While a big part of iGEM is based on synthetic biology, the subject is usually not included in the school curriculums in Macau. Because of that, our outreach team has carried out some activities intending to spread information in the area. As an approach, we hope to make synthetic biology more accessible to the public, as well as to create platforms for children to cultivate their interest in it from an early age.
This year, we have visited various organizations within our city to promote iGEM and our project, some of which we also aimed at seeking support and sponsorship for our work. We also had plans for presentations, workshops, and seminars in various schools to share about iGEM, our project, and other global issues from June to August. Unfortunately, it was impossible to carry out most of these activities due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Despite this, we managed to hold online events and a few offline ones for students in our school before and after the summer vacation.
1) School Workshop at Macau Pui Ching Middle School
In June, we held a workshop in our school Chemistry laboratory. The objectives of this include the introduction of the ecosystem of plants in terrariums, planting methodology, and water planting. During the workshop, the concept of hydroponics and the basic principle of our project were also delivered to the students. We have posted about it on our social platform and promoted it on campus via posters in advance, and the students reacted with a strong interest in it.
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The first part of this workshop was the lecture session, consisting of a brief presentation on the global environmental issues that we have been facing. We then introduced hydroponics to them, along with the concept of basic synthetic biology. We also prepared for a mini Q&A section before the terrarium-making section.
After our introduction, we started making terrariums with them step by step. Finally, the glass container is complete.
2) School Assembly at Macau Pui Ching Middle School
In April, we delivered an assembly talk to Secondary 3 students in our school. In the talk, we introduced what iGEM is and provided some background information on synthetic biology. Additionally, we mentioned some critical environmental issues such as climate change and extreme weather. We explained the rationale of our project, and it appeared that the majority of our students were interested in it.
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We had a Q&A session after our presentation, of which a majority of questions involved global issues and iGEM. All the students responded actively; we saw lots of raising hands for answering the questions. Some presents prepared by our teammates were given out to students who answered the questions correctly. We generally received very positive feedback from the students and teachers about the talk.
3) Promotion of iGEM and our project in social media
We have been engaging on social media for better promotion of iGEM and us. We post irregularly about our project and environmental issues that can be helped with synthetic biology. Project progression and related activities are also updated to give the public a better grasp of what we are doing in our iGEM project.
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