The Read for Love Summer Camp was held jointly by NCKU Library and the Saint Island Charity Foundation for elementary students to record stories for the visually impaired. With the help of one of our PIs, Dr. Han-Qing Wang, we took this opportunity to introduce synthetic biology and glaucoma to the children. Teaching children such complicated topics is not as easy as we thought it would be. Considering that they were only elementary students, we added a lot of animations to our PowerPoint slides to grab hold of their attention and make it easier for them to imagine the mechanism of glaucoma. We also had to simplify our explanations using various ways, including not using any scientific terms while explaining the structure of the eye. Additionally, we also talked about the symptoms of glaucoma and how to prevent them. By raising glaucoma awareness among young children from an early age, we can begin cultivating a generation that understands glaucoma's seriousness.

More than that, we talked about the symptoms of glaucoma and how to prevent them. By raising glaucoma awareness among young children from an early age, we can cultivate the young generation that understands glaucoma.

Interestingly, we were also challenged to simulate the life of the blind. We were given a chance to listen, draw, eat, walk, and experience Braille in the dark. This allowed us to interact more with the children. We also learned that the "learning through play" method offers a meaningful and unique way of education from this activity. Not only did this experience allow us to understand more about the world of the visually impaired, but it also gave us the idea for our special event called Into the Darkness.

We visited the best high school in town, particularly Tainan First Senior High School scientific research club. First, we introduced iGEM and synthetic biology. Then, we talked about several past iGEM projects to let them understand the application of synthetic biology in the real world. After that, we divided them into a 5-6 members group and had a brainstorming session about how to solve the problems by synthetic biology. Where each of the groups had one iGEM member to guide them through brainstorming. We ask about what problem they want to solve, then find what causes that problem and how to use synthetic biology to solve it. Then, we ask them to share their ideas. It was their first time learning about gene editing. However, they were able to give us countless marvelous ideas.

After that, we introduced our project and taught them the importance of glaucoma. However, we discovered that they hadn't learned biology for a long time. We then tried to simplify the explanation of the eye structure as much as possible, to ensure that they understood. From this experience, we learned that we always need to think of our audience's background knowledge, even though they are a high school student already.

Moreover, we also did a DIY perimeter to measure the peripheral vision. They were very excited and enthusiastic! We hope to inspire them to be the next generation of iGEMers.

Check out this video to know more about how we conducted our education in TNFSH and their feedback!

Also watch this tutorial video of the DIY perimeter!

As the elderly have a higher risk for glaucoma, we were grateful to have the opportunity to visit the YMCA. We talked about synthetic biology and glaucoma there. However, in Taiwan, the older generation tends to communicate with the Taiwanese language, and most of them can't speak or understand Mandarin or the official language. And, it goes the same for the younger generation towards the Taiwanese language. This language barrier was a problem for us. Therefore, to be more engaged with the elderly, we communicate using the Taiwanese language or Taiwanese Hokkien. It was a challenge and a new experience for us. Especially when we had to mention some professional terms, we searched for the translation and memorized them. We tried our best to ensure that the elderly understood us.

Then, we talked about how to prevent glaucoma and the way to take care of the eyes. Besides all the talks, we had a game activity to teach them about blindness. We asked some of the elderly to wear a blindfold, then draw something with the guidance of the non-blindfolded elderly. It would let them understand blindness and know how to assist the visually impaired people.

Simultaneously, we conducted a survey for our device, Eye Screen. We cut some cardboard papers and wrote a number in it, making it easier for the elderly. They were so friendly and kind. YMCA was really a great experience.

By doing so, we directly engaged with people of all ages, from children to the elderly, to understand synthetic biology and glaucoma. By adjusting the way to teach them according to their age and knowledge, we can let everyone understand synthetic biology and glaucoma. However, only using traditional methods such as lectures and classes won't reach everyone. Therefore, we decided to use newer and modern ways. In this technological era, we utilize social media to connect with the public. Here's what we have done.

According to Glaucoma UK, June 29 - July 5, 2020, was the glaucoma awareness week. Hence, we had this responsibility to share about glaucoma. We made seven posts about general information on glaucoma, from what is glaucoma, who might be at risk for glaucoma, and how to prevent glaucoma. Then posted it on social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. Each day, we shared one fact about glaucoma. And we also let anyone repost. This way, we can increase glaucoma awareness among people across the globe who use social media.

Nowadays, the podcast is getting more popular in Taiwan. Many people listen to a podcast or make their own podcasts, especially in this pandemic era. We realized this might be a way to engage with the public too. Hence, we created The Something Podcast. The Something Podcast has six episodes in total, and each episode was released weekly every Saturday morning starting from September.

While deciding the topics for each episode, we want the listeners to understand iGEM completely. That's why The Something Podcast was separated into three sections. The first section (episode 1-3) is all about iGEM. We briefly introduced synthetic biology and talked about iGEM, including the sub-teams and what they do. Then, our project and how we came up with Eye kNOw. Next, in the second section (episode 4 and 5), we talked more about the details of synthetic biology and glaucoma with the experts, which are our PIs. And in the last episode, we did a review of our podcast. We talked about what problems we faced and the effectiveness of our podcast as an education platform.

More than that, By inviting our amazing guests. From previous NCKU iGEMers, our members, to PIs, to share their experiences. We provided a hands-on practice concept, allowing the listeners to understand more about iGEM, iGEM NCKU Tainan, and know that iGEM is more than just a competition. By sharing, we can stay connected.

Inspired by the 5 levels series video from YouTube, we decided to make one where we explained synthetic biology to people with 5 different levels of understanding. A middle school student, a high school student, a college student, a grad student, and an expert. With this video, we can let everyone understand synthetic biology regardless of their education background.

This year, it was the second time National Cheng Kung University held this event. Encouraging students to develop their research potential, we were honored to be a part of this big event. We talked about iGEM, synthetic biology, then our project, Eye kNOw. After that, there was a QA section. We were asked, as a multidisciplinary team, how did we come up with our project, and why did we choose glaucoma as our project. Then, we had a chance to promote our upcoming special event, Into the Darkness. Undergraduate Research Day definitely increased college student's interest in iGEM. After our presentation, numerous people contacted us to ask about iGEM. We hope to inspire them to develop themselves in academic research.

Another new academic year, another club festival. NCKU club festival is an annual event where all the clubs association in NCKU will introduce and promote their club to the students, especially the freshmen. iGEM NCKU Tainan participated in this event, and we had our own stall, where we introduced ourselves and our project this year. Then, we also approached them directly and roamed around the area, passing flyers. At the same time, we promoted our upcoming events, which were the final topic presentation and contact lens recycling movement. For contact lens recycling, we wanted to collect many ideas from the students. Thus, we also asked them how to recycle the contact lens? We got many creative ideas, such as melting the contact lens, then pouring it into a mold, or making the contact lens into art. From this event, we received a lot of positive feedback regarding our project and many people contacted us asking about iGEM.

Despite the pandemic, we were thankful that we were still able to join the iGEM Taiwan Meet-up conference. Held by National Chung Hsing University in Tai Chung, this two days event allowed the Taiwanese iGEM teams to meet each other and shared about their project through the presentation and the poster session. After the presentation, there was a QA session, thus, we could obtain a lot of feedback from the teachers and other students regarding our project. We also learned to improve our presentation style and the way to answer the questions. More than that, we also got to know each of their superb projects, communicate with each other. Simultaneously, we took this opportunity to promote our partnership event, "I've Gotta PhD" with iGEM CSMU Taiwan.

Before we voted for Eye kNOw as our final project, we had a topic presentation. After our brainstorming, we were separated into three groups to propose their topics, which were, targeting iron as a treatment for cellulitis, sense plant's nitrogen status to solve over-fertilization, and expressing nitric oxide as a treatment for glaucoma. We then presented our topics to the teachers and the students. Next, they voted for which topics interested them most and wrote us a review. Each group had a 20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes of QA session. It allowed us to find the problems in our projects and improve them before deciding on our final project.

We were honored to have lunch with the president of NCKU, Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su. She has been very supportive of iGEM NCKU Tainan since the first day. We introduced ourselves and what we want to achieve for the competition. The president gave us a lot of encouragement and valuable advice, such as how to improve as a team. We are thankful for the massive support from the school.

GenScript is a global leading biotech company and has been supporting iGEM since 2009. This year, they offer a grant for GenScript products and services through the MolecularCloud platform. By joining this, we got a chance to do an Instagram live and was interviewed by MolecularCloud. We talked about the mechanism of our project, how did COVID-19 affect our lab work and raise glaucoma awareness. This live interview was a new experience for us.

Due to COVID-19, everything is online, and there are many online meetups events held by numerous iGEM teams. Through this method, we were able to know other iGEM teams worldwide. We joined these meetups:

1. 2nd Annual iGEM Meetup – Asia by iGEM iBowu China (August 15)

2. iGEMeetParis - Worldwide Virtual Meetup hosted by Parisian teams by iGEM IONIS Paris, iGEM Sorbonne, iGEM Paris Saclay, iGEM Evry, iGEM Paris Bettencourt (September 5-6)

3. cGEM (Canadian Genetically Engineered Machine) Conference by Amy Yeung, Jehoshua Sharma, Luana Langlois (former iGEM team presidents from Toronto, Guelph, and Western, respectively) (October 3-4)

Most of the meetups were about holding a pitch presentation about each of the team's projects, allowing us to find some issues in our project that we have never thought of before, such as how to ensure that the bacteria's metabolic products won't harm our eyes? Other than the presentation, there are also some cool events, such as workshops and some social events. Through these social events, we had a lovely time communicating with other iGEMers.

This year, we wanted to make an event to raise awareness about blindness, and that’s when we discovered about dining in the dark, a culinary experience where people do not see the food that they are eating as it takes place in a dark restaurant. From dining in the dark, we planned to make sensory engaging activities in the dark, to let the players experience the life of the visually impaired. However, just simply a sensory engaging event, won’t attract many college students. So, to solve this problem, we managed to combine it with the live-action role-playing, or better known as LARP, its a form of role-playing games where the participants portray their characters. With an intriguing storyline and sensational hints, we are very proud to launch our very first ever LARP game, Into the Darkness.

“Dr. X’s biological weapon research was successful! Everyone gathered in the laboratory to get a glimpse of the results. Suddenly, the biological weapon containing the APEX virus was destroyed! It will cause blindness immediately to anyone that is exposed to it. Can you find the antidote to restore your eyesight? And find out who destroyed the weapon?”

Into the Darkness used two rooms, the conference room and Dr. X's laboratory. And consist of 3 stages, with a total playtime of 60 minutes. The first stage is around 18 minutes and the second stage is 35 minutes, and the last stage of 7 minutes.

Stage 1: Find the antidote

The Players will first choose or draw their characters, then gather in the conference room and read about their character's guide to understand their characters, and they are allowed to communicate with other characters. After that, we will play the bomb sound effect, indicating that the weapon was destroyed, here the lights will be turned off, making the whole room dark, pointing that the players lost their eyesight because of the virus. To restore their eyesight, the players must find the keys hanging on the wall, there are 4 keys in total. After obtaining the 4 keys, they can open the box beside the table. However, inside the box, there are packages of snacks and a locked box storing the antidote. To open the box, the players must eat the packages of snacks with different flavors. The code for the key is according to the number of packages, sour-sweet-spicy-salty. After breaking the code, the players will regain their eyesight and move to the second stage.

Stage 2: Find the hints

All of the hints are located in Dr. X's laboratory. But, before searching for the hints, players must stop the ventilation system and prevent the virus from spreading out of the lab. To stop it they have to enter the password into the laptop, which has the DNA base pair as the question. After solving the problem, players are allowed to search for the hints. Players are also allowed to hide the hints that might disadvantage them. The hints are everywhere in the room.

Stage 3: Find the culprit

After finding the hints, the players will go back to the conference room and discuss who might be the culprit with the hints they founded. After that, we ask each player to vote for 2 people who they think might be the culprit, then they are allowed to defend themselves. Next, the players voted between both of them for the final culprit.