Team:USTC
Science and Technology Activity Week
Making the public have a taste of synthetic biology is very meaningful, which shouldn’t be restricted in biology laboratory. So we planned to hold an offline event with the theme of synthetic biology to complete our mission of increasing science popularity. We also expanded the influence of the activity as much as possible, so that more people could participate in it, especially children who have a strong interest in scientific knowledge.
Coincidentally, USTC held a science and technology activity week with the theme of "Into Science and Technology, You and I Go Together" on May 21, 2022. We seized the moment to show the charm of biotechnology to the social public through a series of science popularization activities. Thanks to enthusiastic pupils and adults, our stands were warmly welcomed and crowded with audience.
Activity 1: Leaf vein bookmarks
By having participants, especially teenagers with hands-on skills, make bookmarks by hand to practice the true knowledge, so as to understand that the cellulose and flesh of the leaf veins have different states in lye water.
Activity 2: Chameleon reaction
Calcein indicator can effectively calibrate calcium ion concentration, which is related to pH. We offer a chance for kid participants to add several drops of reagents on theri own so as to observe the magic chemical wonder with color changes as phenomenon.
Activity 3: Sterecscope Observation
Under the stereoscope, the connotation of the samples is clear. And even a handy-picked leaf, but also has its own unique internal texture. Many ardent children look curiously at the wonderful images and itch to see their own hair! Amplification into the microcosmic world impressed many eyes, discovering secrets out of the reach of our naked eye.
Activity 4: Exhibition of E.coli
We use flexible materials to make a couple of biological models to imitate their construction such as double-helix structure of DNA. Apart from this, we also applied some cartoon plates with colorful E.coli strains which attracted more attention of teenagers.
In addition, we also prepared a competition for biological knowledge related to animals and plants, a picture wall abundant with brilliant photomicrography work and amusing commentaries, blood pressure measurement and its principle. Our creative activities are diverse and wide-ranging. We are convinced that our effort are meaningful for the reason that we successfully popularized some useful biological knowledge and maybe those students engaged would have more interest in biology than before. At the same time, we USTC-iGEMers also gained so much pleasure and resonance with public in this event.
Online Propaganda Meeting Combining Eight Schools
In terms of larger propaganda scale than offline event, our team participated in the joint science popularization activity of iGEM teams form eight universities, which was organized by ShanghaiTech University. This event included six main sections: the Universe, Optogenetics, Metabolism, Engineering, Bioactive Materials, Agriculture and Forestry. Facing non-professional audience, each school shared their creative ideas and comprehension of the topics, along with background knowledge related thus the meeting content were perfect full and multi-faceted.
We took part in the presentation of the Bioactive Materials section on the night of August 13th through Tencent Meeting. Baced on our study into magnetosomes, we introduced an interesting electromagnetism phenomenon about the magnetosomes produced by an archaeobacteria --magnetotactic bacteria. To explain this novel biomineralization progress in detail, we gave a brief introduction of its background and ecology effect, origin, generation of magnetosome. Finally applications of magnetosomes as bioactive materials expanded our boundary, ending this meeting successfully.
The event attracted many middle school students, college students and members of the community to watch online. We believe it meaningful for it not only allowed us to consider what public needs, but also train our expression and self-show ability.
Course: Introduction to Synthetic Biology
On the campus, The most convenient way to learn a field is to take a course. To give students in USTC access to systematic training in synthetic biology, Prof. Hong Jiong, our PI, presented a course called Introduction to Synthetic Biology. Students can easily choose this course considering their interests, and they can get credits after finishing it. This course will introduce the basic principles, methods, the advantage of synthetic biology, and the advance of synthetic biology. The students will discuss how we can obtain more information on synthetic biology and integrate them into our studies. Finally, the students will be required to design a project based on their interested field. We believe that every student who takes this course will have a thorough understanding of synthetic biology.
Recruitment: School Presentation
Having attended iGEM for over 10 years, we have to face the problem that nobody can stay forever as a team member. As a result, we pay particular attention to letting other students (especially the freshmen) know about our existence and work, which is the fundament for them to get interested and even join us. To achieve this, we made a lot of efforts. Posters were posted everywhere, saying that there is a presentation by iGEM-USTC. Then during the meeting, we introduced iGEM itself and illustrated how we develop a project by using our former project as an example. This meeting-up turned out to be a success. We were amazed by their passion and even a group chat was created for later discussion and recruitment. New blood flown into the next year’s team will be selected from those registered due to this recruitment.
