Overview

Scalp health is also one of the standards of physical health, and we think it is necessary to convey the concept of scalp health to the masses. Therefore, we regard youth with strong sebaceous secretion as our main target audience. But facing the potential clients of our project, we mainly spread knowledge about scalp health and skin surface probiotics to them.

In the process of implementing education and communication, we cannot limit the content to our project. We usually start by introducing a project concept. Then educate people about synthetic biology by calling on them to care about their scalp health. In explaining how we use synthetic biology tools to address the issues we care about, viewers will learn more about the common tools and applications of SynBio, not only about scalp health.

⭐Art Propaganda

The channels and forms of education should not be restricted. China has taken strict prevention and control measures in areas at risk of the epidemic. Therefore, we need to actively explore educational methods that are more accessible to the public and easier to spread through various channels.

HeyHair was produced and sung by HP helper Junyi Zhou. We wanted to explain the purpose of our project from an artistic point of view. By working with non-scientists, arts propaganda helps us close the gap between teams, projects and the wider community. We wanted to explain the purpose of our project from an artistic point of view. By working with non-scientists, we exported our values and publicized our projects as an art form. This work has helped us close the gap between the team, the project and the wider community.

Lyric of our song：

1. Popularize SynBio for Young Adults through Online Channels

1.1 Channel 1 Publish Tweets through the WeChat Official Account

Figure 1 Logo of WeChat and WeChat Official Account

WeChat Official Account is an application account applied by developers or businesses on the WeChat public platform. On this platform, it can realize comprehensive communication and interaction with specific groups of text, figures, voice, and video. For businesses, the WeChat Official Account is a marketing method for keeping in touch with fans on a long-term basis. We think it is a very convenient platform for education and publicity. Once you follow our Official Account, our tweets will be sent to your WeChat, and many people can read the content that we want to promote in the gap between the daily use of WeChat, which is a social software.

The BUCT team published popular tweets about scalp care on their official account. People are very concerned about hair loss, so we analyzed the causes of hair loss in our tweets. We also compare different treatments and their effects on hair loss on the market. In subsequent tweets, we extended from hair loss to scalp health, emphasizing that scalp health is also one of the important criteria for physical health. At the same time, it popularizes the function of sebaceous glands, how to protect and maintain the scalp and so on.

In our vision, tweets need to be able to make the public have a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of scalp health issues. In addition, tweets should be used to increase the public's attention to scalp care, and explain the importance and necessity of maintaining the healthy state of the scalp microenvironment. Therefore, we introduce the unprecedented "scalp care method" brought by the BUCT team in this year's iGEM competition with this popular science as the background. According to the existing data such as the number of views, the number of views after each tweet is more than 100, so we believe that this way of educating the public has great potential.

Figure 2 Educational tweets reach hundreds of people

Figure 3 Part of the BUCT team tweets

1.2 Channel 2 Mini Program in WeChat

WeChat Mini Program is a kind of application that can be used without downloading, which is similar to WeChat Public Account. Mini Program can achieve the same functions as an app. We developed a Mini Program for carrying out health columns related to different ages.

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Figure 4 WeChat Mini Program interface for education and communication

In China, many people pay attention to their health as they get older. Therefore, for us, the health column is a way to attract this group of people. In the Children's column, we talked about vaccines, diseases caused by viruses and how to boost immunity in children with weak immunity, as well as some cases related to synthetic biology. For example, we will explain how vaccines are made and how genetic engineering works in the production of vaccines for mothers.

1.3 Channel 3 Online Live Broadcast to Promote Knowledge

1.3.1 The wonderful journey of Synthetic Biology

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Figure 5 Promotional poster for BUCT & BUCT-China to jointly conduct online live education and communication

We use social media platforms to educate people of all ages about biology and popularize synthetic biology content, although the main users of this platform are young people. So far, our live stream has received 200-300 views and views.

In order to make synthetic biology accessible to the public, BUCT and BUCT-China conducted an online live science popularization for synthetic biology on May 22.

The purpose of our broadcast:

1. Let the public know what synthetic biology is, and stimulate their interest in synthetic biology and our project;
     2. Let more people know that we truly want to help them solve scalp health problems;
     3. Bringing the people closer to us and informing us about public issues.

We broadcast synthetic biology and our ACE.hair project. The theme of this live broadcast is based on publicity and research projects, introducing applications related to bioenergy, environmental governance, medical testing, drug development, food and nutrition, new materials, etc. In this livestream, we also express the opportunity to encourage relevant workers to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by solving everyday problems facing the world.

Figure 6 Online Science Education: A Wonderful Journey of Synthetic Biology

1.3.2 Joint education and communication of 12 teams

Figure 7 Screenshot of the joint broadcast of the twelve teams

The purpose of this live broadcast is to let more people know what synthetic biology is. From August 13 to August 14, BUCT will cooperate with BUCT-China, BNUZH-China, JLU-China, and the other 12 teams to carry out online live popular science of synthetic biology.

From our perspective, this joint online education and communication is closely related to human health and life. The live stream includes content on scalp health, hair loss, gene editing and production, medical treatment, energy use, and environmental protection. We used this event to stimulate the audience's interest in SynBio and let them know about a wide variety of scientific knowledge.

1.3.3 Online educational lectures for bioengineering faculty and students

Figure 8 Screenshot of the joint broadcast of the twelve teams

We have achieved remarkable results after a series of science popularization activities. On September 22, BUCT held an online education lecture on iGEM and synthetic biology for teachers and students of the bioengineering major of BEIJING POLYTECHNIC at the Voov Meeting to encourage more teachers and students with the dream of synthetic biology to join the iGEM community and draw their attention to scalp health.

BUCT used PowerPoint, animation videos, songs, and other methods to introduce relevant knowledge of iGEM to teachers and students. We encouraged students and teachers in the biological field to constantly push the boundaries of synthetic biology. At the same time, we also publicized the ACE. Hair project, which made teachers and students pay more attention to scalp health and greatly reduced their anxiety about hair loss.

2. Summer offline education practice

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Figure 9 Promotional poster of BUCT & BUCT-China to jointly carry out offline education and exchange

This is a social practice to popularize the knowledge of SynBio and help people distinguish between science and pseudoscience. The members of BUCT and BUCT-China come from the same school, so we participated in this education and exchange together.

Because of the pandemic, a lot of our education and communication work is online. But we didn't want to give up trying to do this offline, so we chose a safe area during the summer vacation. Considering that Hengdong County in Hunan Province was less affected by the epidemic, members of the two teams went to Hengdong County in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, on July 16, 2022, to popularize biological knowledge among the local people and introduce our projects respectively.

2.1 Middle aged and elderly

Figure 10 Photos of BUCT team members conducting street interviews

Considering that most of the people who can participate in live streaming are young adults, we hope to reach some older people offline. So we used the method of offline street interviews to find middle-aged and elderly people in Hengdong County for face-to-face communication. (the content about interview is as follows: ) We asked for their opinions first after the interview session. If they are willing to accept our knowledge popularization, we would give them a popular science material and explain the knowledge of synthetic biology to them. (the attached popular science materials are as follows :)

Figure 11 A senior citizen invited our popular science members to his home for communication

We were very lucky. In the course of education and communication, we were warmly invited to his home by a senior citizen. He is an open-minded, optimistic and kind man. And he has a close relationship with most of the older people in the community. He often encourages the elderly to participate in physical and mental health activities, so he is very happy that we can come to Hengdong County to carry out this popular science activity. He also thanked us for coming all the way here to interview older people and listen to their opinions.

2.2 Education & Communication for Preschoolers, Schoolchildren and Preteens

We habitually consider people of all ages in all our work. Spreading knowledge to younger people could theoretically have a more profound impact on them. In Hengdong County, Hunan Province, we seized the opportunity to conduct education work offline and contacted local primary schools. One elementary school welcomed science lectures from college students.

BUCT members not only conducted small classes in primary schools but were also invited to conduct biology lectures in larger conference halls after confirming that there was no risk of COVID-19 positive members of the preaching team. We took the initiative to play games with some preschoolers in the community, and guided them to understand life science knowledge.

Figure 12 Teaching synthetic biology to primary school students (left) and introducing preschool children to SynBio (right)

Figure 13 Give lectures to Preteens

In the process of practical education, BUCT produced publicity posters and science popularization manuals, and made the popular science content interesting and popular through network broadcast, offline lectures, questionnaire surveys and other ways. The audience reached more than 800 people, which improved the scientific literacy of the public and made the public pay more attention to scalp health.

Figure 14 Our educational practice won the school GOLD AWARD!