Education

    In the pursuit of the dream of our project, we often wondered how we could help humanity beyond our unique technology. We thought that we could use our rich scientific resources to conduct public science popularization activities, so as to enlighten others about synthetic biology. The following are our specific activities.

SCIENCE OUTREACH

1.SCIENCE OUTREACH IN SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES AND INSTITUTES
① iGEM meeting up
      The event was held from 16:00 to 20:30 on May 1st, 2022 through Tencent Meeting by CPU-CHINA, ZJUT-China, HiZJU-China, ZJUintl-China and ZJU-China, which promote the project communication between iGEM teams in China.
Fig. 1.1 The picture shows the poster of the meeting       The event was divided into two parts so that teams within the same track can exchange and learn from each other.

② Kindergarten science outreach activities
      After communicating with the kindergarten leader for many times, we know that children's cognition and understanding level is limited, so we set the theme of this science popularization as Pay Attention to Children's Mental Health under the Epidemic, and set the science popularization form as the interactive ways such as games and dance that children can better accept. Additionally, we have recorded this wonderful science popularization activity with photos, please click the video below to view.
      The long-term existence of the epidemic will have a long-term impact on civilian’s life, which may lead to various physiological and psychological stress reactions such as anxiety and insomnia. On September the 22nd, on the basis of the project of Longan GABA, FAFU-China carried out mental health education activities in the kindergarten affiliated to Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, which not only helped strengthen the epidemic prevention awareness of children, but also had a great significance in maintaining their physical and mental health.
Fig. 1.2 The picture shows the FAFU-China team member explaining relevant knowledge to children.       This time for the kindergarten children, considering the difficulty for their comprehension of our project’s mission, we applied the teaching with interactive games so that children can have a better grasp on the function of Longan on health and what they can do if they cannot sleep well. Several disparate jigsaw puzzles were made and took to the children with the picture of Longan, GABA as well as their dietary property and the value as medicine. While solving the puzzles, the team members taught them some basic knowledge for those kids amiably.
Fig. 1.3 The photo shows the science popularization team at the kindergarten.       This dissemination of scientific knowledge of our project in kindergarten not only enriched the popularization of our team, but brought many benefits to the children. We make complex expertise easier to understand via interacting with mini-games, which stimulates children’s critical thinking and interests of science. Moreover, we taught them to act positively during the epidemic, and how to fight against with anxiety and sleeplessness. It is undoubtedly a huge gain for them to lay the foundation for future learning of scientific theories.
      It is worth mentioning that we recorded the "drive away the virus" dance used in this popular science activity, which was warmly welcomed by children and achieved very good results. We share this material, hoping to help future iGEM teams and who interested in related science popularization activities.


③ High School Science Popularization Outreach Activities
      This high school science popularization activity we came to Fuzhou The Third High School. The Third High School has excellent teaching conditions, students have a solid and rich knowledge of biology, and have won GOLD MEDALS in the World Olympic Biology Competition for many times. After contacting with the teachers of The Third High School for many times, we learned that due to limited laboratory resources, many students did not have actual contact with molecular biology related experiments and lack of understanding of biology competition. Therefore, we decided to introduce iGAM competition, PCR experiment and electrophoresis experiment to the students in the top class.
Fig. 1.4 The picture shows the scene of The Third High School science popularization.       To our surprise, 85 high school students actively cooperated with the whole science popularization activity. In order to make the explanation more vivid and understandable, we prepared dozens of pipettes of various ranges in advance and distributed them to the students for field operation.
      We have also reserved a question-and-answer session and prepared exquisite gifts to encourage students to ask questions. For more information about the event, please click on the video below.

      The detailed flow and video of the PCR and electrophoresis experiments are at the bottom in the hope of helping the iGEM team and those who interested in the related popular science activities.

Independent practice

2.Independent practice - Joint Science and Technology Association of Colleges and Universities
①Science popularization class of Synthetic Biology
   As the co-organizer of the gene editing and production topic, together with BUCT-China, Bnuzh-China, JLU-China and NJU-China, we carried out the popular science activities of five topics from August 13rd to August 14th, 2022.22. And live broadcast simultaneously on bilibili and other platforms.
   Regard a cell as a computer. There are a lot of things in it: memory chips, CPUs, video cards, all working together to do various things. There are also elements in the cell: biofilms, ribosomes, enzymes. They are encoded by DNA, just like computer programs are encoded by binary languages. Just as we write code to program computers, we also use DNA sequences to program cells. These DNA sequences are called biobuilding blocks, and they can perform various functions, such as producing a biological nanomachine. Or create "wires" and "switches" inside cells. Synthetic biology is all about building "biobuilding blocks", manufacturing lines inside cells that run efficiently.
Fig. 2.1 The picture shows the FAFU-China team members giving science popularization explanation
Fig. 2.2 The picture shows that FAFU-China distributes questionnaires to viewers through live science broadcasts
② Joint popular science activities among eight schools
   This summer, members of Shanghaitec_ China launched a joint science exchange program among colleges and universities. This joint science exchange activity gathered iGEM teams from Science and Technology University of Shanghai, Science and Technology University of China, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.
   As the organizer of the agriculture and forestry theme, the FAFU-China team not only introduced the knowledge related to synthetic biology in the field of agriculture and forestry, but also actively promoted our project.
Fig. 2.3 Picture is the poster of the special lecture of FAFU-China team in agriculture and forestry

Multimedia communication

3.Multimedia communication -- Popularizing science through popular media platforms
① Public number - BiolonganFAFU
   From April 2022 to August 2022, we published several articles related to synthetic biology on the wechat official account platform, which gained extremely high click volume and attention rate.
Fig. 3.1 The picture shows the official account of BiolonganFAFU ② Douyin APP, bilibili APP
   On the popular video platform, we have opened up more forms of popular science. We not only cut the daily laboratory routine into short films, but also upload the activity records of human practice.
Fig. 3.2 The picture is our team's Tiktok account Fig. 3.3 The picture is our team's Tiktok account ③ Press release of the local solutions
   The local trip to explore local solutions gained a lot, including 1 science and technology lecture, 2 research reports, 1 video results, 16 news media reports and 1 Fuqing TV report. Please click the form below for more details.

Fun activity- instilling pleasure into study

4. Fun activity- instilling pleasure into study
(1)Synthetic biology orienteering
   "Love in life, and joy in the natural" people gradually surrounded by anxiety, due to increasing pressure in life, when can we say goodbye to mental sub-health? In order to minimize the negative effect of mental disease people faced, and reduce anxiety. FAFU-China held the popularization of science about GABA - lower anxiety substance on May 1st letting people have fun in outdoor activities——which help release pressure and acquire the GABA knowledge.
Fig. 3.1 The poster    The orienteering event concerning the popularization of science about GABA , by looking for the characters of GABA, functions with matching GABA help people relieve anxiety and cultivate the awareness of "Love in life, and joy in the natural".
Fig. 3.2 We advertised our project to the competitors in the competition    The propaganda work was conducted in the longan industry towards the masses at the same time. More in-depth understanding of the needs of contemporary people in all walks of life exists not only the Longan food processing industry but in other areas of development and promotion.

(2) The Third Taijiang District Red Scarf Little Commentator Contest
   Cooperating with the Taijiang Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Youth Activity Center of Taijiang District, we explored the mystery of our project with primary school students.
Fig. 3.4 We're talking to the contestants