Concept
Science education is an important part of science communication and the embodiment of its core value. There are various forms of education, and it is not limited to the transfer of knowledge on materials. The key to determining the form is whether the audience can fully perceive the power of education and produce substantial gains. The content of education is not only limited to knowledge and skills but more importantly, the cultivation of an educated personality and the shaping and innovation of ideas. The audience of education should not be limited to students, but should move from students to the masses, from elite education to mass education. The system of education should not be limited to a specific class but should provide citizens of every class with the education they need.
So, as we complete our projects, we always aim to bring better education to more people. Our education adheres to the combination of online and offline, language and writing. We disseminate knowledge about synthetic biology and microbial fuel cells to our audience, while at the same time cultivating their lofty ideals and aspirations, and establishing the concept of safety and ethics. From campus lectures to popular science, we provide more ordinary citizens with educational opportunities. The popular science work we did in the questionnaire touched all levels of society and allowed them to see a new world full of hope. We also hope that through education, society's awareness of science will be eventually improved, so as to give us more support and advice and achieve long-term two-way interaction between researchers and society.
Space and Group Expansion: From Campus to Community
Students in higher education are the largest reserve force in the scientific community, so disseminating our ideas in universities is very beneficial to the development of synthetic biology and MFC. We have a good cooperative relationship with NJU-China, therefore, we jointly hold a lecture and debate contest on synthetic biology on campus.
Our lectures are divided into three parts: Synthetic biology and introduction to the respective projects. For students who have just entered research studies, a vibrant new field is always attractive and will arouse their great curiosity. Therefore, the content of the lecture is explained in simple terms, including a simple and clear historical introduction, as well as a more in-depth principle analysis. Our communication with classmates helps to deepen our own understanding of synthetic biology, and further share our practical experience with them. This is teaching each other.
Debating competition is a contest between intelligence and eloquence. In the confrontation of words, a particularly intense spark of thought can often be rubbed. The theme of our debate contest is "Whether compassionate use should be allowed in gene therapy", which aims to stimulate discussions on biosafety and bioethics. In the process of participating in the iGEM competition, we always bear in mind the boundaries of bioethics, so we also hope to pass on this vigilant attitude to every future researcher as much as possible. We are in the business of transforming and even creating life, which will undoubtedly involve ethical discussions. Deepening and subtly expanding the concept is the symbol of successful education. It is what iGEMers should do to root the concept of bioethics in the hearts of every contestant and audience through thinking training.
It's not enough to just spread our ideas on campus, we need to get out of the campus and face a wider population. Many of our interviewees mentioned that the research on MFC is in the developing stage, and if it wants to further promote its power, more social popularization is needed to attract public attention and thus attract investment. Therefore, disseminating the basic knowledge and benefits of MFC to the public will provide important support for the future of our project. At the same time, bringing education opportunities to citizens outside the ivory tower is actually a kind of educational equity. Together with Worldshaper-NJBIOX, Nanjing_NFLS, and NFLS_Nanjing, we held a joint presentation in the community to introduce the basic concepts of synthetic biology and their applications in our respective projects, hoping to build a wider mass base.
Better Education, Better Future
Our country is a complex terrain with scattered inhabitants in many inaccessible areas. Due to poor traffic and harsh conditions, these areas are often economically underdeveloped and lack high-quality educational resources. But the important value of science communication is to provide high-quality education for underdeveloped areas, thereby promoting education equity and igniting hope for every child.
Every year, our university has postgraduates voluntary teaching corps that go to the mountainous area of Yunnan to teach in the mountains, bringing the outside world to the children there. We've been working with them for two years running an online synthetic biology lecture and introducing them to our project. What touched us deeply was that, due to the lack of channels to obtain information from the outside world, they worked hard to absorb every bit of knowledge from the outside world. Originally, we did not intend to explain the in-depth content, but under their questioning, we finally explained some complex principles to them with the simplest description. When preparing for the course, we constantly revised the content of the course, hoping to truly open a window for them to see the vastness and splendour of the world. We encouraged them to study hard and gave them notebooks, canvas bags and more. We also shared learning methods and wished them to finally go out of their hometowns and bloom their lives. Isn't this a noble value?
Based on our good cooperative relationship in the past two years and the affirmation of our courses by local students and teachers, we hope to reach further cooperation with the postgraduate teaching team. We hope to establish a platform where every team willing to provide high-quality courses for children can contact us to jointly provide better education for children in mountainous areas and promote educational equity. For more information about the platform: Contribution
We also co-hosted an online and offline interactive course with five other teams from the Freshwater Bioremediation Alliance in a junior high school in Guangxi on water pollution and the environmental governance. Through such courses, we hope they will pay more attention to the water environment around them and the application of synthetic biology in life. The children were very interested in what we said, and they actively asked questions in class, which made us feel their desire and enthusiasm for knowledge again. We patiently answered their questions and ultimately achieved unexpected educational results. We also gave them masks to better protect themselves during the pandemic.
The educational power of words
We believe that words have the calming power to plant and water the seeds of science deep within. In the Internet of Everything era, we can send text information to everyone through the ubiquitous network and into everyone's heart.
We have set up our own WeChat official account to regularly send subscribers about synthetic biology knowledge, our project progress, videos of online courses, and so forth. We retweeted the tweet to our circle of friends and encouraged everyone to continue retweeting. The tweet received praise from many teachers and classmates in the circle of friends and opened the door to a new world for many people.
In fact, in our questionnaire, we are already providing popular science content about synthetic biology and MFC for the respondents. Many respondents said that they learned about synthetic biology and MFC for the first time from our questionnaire, and they were very interested. They hoped that we could carry out this project well. This was a great encouragement to us. Our two questionnaires collected nearly 500 responses from respondents of all ages, occupations, and regions. We are proud of such a broad popular science audience.
