Overview

Science is not only working in a lab. It should step out of the laboratory and connect with society. However, we recognize that there is still a huge gap between science and society. We aim to break this gap and bring science closer to society in order to achieve two-way communication. We started by improving society’s understanding of science and synthetic biology, since we know that a premise of effective communication is adequate understanding.

Another focus of our scientific communication was to provide knowledge about dengue, as we considered it important to inform the public about the severity of dengue and raise their awareness about this disease so that they could take actions.

A successful project comes from engaging with communities of different ages, cultures and professional backgrounds. Taking all of this into consideration, we tried to reach out to as broad an audience as we could. We did this by breaking the accessibility barriers by diversifying our ways of engagement and using various unconventional networks. We particularly engaged with some groups that are underrepresented in science, hoping to amplify their voices.

We hope that our actions are not just a one-time thing, but could have a sustainable and continuous impact on the public. We tried to maximize our impact by inviting the community to participate and contribute to communication of science.

Education

Cheng-He Confucian Academic Center

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." ~Albert Einstein

Cheng-He Confucian Academic Center is a religious education center devoted to education in the I-Kuan Tao, a Chinese salvationist religion in Taiwan. Chances to learn about science are quite rare in that setting. However, we wished to break the gap between science and religion, helping students in a religious education center to overcome the limitations of the study location and have the opportunity to learn science. Thus, we shared our idea with Cheng-He Confucian Academic Center and were offered a chance to introduce science to the children.

We were fully aware that it’s impossible to grasp lots of scientific knowledge in one class, especially in a situation where they have little contact with science. Thus, we designed the lessons with hand-on activities, trying to spark children’s interest about science in a fun and interactive way.

Spatially, we decided to let the children sit around us instead of sitting on chairs as we wanted them to feel relaxed and free. In our lesson plan, as the children we taught were from 6 years old to 12 years old, we decided to carry out the lesson in a story-telling way with small games and also hands-on activities.

We started the lesson with an introduction to genes, as they are an important part of the human body and also the basis of synthetic biology. We introduced DNA by explaining the structure and how it plays its roles in the human body. To disseminate the knowledge in an easy to understand way, we described it as a blueprint of the human body with a structure like a ladder. We explained the complementary pairing of the four nitrogenous bases. To consolidate this concept, they constructed their own DNA using adhesive tape and straws of four different colors. The adhesive tape represented the backbone of DNA and each color straw represented a nitrogenous base, so they had to combine them in the right way based on the complementarity rule.

We also introduced the concept of genotype and phenotype and how dominant and recessive genes influenced human phenotypes. We tried to explain to them in a more interactive way using the analogy of the dominant gene as an elder brother with the recessive gene as a younger brother. The elder brother who is more aggressive always bullies the younger brother, which results in expression of only the dominant gene most of the time. As most of them had siblings, they could easily understand and remember this concept.

We also introduced gel electrophoresis by describing it as a camera for genes that can show the differences between genes. When teaching them how DNA migrates towards the positive electrode, we used an analogy that larger strands DNA were bulky so they run slower while smaller strands could run faster. Lastly, we explained the concept of BioBricks in a simple manner by asking them to draw a dinosaur based on the features we provided. They chose their favorite features, and arranged them in the ‘plasmid’ we had prepared, so that the ‘plasmid’ would ‘express’ the features of the dinosaur they wanted!

We found the lecture a huge success as they showed great interest in science, kept asking questions during the lesson, and could clearly remember the contents we taught when we asked questions at the end. We were impressed by their enthusiasm as it demonstrated that our attempt was right and effective.

However, we knew that only one three-hour lesson was definitely not enough for enduring understanding and to get a taste for science, so we went there a second time.

We shared a knowledge of viruses during the second lesson. We introduced the structure of different viruses, followed by a hands-on activity of making a model of a bacteriophage. As with the children’s storybook, we discussed the characteristic of viruses, transmission routes and also ways to prevent dengue infection. We also emphasized the importance of practicing good hygiene.

Through this meaningful event, we successfully reached out to a younger community to share our passion about biology and inspire them to step into the world of science. We hope that this inspiration would be passed on to more and more people by our efforts.

Lesson plan

Lesson powerpoint

Ming Yang High School

‘Education is human right that should not be denied to anyone, including juvenile inmates. Everyone, no matter who, should have equality in education.’

This is the philosophy of Ming Yang High School, the first juvenile correction school in Taiwan, attached to the Taiwan Ministry of Justice. They accept juvenile inmates aged from 18 years old to 23 years old and provide correctional education. Thus, attendees have identities of both students and inmates. The proportion of students from divorced families or raised by grandparents is higher among them than normal teenagers. Moreover, having left formal education at different ages for various reasons, they are more or less educationally alienated and perform at uneven education levels.

We found that their access to science education was limited and their participation in science was low. (More information on the inclusion page) Thus, what we wanted to fulfil by working with them was popularization and equalization of science. After discussing our desire for a couple weeks, the principal of Ming Yang High School accepted our idea and offered us a hard-to-come-by opportunity to conduct a two-day course.

From the outset, we drew up an outline for our course and received feedback from the director of academic affairs. They thought that our course was too hard for their students as most of them only had an educational level of middle school or even primary school. Following their suggestions, we made some adjustments, starting by talking about genes, which is basic knowledge in biology. First, we introduced animals with different appearance, habitats and diet habits to show them the genetic diversity due to genes. We explained that although genes have a great influence on the diversity of species, there are only subtle differences in DNA sequences, so humans have significant similarity in genes compared with many species. They couldn’t believe that a banana shows 50% similarity in genes with a human, while a fruit fly shows 60% similarity!

We introduced the structure of DNA through the activity of constructing a DNA model using straws and adhesive tape. Due to the restriction on materials that could be brought into the classroom, precision instruments like a microscope were not allowed. Thus, we hosted a simplified extraction experiment of fruit DNA so they could see what DNA looks like in a simple way. They found it intriguing as they had never done an experiment before.

They showed great enthusiasm in our course as they kept asking questions during the lesson, which surprised us. However, we did not want our lesson to be a one-way knowledge transfer but two-way communication. So besides answering them, we also raised questions and encouraged them to express their own ideas and understanding on related issues. We hoped that by urging them to discuss scientific knowledge and discover answers on their own, they could find themselves participating in science.

As they expressed eagerness to know more about viruses, we prepared a lesson about viruses for the following week of class. We took COVID-19 as an example to tell them about the characteristics of viruses. We focused on how dangerous the coronavirus is by telling them why this virus has a high morbidity and mortality rate. With our children’s storybook, we also highlighted the importance of hygiene and health care practice.

As bacteria are omnipresent in our daily life, we also provided them with knowledge about bacteria. When explaining what bacteria look like and how they grow, we showed them bacterial plates with bacteria from various objects in daily life. Those objects included a toilet cover, drain cover, door handle, shoe sole, smart phone, money and also someone’s nostril!

We also did a comparison between bacteria on hands before and after washing hands using the plates to emphasize the importance of following basic hygiene rules. We believed that if they fully understood the science behind washing hands, it would be easier to keep them in mind and be willing to practice them.

Many students raised a question when observing the bacteria plates: why did the plate cultured from money contain so little bacteria? Shouldn’t it be contaminated with lots of bacteria since it is one of the most frequently passed items in the world? Thus, we had a discussion on that question. It was because we used coins, not notes. Metals like copper, aluminum, and nickel in the coins are toxic to bacteria, which lead to a decline in survival of bacteria. It went against their expectations about what they thought would be the dirtiest! We were delighted that they asked that question, as it meant that they learned something new!

Our lessons received positive feedback from both students and teachers. They showed great interest in our hands-on activities and experiments, which they had never experienced before. Some students said that they gained lots of useful scientific knowledge that could be applied in daily life, which made them realize the importance of science. A student informed us that he was preparing to study in university and our coming strengthened his desire for university life!

We knew that a two-day course was not nearly enough to bring science into their lives. But rather than making them love science, what we really hoped was to promote equity by providing them opportunities to learn science and discover a fascination of science. This was just a starting point to shorten the distance between science and them, but we were glad that we got a foot in the door.

Educational Tool

Children’s storybook

To invite children to step into the world of biology, a children’s storybook with attractive illustrations may be a feasible way! We started from a story about viruses in response to the COVID-19 trend. The main character, Tom is wondering why everyone is wearing mask and keeping social distance. Thorough mother’s introduction, Tom knows that the structure of viruses, routes of transmission and also ways to prevent virus infections. Our storybook also provided an engaging way for children to be aware of good hygiene practices.

To ensure our materials fit with children’s comprehension and thinking abilities, we consulted with Dr. Shih-Yuan Liang, who received her PhD from Vanderbilt University, Department Of Hearing and Speech Sciences.

Virtual meetup with Dr. Shih-Yuan Liang.

She advised us to convey the knowledge by using stories of things that happen in daily life, and also use metaphors and analogies to improve understanding. In accordance with her suggestions, we conceived and compiled the story and asked for help from CSMU Taiwan to illustrate the storybook

We used this storybook as an education tool at Cheng-He Confucian Academic Center and also Mingyang High School. Besides, to reach to a bigger audience, we collaborated with Team iGEM IISER to translate the storybook into Hindi, which is the fourth most-spoken language in the world.

We hope that by creating this storybook, we could improve children’s knowledge about viruses and also raise their curiosity about science!

Meet Tom here: Chinese English Hindi

Media

Podcast

In 2020, podcasts of audio digital media have gone viral in Taiwan. Based on the data shown by Google Trend, the Google search term “Podcasts” in Taiwan appeared to grow with a growth rate of 84%. It is now all the rage and has become a new favorite in the media industry. From the industry survey report done by a local podcast hosting platform known as SoundOn, 870 podcast programs sprouted up in the first half year of 2020, followed by 100 new programs established every month.

Based on this data, we thought a podcast would have a great potential as a platform to reach out to a large group of people. Thus, we decided to establish a podcast program in Chinese to tell about synthetic biology.

Our podcast programe

First, we tried to figure out what type of community we were going to focus on. Based on the statistical analysis, we found out that 60% of audiences in Taiwan range from 23 years old to 32 years old while 23% are from 33 years old to 42 years old. Most of them (94%) have a bachelor’s degree. 49% of the audiences aim to upgrade knowledge in a professional field while 69% prefer educational programs.

From this information, we targeted young and middle-aged adults. We assumed that our educational podcast could get attentions and reach people who have little connection with science.

We published one program every two weeks, starting from July. We spent lots of time and effort to interpret the knowledge in an intelligible way while writing the scripts and recording. We used a variety of examples and analogies to visualize the contents, hoping that audiences without a science background could easily understand the knowledge we shared.

We shared the information about our podcast on social media. According to the analysis data from SoundOn, 73% of audiences will share their favorite program with others while 64% will search for related information after listening to a podcast. Thus we believed that those would help us to reach more people.

Our program has reach 455 downloads now, with audiences from the United States, China and Taiwan.

The applications of synthetic biology will spread widely and the relevance to human daily lives will increase in the future. Thus, we believe that our education about synthetic biology has great potential to reach to a community eager to gain new knowledge.

Our podcast is available at Spotify, SoundOn, Apple Podcast and Google Podcasts.

1. Episode 00: Origin of our program

Synthetic biology is a new realm of science which combines biology, engineering, modelling, etc. Why is it important to know more about this knowledge? How can this new branch of science connect with human daily lives? Let’s get the answers in this episode!





2. Episode 01: Brief introduction to synthetic biology

What is a BioBrick? Is synthetic biology genetic modification? Is synthetic biology far away from our daily lives? We will clarify the relationship between synthetic biology and genetic modification and show how useful this multidisciplinary area of research is in the world today.





3. Episode 02: Central dogma (1)

Central dogma is the core concept of synthetic biology. We will tell about the relationships between DNAs, RNAs and proteins. And most importantly, how the central dogma is important to humans.





4. Episode 03: Central dogma (2)

Transcription and translation are the keys to transmission of genetic codes. In this episode, we will tell about the processes which turns DNAs into proteins.





5. Episode 04: Special episode - Dengue fever information in Taiwanese Hokkien

Do you know that CCU_Taiwan is working on dengue fever this year?
To let more people aware about the severity of dengue in Taiwan, we collaborated with a senior citizen service center to disseminate the knowledge about dengue in Taiwanese Hokkien.





6. Episode 05: Application of synthetic biology in medical field

The world is affected by Coronavirus in 2020 and each country is engaging in developing of vaccines, especially DNA vaccines. In this episode, we will tell you how synthetic biology can be used in medical field and makes changes to medical system!





7. Episode 06: Ethics of synthetic biology in medical field

In 2018, the Chinese researcher Jian-Kui He stunned the world by declaring that he had produced genetically edited babies. That research created a great sensation in world. Is it really feasible and ethical to edit human genes for purpose of therapy?




In this episode, we invited Professor Chun-Ying Yu from the department of biomedical science, Chung Cheng University to discuss gene editing and gene therapy. Do they really bring benefits to us?

The Audio Recording of Dengue fever Informational in Taiwanese Hokkien

Taiwan is an aged society, with the aged population reached 16% in 2018. Under estimation of the National Development Council (NDC), the aged population in Taiwan will reach 20% in 2025, causing Taiwan to become a super-aged society. Moreover, the proportion of elderly people in the highest in Chiayi county, where our team CCU_Taiwan located, reported as 18.61%. With one senior citizen out of seven people in the country, our outreach should also reach to them and it was extremely important to approve the accessibility and generating a dialogue between elderly communities.

Moreover, various studies have reported that the elderly have a higher risk of developing severe dengue. However, we found that many of the elderly were not aware that they are in the high-risk group for severe dengue. To raise their awareness on dengue, we planned to carry out a dengue fever information campaign.

However, the biggest barriers by getting in touch with them and making them accessible to science is language. Taiwanese Hokkien is the most widely used language by elderly in Taiwan and some of them can only speak and understand Taiwanese Hokkien. To reach out to the elderly community, we decided to disseminate the knowledge about dengue in Taiwanese Hokkien.

We collaborated with a senior citizen service center in Douliu city. The elderly there helped us to translate the Chinese dengue informational script into Taiwanese Hokkien and record a 6-minute audio.

We tried to eliminate public misunderstanding of dengue in this informational audio. Thus, we introduced the severity of dengue in Taiwan, emphasizing that it was a public issue that everyone in Taiwan should be concerned about. We also explained the symptoms of dengue fever cases and strategy for dengue prevention in daily life, leading them to think of the importance of early detection in treatment and prevention of dengue.

They paid close attention to this activity. They make a lot of annotations on the script and practiced repeatedly before recording the audio to present their best. We were surprised and also delighted with their earnest interest.

We worked hard to overcome the barrier of language and educate the elderly community on dengue prevention, and were amazed to see the effect of interacting with the elderly community at large by allowing them to participate and contribute in the communication of science.

Listen to the audio here:

Radio interview

To reach out to a larger community, we were invited by Taiwan National Education Radio to have an interview. Thorough this interview, we introduced the concept of synthetic biology and explained the main purpose of iGEM. We also popularized the issue of the epidemic situation of dengue in Taiwan to arouse people’s attention about dengue. Lastly, we took this opportunity to share our project and how we applied synthetic biology in our project.

Thorough that interview, we hope to influence more people and light up their interest in science.

Education platform (I've gotta PhD)

I've gotta PhD is a program conducted by CSMU_Taiwan and NCKU_Tainan from Taiwan. They were working on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and aimed to promote SDG 3 and SDG 4, which stand for good health and well-being and quality education. Thus, they created a Facebook Fan Page "I've gotta PhD" as a platform to share information about public health. We thought this might be a great opportunity to engage with more people thorough this platform, so we participated in this activity.

We focused on transferring knowledge about dengue. We explained the severity of dengue in the world and how dangerous this disease is. We also explained the mechanism of interaction between E protein on dengue virus particles and CLEC5A, and why there are still no medicines to treat dengue fever specifically.

Part of our work

Our certificate for participation

Social media

Facebook, Instagram and Dcard are the social media most commonly used by teenagers and young adults in Taiwan, so we used them as a platform to reach and connect to the young community. We introduced knowledge about synthetic biology in a simple “for dummies” format, making the knowledge more approachable to a young audience.

We also shared news articles about dengue infections in Taiwan, hoping to awaken their awareness about dengue and encourage them to think about what they can do on this issue.

We spent effort on design and typography, as we wished to attract their attention and stimulate their interest. We also tried to reach out and collaborate with other iGEM teams on Instagram to reach more people and interact with the worldwide iGEM community.

Communication

Taiwan iGEM Conference

We joined the 2020 Taiwan iGEM Conference hosted by NCHU iGEM team.That was a great opportunity as 7 teams from all over Taiwan were able to meet, communicate, exchange and inspire new ideas with other teams.

During the two-day conference, we shared our project through presentation and poster, and we received lots of valuable advice from other teams and professors. That advice helped us to consider the issues in our project that we should tackle and also improved our presentation skill. We also had the chance to know more about other teams’ projects, which laid the foundation for collaboration.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) panel discussion

We believe that our project can not only solve the problem in Taiwan, but also address global challenges. As one of the most advanced techniques in biology, synthetic biology has great potential and responsibility to contribute to global goals, known as SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). We know how important SDGs are and how synthetic biology and our project can affect SDGs. Thus, participating in the discussion and open communication on SDGs was the first step we took to discharge our responsibility to the world.

We participated in panel discussion conducted by NCKU Tainan and CSMU Taiwan. All 5 iGEM teams from Taiwan participated in this panel discussion. The discussion focused on the dilemma faced by Taiwan in reaching SDGs.

At the beginning of the discussion, we had Dr. Shih-Feng Chiu, who is an expert in hospital administration, give a short discourse about his views on SDGs. He explained the origin and development of SDGs, and how those 17 goals correspond to the 3 sustainability goals, which are economic, environmental and social.

During the discussion, we targeted SDG 3, which is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages. Taiwan has proposed a specific goal on dengue to achieve SDG 3, which is to decrease the annually mortality rate of dengue to 0.3%. However, we found that Taiwan reported a 0.54% mortality rate in 2015, and 0.58% in 2017. Besides, as Taiwan is an aged society, and the rates for severe dengue and mortality are higher among the elderly than young adults and children, this makes it difficult for Taiwan to achieve SDG 3.

Thus, we focused our discussion on the elderly community. We discussed a few questions:

1. Since the aging population is a factor of dengue mortality rate in Taiwan, how can we tackle this problem to achieve SDG 3?
2. How could we conduct a sustainable education and promote communication among the elderly?

Moreover, to link our topic to newest technologies, we discussed on how big data and wearable technology could be used in detection and prevention of dengue.

We got some useful feedback. Some teams suggested that we could reach the elderly community thorough peer groups. That was what we had done in a glove puppet show and dissemination of dengue using Taiwanese Hokkien. (Great minds think alike!) Some teams suggested that we find out whether there was a “genetic predisposition to dengue” so that we could know what kinds of people will get infected with dengue easily, which was a really creative idea!

On the other hand, we had the chance to talk over other topics, such as oral cancer, tobacco control, soil pollution and energy use. Each team shared their views and ideas on these topics. Although it was just a two-hour activity, we benefited tremendously from it. The discussion of those topics lead us to have a deeper understanding of SDGs. We know that SDGs are long-term goals and Taiwan still has a long way to go. Also, this activity promoted effective communication between all the iGEM teams in Taiwan to meet SDGs!

Group photo of all teams participating in discussion

Art

Glove puppetry

‘Animate a puppet with one mouth and one hand.’

Science and art are considered vastly distant from one another. However, if the contact between science and art could work toward the same goal and philosophy, why not use it as a feasible and creative way to work together? We thought that art might provide a unique perspective to help us bridge the gap between science and society. Thus, we decided to collaborate with non-scientific artists to promote science and our project to the community.

Inspired by our collaboration with a senior citizen service center on Taiwanese Hokkien audio recording (Find it in Media for more information), glove puppetry came to mind. Glove puppetry (Budaixi) is a well-known performing art in Taiwan, which has undergone a rapid renaissance since the 1960s. It is usually performed at religious and festive occasions. The puppet master will set the performing stage and manipulate the glove puppets while hiding behind the stage. Taiwanese Hokkien is almost always the language used in dialogue and narration, accompanied by a Chinese orchestra performing on site. It is an entertaining performance suitable for all ages.

The nature of glove puppetry is to educate thorough entertainment. By the rendition of glove puppets, the puppet masters tell a story, transmitting knowledge and intellectual values like Chinese virtues through the format of art and entertainment. We thought that this closely corresponds with the philosophy of iGEM. Isn’t iGEM devoted to communicating and conveying science to a larger audience thorough interesting ways that will make a strong impression? Moreover, since glove puppetry is one of the traditional performing arts in Taiwan, why don’t we integrate its unique features with science?

Thus, to make science inspiring to the public, we decided to form a synergy between glove puppetry and science. We collaborated with a glove puppetry troupe known as Wu Zhou Sheng Yi Ge to do a glove puppet show. We described a story about dengue and provided the general public with facts about the disease and ways to implement vector prevention. As the story used Taiwanese Hokkien in narration and was easy to understand, we aimed to target a wide audience from children to elderly.

Mosquito, the protagonist of our video

We took almost 8 hours to film this 13 minute video as it was challenging to reach a consensus. We kept discussing and changing our thoughts during the shooting process as we both wanted to convey the scientific knowledge in a proper, complete but also fun and interactive way. The outcome might not be perfect, but is certainly a creative and extraordinary work.

Discussed on the scene-setting with puppet master

Thorough the interdisciplinary combination of science and art, we hoped to get more people involved in science. We think we have successfully allowed the traditional craft of glove puppetry to participate in communication of science. From this collaboration, we also discovered that science could be presented and expressed in as many ways as you can imagine, even arts!

Here to see our outcome!

References

The Draft of Sustainable Development Goals, National Sustainable development Network (2017). http://sdg.nuk.edu.tw/data/%E6%88%91%E5%9C%8B%E6%B0%B8%E7%BA%8C%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E7%9B%AE%E6%A8%99%E8%8D%89%E6%A1%88(%E8%A1%8C%E6%94%BF%E9%99%A2%E5%9C%8B%E5%AE%B6%E6%B0%B8%E7%BA%8C%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E5%A7%94%E5%93%A1%E6%9C%83).pdf
Sustainable Development Goals in Taiwan, National Sustainable Development Network (2019). http://sdg.nuk.edu.tw/data/2019_%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E6%B0%B8%E7%BA%8C%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E7%9B%AE%E6%A8%99_%E6%A0%B8%E5%AE%9A%E7%89%88.pdf
Dengue fever has a high mortality rate, and the Center for Disease Control has established an expert committee to seek a viable vaccine for the elderly (2015). https://www.cdc.gov.tw/Category/ListContent/z3l-ni_hN8XQhdqusEuKQA?uaid=bvQo_IYe24VI3wroidfjDA
The Number of Students and Properties, Ming Yang High school (2020). https://www.myg.moj.gov.tw/356645/807125/356876/356879/Lpsimplelist
Digital National Observation Report, Industry Report of Podcast in the first half of 2020 (2020). https://www.inside.com.tw/article/20391-2020-podcast-report
George Liao, MOI: Taiwan officially becomes an aged society with people over 65 years old breaking the 14% mark, Taiwan News (2018). https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3402395#:~:text=TAIPEI%20(Taiwan%20News)%E2%80%94Taiwan's,in%20the%20country%20is%20a
Flor Wang and Pan Tzi-yu, Enditem/J, Taiwan set to become super-aged by 2025: NDC, FOCUS TAIWAN CAN ENGLISH NEWS (2020). https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202008180025
Data Query-Population by Broad Age Groups (1960~2020), National Development Council population projections for the R.O.C. (Taiwan) (2020). https://pop-proj.ndc.gov.tw/main_en/dataSearch6.aspx?uid=78&pid=78