Science education is essential to iGEM. Education is also vital for synthetic biology. We completed the iGEM project not only to do experiments but also to publicize and educate the public about the concept of iGEM and the significance of synthetic biology. This year, the Devourer team undertook the following activities and initiatives for science education and communication.

There are many forms of education. To better prepare for educational activities, we first surveyed the public. Then, we made several questionnaires to gather people's knowledge level of synthetic biology. Finally, based on the result (more than 300 respondents’ answers）of the questionnaire that we made, we listed some communication ideas that we could use with the existing condition. We chose three activities to process our education project.

Online lecture and promotional channels are traditional ways to educate the general public about knowledge of synthetic biology. The way is traditional but useful. we selected two promotional channels, the WeChat official account, and the Douyin official account, to publicize our project to the public. Since establishing our WeChat public account, WeChat general account has gained nearly 200 fans. Meanwhile, our Douyin app has accumulated more than 1,000 followers. In addition, we collected fans through the circle of friends, classmates, teachers, and parents, which laid a solid foundation for our subsequent publicity and education to the public.

We are also rich in content. WeChat official accounts and Douyin official accounts are not only platforms to show our experimental records but also necessary means for us to popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology, new biological technologies, team image, and attitude. Among them, the highest WeChat official account post reading volume was more than 500 times per article; The most viewed Douyin video has been viewed more than 2,000 times.

We also held a live online lecture, mainly telling students, parents, and teachers about the origin of synthetic biology, its development, and its application. At the same time, we also introduced the uniqueness and importance of our project, which calls for more attention to and the correct understanding of synthetic biology. As high school students, much of our knowledge comes from our parents and teachers, so they need an accurate understanding of synthetic biology. Therefore, they should have more opportunities to speak out in synthetic biology. Only when the people who transfer knowledge to us understand synthetic biology correctly can more students understand and pay attention to synthetic biology. The lecture was also very effective. As our team members are from all over the country, we attracted more than 100 parents and teachers from all over the country to participate. We plan to hold a similar online event every other month to let more students, parents, and teachers know about synthetic biology.

It’s an interactive game we found very useful and helpful to high school students. Rule is simple, answer the short questions related to biology and basic concept ideas of gene editing and and other related things like equipment.

We choose to use this education materiel mainly to target middle school students and their parents. According to our research, middle school students are likely to compete with each other. Interactive quiz is a common and typical tool to test one’s knowledge of some subjects. It can be repeated after a while to test and memorize those knowledge.

And we use prizes to attract students. People participate in the activity can get several different kind of our peripheral products according their correct rate. The biggest prize is “big pack”if you correctly answer all 20 questions in two minutes. It contains all of the peripheral products of our team (shirts, bags, key chains, bookmarks and stickers). Profit made from the charity sale has been supporting us as cost to carry out this activity.

We have tested and executed the quiz activities in three high schools and the feedback are positive. In total 30 students attended the quiz. Students are interested in winning prizes by answering the questions made from synthetic biology knowledge. In this way, we created a useful way to engage synthetic biology with middle and high school students. We are thinking of making an online interactive quiz as well since we sometimes have to study at home due to lockdown in China. We plan to do it via kahoot platform, which is an online interactive quiz-making system. We believe this will be a popular ten-minute class break activities in school time.

The last way we choose is posters and offline exhibitions. The original targeted audience are also general citizens in cities. However, we tried to start the plan by testing in schools. We designed an exhibitions which contains of many elements from synthetic biology. The whole exhibition consists of different areas like “history area”, “relevant equipment area”, “famous scientist area”, “iGEM competition area”and of course the “gift shop area”. All the materials are draw or designed by our team members and invited artists, so that the contents are vivid and fashionable. The whole exhibitions will be around 5 minutes. The exhibition is free and people can donate money to our project via “gift shop”. However, due to the epidemic prevention and control policy，we are still not able hold a group activities in school and outside on street. We are currently trying to move the exhibition online.

With these educational materials, we believe we can reach thousands of audiences, but with a focus on students, educators, and parents, as they are our first step to educating the world. These people are the future of the world. When we educate them, we shape the future. The activities ranged from online to offline, from minor to big audience, and from one for all styles to one-on-one interactive communication. We sincerely believe that with the various methods of science education and communication, we can bring synthetic biology and one project one more step closer to the world.