a good response.
(3) Face-to-face offline science communication
Both online and offline science communication have their own advantages and disadvantages, just like the difference between traditional teaching and a large online class. Offline science communication also has an advantage that online science communication doesn’t -- instant feedback, in the face-to-face process with the audience, we can receive instant feedback, to make targeted additions, or adjust the style of presentation to lead to a two-way dialogue, so that we can strengthen the connection with the audience.
We carried out face-to-face offline science communication based on Better’s venue and student base. Firstly, we taught course developed by Better to accumulate teaching experience. And then we developed our own curriculum: One theme is drug-resistant bacteria and antibiotic use, another is how to add information in DNA?-- Introduction of Gene Editing
Figure 5.
Click here for science communication curriculum materials.
Statement:
We are happy to share and use our popular science courses with everyone, as long as they are used for science communication.
The compression bag contains
1. the PPT and speech-draft of Drug-resistant bacteria and antibiotic use;
2.the PPT of How to add information in DNA?-- Introduction of Gene Editing (PS: The speech draft is in the notes)
Further plan
（4）Disequilibrium Elimination & Mobile laboratory
We have done our best to alleviate the differences in educational resources and the imbalance in development in different regions. We bring some simple explanations and interesting courses of biology to young people in rural areas of Guangzhou, which is just a beginning. And we hope we can inject more synthetic biological elements to the "three rural areas (三下乡)" activities which is promoted by the government of China and flourishing in the vast rural areas（Figure 6.a）, furthermore, use Better's mobile laboratory and toolkit in the upcoming activities to further deepen the science communication practice in rural areas(Figure 6.b).
Figure 6.
——Make science communication a cause rather than a temporary goal First，we hereby express our thanks to Shenzhen Shiyu Children's Public Welfare Foundation, which focuses on the prevention and treatment of childhood cancer and related high-risk diseases, academic exchanges and cooperation, literature publishing and knowledge popularization, and enhances the recognition and trust of the whole society and Chinese people towards medical science through three modules of support, education and publicity, provides an opportunity to meet Dr. Zheng.
(figure 7) Dr. Tengfei Zheng,Assistant to director of Curriculum Center of Shanghai Ping He Education Group
Assistant to the principal of Shanghai Zhuqiao Experimental Primary School
Bachelor of Chemistry, Peking University
Doctor of Chemical Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The sixth China-France Youth Leader was received by Vice President Wang Qishan and delivered a speech on behalf of the Chinese education sector at the aix-Econ Economic Conference 2019
She has worked in the field of extracurricular education application in the government environmental protection department. At present, she is engaged in curriculum development and school operation management in the stage of basic education. At the same time, she actively participates in the popularization of scientific literacy for parents, teachers and the society through public lectures, writing and workshops.
Figure 8.
Then, she points out the key points of course design. The curriculum is designed to develop a child's analytical and problem-solving approach, to focus on clear logic and scientific thinking arising from the derivation, and to protect curiosity and self-motivation.
After the Symposium online, we realized that iGEM is only a starting point. In the future, how to use science communication & education to make the world a better place is our lifelong mission. Online science communication based on self-media
——Interesting and useful content and a wide audience
We produced a science communication video on superbugs and antibiotic abuse and put it on BiliBili(Figure 9), and asked another user who has more than 400,000 followers on to help us forward and promote it. As of Oct. 2, this video has had 14,000 views and 881 likes, and has received good reviews(Figure 10).
Video:https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ui4y137QW/
Video content introduction：
1. Science Communication Version
0:56-1:41 Introduction of the plague in medieval Europe
1:41-3:44 History of the discovery and development of antibiotics
3:44-7:17 Common misconceptions about antibiotic use
7:17- 9:24 How to identify antibiotics
2. Further Study Version
0:22-1:57 The seriousness of the problem of drug-resistant bacteria
1:57-4:14 Introduction of bacteria (probiotics, pathogenic bacteria)
4:14-6:15 Mechanisms of antibiotics
6:15-7:57 History of the discovery and development of antibiotics
7:57-9:02 Introduction of superbug
9:02-12:25 Mechanisms of drug resistance
12:25-14:03 Negative effects of drug resistance on bacteria
14:03-16:24 Control policies and status of antibiotic
16:24-19:20 Misconceptions of antibiotic perception and use
Figure 9.
Figure 10.
——basic knowledge of synthetic biology to freshman in the field of life science
For those who have a certain knowledge background, the knowledge density of mainstream science communication content on the Internet is somewhat insufficient, the needs of these users will be relatively clearer, they have their own direction of interest, and will search for knowledge related to this direction on the Internet. Although there is a lot of hardcore content on the Internet, the biggest flaw is its inability to form a coherent system, resulting in a disproportionately high cost of time and effort to gather knowledge for these people.
For this reason, we have made a series of newsletter basic knowledge of synthetic biology for groups who are interested in synthetic biology and have certain knowledge background, including five phases: Parts, Parts assembly, Gene circuit, Genome editing and Biosystem synthesis (Figure 11). Sorted out the basic concepts and principles of synthetic biology.
Figure 11.
Scan the code for detailsFinally, in Science Communication part, we have completed a Handbook for Science Communication which summarizes our research results and experiences in science communication, and provides a referential framework for iGEM teams that want to get involved in the field of science communication. In this guidance, we divide the content into four chapters:
Current status of science communication work,
The significance of Science Communication work,
Theoretical Foundation-the theory of flow experience
The design of science communication under the background of the Internet. In the first chapter, we take China as an example to analyze the current background and opportunities and challenges of science communication. In the second chapter, we analyze the significance and necessity of science communication in light of the problems exposed by this sudden COVID-19. The third chapter is the theoretical basis of our science communication work--The Theory of Flow; In the last chapter, taking some science communication works done by our team as examples, we analyze how to make good use of the Internet platform to do well in science communication based on the contents mentioned in the above three chapters.
We acknowledge Mr. Meng Wu （Founder of Better Life Science） and Mr. Xiaojia Ma (Director of the science popularization work of the Literature Information Center of northwest Institute of Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Gansu science education Base Alliance secretariat staff), provided patient guidance and discussion for us.
Handbook briefing as followed:
Chapter 1: Current status of science communication work
In this chapter, we analyze the background, opportunities and challenges of science communication.
We hope to be able to contribute to the worldwide science communication, but limited by our capacity and horizon, we can only focus on the science communication in China, but we still expect that iGEM teams in other countries and regions will be inspired by this guidance and think and act according to their own environment.
In terms of the background of science communication work, we have carried out research from two aspects: policy and society.
In addition to the low scientific literacy of citizens, the current work of science communication in China also exposes some big problems, such as lack of science communication talents, regional differences in science communication, the incomplete incentive mechanism for science communication work, and the flooding of pseudoscience information on the Internet.
For the current opportunities and challenges faced by science communication, we focus on the analysis from the perspective of the Internet. We think that the rise of the Internet has led to the decentralization of science communication, that is, from the traditional point to point communication form of Science--Society to a new communication mode of people--science--media--society. This kind of structure with UGC (user generated contents) as the main part, OGC (occupational generated content) and PGC (professional generated content) as the auxiliary makes the content output become extremely efficient, but at the same time, it also produces great uncertainty, the content quality is difficult to be guaranteed, and it is easy to be affected by external forces.
Chapter 2: The significance of Science Communication work
In this chapter, we analyze the necessity and significance of science communication.
The sudden epidemic has brought severe tests to all countries in the world. However, some problems during the epidemic pointed out the shortcomings of the current science communication work. Rumors all over the sky have brought panic to the people. Many people are still unable to distinguish between basic concepts such as bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, etc., and blindly listen to the information on the Internet. Misuse and abuse of drugs emerge in endlessly, which reflects the current low level of national scientific literacy in China. After this epidemic, we hope that people can pay attention to the importance of science communication, not only for the scientific literacy of the people themselves, but also for the stability of the society, the prosperity of the country and the development of science itself.
Chapter 3: Theoretical Foundation-The Theory of Flow Experience
In this chapter we describe the theory that we refer to in doing science communication work, that is, the theory of Flow Experience.
Flow is a psychology theory proposed by professor Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi from Claremont Graduate University. This theory describes a state where people are able to acquire a sense of happiness through deep absorption and engagement when they are completing a challenging task. Flow experience is also known as the optimal experience. We hope to create flow experience in the process of science communication as much as possible, so as to keep the audience interested in the learning process, thus improve the learning efficiency and learning results. The foundation of creating flow experience is to control the completion and challenge of tasks. Only when the ratio between skill and difficulty falls into the scope of flow channel, can flow experience be produced.
After setting deliverables and challenges, it's important to set clear goals and immediate feedback; positive feedback can be just as encouraging as the support of others, making people feel happy and satisfied and thus prolonging the flow.
Robert C. Wilson et al. proposed the 85% rule for optimal learning in 2019. The study found that optimal learning can be achieved when difficult content accounts for 15.87% of all learning content.
Therefore, when planning the science communication content, it is necessary to identify the knowledge level of the audience, and incorporate about 15% of new knowledge into the existing knowledge of the audience as the focus of the science communication, so as to maximize the efficiency of the audience's absorption of new knowledge. However, since the knowledge level of the audience is not ideally the same, and it is not easy to control the ratio of new knowledge to old knowledge, this is also the most difficult part of science communication content design, which requires continuous exploration, experience and extensive communication with the audience in order to improve the quality of our output.
Chapter 4: The design of science communication under the background of the Internet
In this chapter, we take some of the science communication work done by our team and analyze how to make good use of the Internet for science communication, taking into account the Internet environment mentioned in Chapter 1 and the theoretical basis we referenced in Chapter 3.
Mostly importantly, as for students with scientific literacy and sense of justice, we must never publish controversial and unverified information that can easily lead to misunderstanding by others, let alone distorting facts. This is the bottom line of a scientific worker and an iGEMer. what’s more, we must consider the possible impact after releasing some science communication content. When communicating sensitive contents, we must pay attention to the presentation method to ensure correctness while not bring panic to the society.
We classify science communication work into four types according to the form of presentation:
Online science communication based on self-media
Face-to-face offline science communication
Cooperation between authoritative institutions
Professional media and Systematic science communication.
Collaboration @ ABC Anti-Biofilm Community
we made a project introduction and a science communication content acquisition booklet together,Our page is as follows
Moreover, BIT iGEM team is our like-minded friend， It's a great honor to be here to promote their content
Research on the popular science environment of the current universal platform
-taking Weibo and Bilibili as examples
https://2020.igem.org/Team:BIT/Education
We discussed and thought on teleconference how to make iGEMer 's science communication work more profound and effective.
Science for All Alliance
See the BIT page for the same content:
https://2020.igem.org/Team:BIT/Excellence_in_Another_Area