Shanghaitech iGEM Club
To expand the influence of iGEM and synthetic biology, iGEMers in ShanghaiTech established the ShanghaiTech iGEM Club. We now have hundreds club members who are interested in synthetic biology and want to achieve something in this field. We recruit freshmen and host lectures to let students have a knowledge of synthetic biology every year.
Shanghaitech iGEM Club hosted recruitment after freshmen entering school. Many students consulted us about synthetic biology and showed interested in taking part in iGEM next year.
Figure 1. The poster we used for recruitment
LECTURES
With the help of club members, we produced a series of lectures during the epidemic. We broadcast the lecture live on Bilibili, the largest video platform in China. We also submitted a video on Bilibili which had been viewed hundreds of times. Some audiences asked questions online and we offered them answers online, too.
Figure 2. The lecture we posted on Bilibili
After returning our campus in May, we also hosted several lectures to the freshmen.
Figure 3&4. We hosted lectures in campus
Among all lectures, the one about antibiotics was widely welcomed.
VOX-POP
To know what extent students understand this topic, we did vox-pop before giving the lecture.
Figure 5. The vox-pop we did before lectures
By doing this, we spread the concept of synthetic biology. We also knew what contents are of the most concern to the people without any background in this field. Thus, we can give specific explanations on issues of common concern. We told them applications of synthetic biology and what synthetic biology means for human.
Most people have no knowledge of synthetic biology when we doing vox-pop before our lecture. However, after the lecture, we also did vox-pop and the most audience showed they had understood what synthetic biology was.
Figure 6. The vox pop we did after lectures
Besides the lectures about synthetic biology, we also shared knowledges about antibiotic abuse which audience really concerned. We shared knowledges about how antibiotic drugs are produced, how antibiotics work, what kind of trouble may antibiotics cause and how to use antibiotics scientifically.
ONLINE POSTER
We posted the content of the lecture of antibiotics on QQ which is the most popular social media. Many people transmitted our content. It was seen 1302 times.
Figure 7. We proposed to avoid antibitic abuse on QQ
The audiences were impressed by the stories of antibiotic resistance and they said they will try to avoid antibiotic abusing and spread the concept to others in their daily life. Many of them transmitted our contents and appreciated our efforts for avoiding antibiotics resistance.
SIGNING ACTIVITIY
We also did education by hosting a signing activity. We explained that antibiotics abusing was not only occurred in hospital but also occurred in farm which is a huge consumer of antibiotics and means we would intake antibiotics in our daily lives. The gene MCR-1 which can bring antibiotic resistance to bacteria was first occurred in the meat from farms. Many people listened to our explanation about antibiotic abuse and were shocked by the harm of antibiotic abusing. They were willing to sign their names on the poster with slogan of refusing antibiotics abusing to show their supports. Our vice-president（Zhiyuan Zhu）also signed his name on our poster. He also concerned our team and listened our introduction of our project this year.
Figure 8. The poster people signed their name on and the vice-president of our school signing his name
