Overview
In terms of education and communication, our activities are sorted into 3 themes this year: A key to Synthetic Biology, A Glimpse into iGEM, and A Gathering of Teams and Thoughts.
"A Key to Synthetic Biology" is a series of lectures about introduction to synthetic biology for high school students, undergraduate students, and even the general public, with the aim of stimulating curiosity and interest in synthetic biology, and allowing us to get enough feedback to improve our educational activities afterward.
"A Glimpse into iGEM" is an opportunity to interact with students and the public about synthetic biology in more detail and the BIT team's project this year, such as the comic atlas "Carl Monkey Play", an art exhibition, and two online public service classes and the Mid-Autumn Quiz series. They all received high feedback rates and reviews.
"A Gathering of Teams and Thoughts" is several science communications with multiple teams through meetings such as CCiC, sharing what the teams do best and answering each other's questions through feedback sessions. We participated both in the CCiC roundtable where we shared as the hardware side and the CCiC competition. We also attended two online communication sessions organized by GXU.
A Key to Synthetic Biology
Why are we holding these introductions?
The introduction is a traditional medium for promoting various knowledge and an enduring educational activity for iGEM teams. In recent years, due to the influence of COVID-19 and the popularity of online real-time video interaction platforms, we have also innovated the format of introductions by combining “online and offline”. We plan to hold simultaneous presentations and interactions for high school and undergraduate students at the conference venue as well as on Tencent meeting. We have also uploaded free PDFs of the presentation materials for wider audiences.
Why are our introductions directed to students?
High school and undergraduate students do not know much about synthetic biology due to their limited knowledge, though they are both the main source of iGEMers and the most active audiences to study and welcome synthetic biology, so it is necessary to introduce synthetic biology to them: for high school graduates, it can help them to choose their majors and colleges; for undergraduate students who do not know enough about synthetic biology and iGEM, it can also help them to understand the related profession as well as incentivize them to study synthetic biology.
What did we do in our introductions?
On June 22nd, 2022, the BIT team and the SUSTech team jointly held an online introduction for seniors. We introduced the two universities, synthetic biology, and biomedical engineering, and also introduced the iGEM competition and its projects.
On August 27th, we cooperated with the BIT-China and CPU-CHINA teams to conduct a synthetic biology introduction for freshmen at Beijing Institute of Technology. Our three teams introduced synthetic biology knowledge and the iGEM competition related to our project. The students asked questions actively and we gave them answers patiently.
On September 24th, team BIT and BIT-China conducted an introduction to high school students of Changping No. 1 Middle School and undergraduate students at Beijing Institute of Technology in the public community on campus both online and offline. Team BIT presented the basic information of the team, an overview of synthetic biology, and the pain classification project of the 2022 BIT team, and also answered questions from the participants online and offline after the meeting. We took a picture together at the end of the introduction.
On October 2nd, we held the introduction to freshmen with FAFU in Room 203, Chuang Xin Building, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University through Tencent Meeting where we shared the experience of the competition, the preparation for the competition, the background of the project last year and the idea of experiment design.
How do our audiences think of the introductions?
After each presentation, we gave out small gifts to the students, with them leaving their comments, pointing out the parts of the presentation that interested them, and encouraging our project. The students are looking forward to more systematic educational programs from our team to give them a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and iGEM!
After the introductions…
In all four presentations, we uploaded the PowerPoint documents in the format of PDF which are free and accessible for wider audiences to achieve our purpose of spreading synthetic biology; at the same time, the comments they left also pointed out the direction for us to improve the educational content and format.
A Glimpse into iGEM
How are we interacting and whom are we interacting with?
Since audiences depending on lectures alone would not effectively absorb knowledge about synthetic biology and learn about our team's project directly, we have developed a deeper science outreach to students and the general public. For students, we have used the online teaching technology that has developed rapidly since the COVID-19 epidemic, and have twice participated in university consortia and launched online public service courses for high school students, which are larger in scale and in series compared to introductions. We also deepened the impression of synthetic biology and iGEM projects through the Mid-Autumn Quiz series. For the public, we tend to use visualized ways to attract them to understand the BIT team's projects, such as comics, art exhibitions, etc., which can directly present the accurate CMP classification projects to the public.
What did we do in these activities?
On July 23, 2022, team Tsinghua and FAFU joined forces with BIT and other teams from ten universities to host a series of online public service courses for high school students using the BIODO MENTOR and Bilibili platforms. BIT was responsible for presenting a lead-in to synthetic biology, including its development, research content, and applications, and also showcased outstanding projects to show what synthetic biology has to do with everyday life and what high school students can do for their communities in the iGEM competition.
On August 13, team BUCT, together with team BIT and other teams from twelve universities, also held a series of online public service courses with the help of Tencent Meeting and the Bilibili platform. This time, the BIT team relied on a set theme and introduced the students to how the technical route to detect pain works.
On September 10, which is also the traditional Chinese holiday of the Mid-Autumn Festival, team BIT held a special event for undergraduate students at Beijing Institute of Technology: online quizzes. We reviewed the basics of synthetic biology and the best projects of iGEM 2021, then created 29 single-choice questions, which were released to the students on September 2 for a week.
From June to September 20, the BIT team and FAFU team jointly carried out the “Synthetic Biology Comic Book” campaign, drawing comics about our own project.
On October 5, we held an online art exhibition with CPU_CHINA, which combined our friendship, synthetic biology, and art. The art exhibition had three parts: "Germination", "Initiation", and "Circuitousness", representing how the two teams first met synthetic biology, learned about the iGEM competition, and finally got to know each other. In this special exhibition, people will enjoy learning about iGEM and synthetic biology under aesthetic rendering.
How did the audiences think of those activities?
All three types of activities received enthusiastic feedback and encouragement from the students. In the online course launched with Tsinghua and FAFU, excluding the members of ten teams, a total of 225 students participated, including three students from Australia and Singapore; the online course launched by BUCT lasted for two days, excluding the members of twelve teams, 60 students participated in the live course each day, giving positive comments and expectations for more courses. Our comic book also gained 1026 views through the spread of WeChat Push. The questions of the quizzes have evoked students’ challenging spirits. As a result, more than 70 students participated in the quiz, gaining a lot of knowledge and winning prizes in the process of searching for information and communicating with us. The students all said that the quiz opened up a whole new field and they hoped to learn more in the follow-up activities!
After the activities…
After the two online courses, team Tsinghua and BUCT recorded and uploaded the courses to the Bilibili video platform for more viewers to watch for free. By October 10, our videos have received more than 10,000 views in total; the questions of the quizzes were also uploaded as PDFs that are accessible for more people to read and try. The comics and the pictures of the online art exhibition were also posted on the web through WeChat Push for more viewers to see for free, in order to promote synthetic biology to a wider public.
A Gathering of Teams and Thoughts
What have we prepared for these meetings?
As is known to us all, a significant number of the teams participating in iGEM are from China. The biological and hardware technology they use has a lot in common. Therefore, it is of great benefit for every team to summarize the parts which they are good at and then share it at the conference or science communication to promote the project. The CCiC Conference is an academic conference that brings together more than 200 iGEM teams in China and this is the ninth year that the conference has been held. In addition, there are communications about projects or topics hosted by different teams. Participating in such scientific communications can open up ideas for more teams to solve the difficulties encountered at the current stage and strengthen the atmosphere of solidarity and collaboration in the domestic synthetic biology community.
Due to the impact of the COVID pandemic, the conferences and science communication we joined this year also took place online and collaborated offline, with the help of Tencent Meeting and the Bilibili platform.
What did we discuss during the meetings?
On May 28, 2022, Team BIT held an online roundtable for all teams with the help of CCiC, which took place on the Tencent Meeting and Bilibili platforms. Due to the necessity of hardware in iGEM and the teams' need for continuous hardware improvement, and the fact that team BIT is known for its expertise in hardware design, our team actively discussed and promoted hardware content in the CCiC roundtable, highlighting the design details, production process, feelings and experiences of hardware.
On July 16 and 17, an online meet-up initiated by Jiangnan-China, GXU-China, and other universities was successfully held at Tencent Meeting, gathering 40 iGEM teams from China with nearly 300 participants.
On August 18, UESTC-BioTech and HainanU-China jointly held an online CRISPR Meetup, where the BIT team not only shared their CRISPR knowledge, but also introduced the experimental and HP progress of this year's pain classification project, and had extensive communication and interaction with other teams.
On the same day, the CCiC conference was held online. During the conference, everyone took turns presenting their projects and exchanging opinions. Team BIT presented the pain classification project through the promotional video, and later answered questions from the audience, such as the relevance of hardware and biology, and the direction of the work of human practice.
What could every team learn from the meetings?
Through the scientific exchange, each team learned from the excellence of other teams, which is beneficial for their own projects. During the CCiC roundtable, we shared our experiences on how to carry out teamwork and topic selection, and other teams gained new insights and ideas for their own projects. The participants of the CRISPR meet-up summarized their insights from the competition and formed meeting minutes for other teams to review and learn from. The CCiC meeting let each team present to other teams and learn from others’ presentations, as well as discuss the long-term development and future prospects of their projects. Overall, it was an open and interactive scientific communication!
After the meetings…
The end of the conference is not the end of the communication. After the scientific communications, all the organizers uploaded the playback videos to the Bilibili video platform for more viewers to watch for free; the presentation and minutes of each conference were also uploaded in the form of PDF for more iGEM teams and members to study to achieve the effect of mutual communication.
Overall conclusion
In order to prepare for education for the public and scientific communication for other teams and experts, team BIT prepared a wide variety of materials, including but not limited to lecture presentations, course videos, quiz questions, comics, online art show e-pictures, and conference minutes.
These materials were directed to different audiences in a targeted way: the introduction and course materials and knowledge quiz were for high school and undergraduate student groups, the comics and e-pictures were provided for public reading, the meeting minutes and video playbacks were provided for other teams to study, etc.
In each event, we promoted real-time communication with the audience and sought feedback after the event, such as collecting students' comments and answering their questions before and after the lecture, course, and quiz, following WeChat Pushes for comments on the comics and online art exhibition, and sharing insights and feedback of members after the conference and scientific communication.
We are also working on spreading knowledge beyond education or communication and disseminating the materials to reach a wider audience: presentations of conferences, lectures, quizzes, and lectures are posted as PDFs on the web, online comics and exhibition materials are published publicly via WeChat Push, and conference replays, lecture, and course videos are posted on Bilibili and other video platforms which have received hundreds and even thousands of views. They are all accessible and free.
We believe that through our abundant education and communication efforts, we will effectively promote synthetic biology materials, realize the closed loop of education and communication, develop and implement synthetic biology, and disseminate it to the audience with quality and quantity, so as to gain the public's understanding, participation and support.