Education is the movement from darkness to light. -Allan Bloom
As Alan Bloom says, our story light project is equally dedicated to bringing the light of education to the land and painting a magnificent picture of people's stories.
In our previous research, we found that synthetic biology, while having broad appeal in China, has a narrow audience and shallow understanding. We delved deeper into the reasons for this and found that it was the result of a lack of relevance to life and a lack of widespread popularization of science.
Therefore, we designed our project education to incorporate Chinese elements while presenting our ideas and popularizing synthetic biology to different types of audiences.
We are committed to a broad audience and an in-depth educational model. We try to use the international advanced PBL (Problem solving-based learning) to enhance the learning experience of our audience. At the same time, we take feedback and use it to iterate our teaching model.
Our educational model focuses on legacy as well. We have built a resource sharing platform dedicated to synthetic biology. New productive partnerships have been established with expert educators, students, iGEM teams, government agencies, and staff from our own institutions. A more detailed description is available on the Integrated Human Practices page.
We are committed to disseminating the results of our education through a wider and deeper medium, and have designed digitally specific dissemination pathways, which can be found on our Communication page.
We know that education is not just a process of exporting our ideas.Self-reflection is also very important, and debate provides us with such a platform. We hope to let more people know about Story Light and become a real member of the project, and think about the ethical issues of cultural relic restoration together with us.
To this end, we contacted the Zhejiang University College of Medicine debate team. After explaining the design concept of Story Light and our restoration ideas to them, we started a debate around the debate topic:The reconstruction of ancient monuments should keep the original fabric/bring a modern appearance.
The positive side supports the reconstruction of ancient monuments and should keep the original fabric because they believe that this method of restoration can better preserve the traces of the years on the historical sites, and these traces themselves are part of the value of cultural relics.The negative side believes that the restoration method of "repair the old as new" It is more thorough and more conducive to the preservation of cultural relics for a long time. In addition, the historical connotation of cultural relics lies not only in the vicissitudes of their appearance, so there is no need to limit the restoration of technology.
Fig 1 Debate scene
Through the exciting debate, we have a deeper reflection on the cultural connotation and artistic value of cultural relics. We have seriously thought about the significance of synthetic biology restoration of cultural relics, and the intersection of life science, engineering science, humanities, arts and cultural relics ethics. And all these discussions have also made us have more historical and artistic considerations for the future application of Story Light.
Debaters: With a certain medical science background, debaters are full of interest in our project and believe that the use of synthetic biology to restore cultural relics is a major trend in the future. They said that this debate gave them more imagination about the protection and restoration of cultural relics, and let them considered more humanistic factors. They also expressed their hope to us to hear more details about the project design and the construction of the genetic circuit.
Presentation: At the beginning, we were worried that the complicated design circuit might make the audience confused and boring, but the audience's reaction dispelled our concerns, and we are determined to strengthen the scientificity of the project for groups with certain backgrounds in future presentations, in order that the audience can better understand the logic of our restoration of stone artifacts,thus better understanding the basic concepts of synthetic biology.
Reflections: During the discussion between the pros and cons, we noticed that "the use value of cultural relics" and "the artistic value of cultural relics" have become the focus of the debate. The positive side points out that a more conservative restoration method is more conducive to protecting the unique artistic value of cultural relics, and is more in line with the principles of "authenticity" and "integrity" proposed by UNESCO for cultural heritage protection(1). The opposite side proposes that a more thorough restoration method can bring new vitality to the cultural relics. For example, the restoration of China's "Zhaozhou Bridge" enables the cultural relics to be better integrated with reality and serve the public. Therefore, we are determined to strengthen the image of the unity of "use value" and "artistic value" in the process of introducing Story Light to the public and cultural relic restoration practitioners, so as to help the audience better understand our original intention of restoration.
In China, most of the Teenagers have not yet identified what they want to study in the future. In order to give them a better understanding of the various disciplines and to increase their interest in synthetic biology, we used iGEM as an opportunity to organise two visits back to the team members' high school alma mater for a presentation.
Team members from ZJU-China Junyi Liu, Zihang Ye and Hongying Lin met online with high school students from Qingdao No.2 Middle School through Tencent Conference to explain the basic concepts and applications of synthetic biology. The ZJU-China team members gave a brief introduction to our project design and received positive feedback from the students. Liu Junyi also shared her experiences and gains during her three years at Qingdao No.2 Middle School, encouraging high school students to find their true interest and keep their first love.
“Having listened to the lecture, I was fascinated by the charm of biology. What we can do is change the genes of creatures using this technology which make contributions to medicine, physical health and environmental protection. It seems that genes can be programmed by using synthetic biology. Moreover, science can also be an art. The work named Nightingale and Rose finished by a science group was so romantic and beautiful that all of us were deeply impressed. In conclusion, this class meeting was without doubt a great success. It not only enhanced our interest in biology, but also made us more confident in the face of difficulties in our school life.”
Li Jiajun
Class one, Grade one
Fig 2 Junyi, Hongying, Zihang are delivering speeches to senior high school students
Fig 3 Students are listening carefully
After communicating with the teachers of Shaoxing No. 1 Middle School, we found that the current biology curriculum of the school is mainly based on teaching materials and does not involve cutting-edge progress in the field of biology. Therefore, we decided to take synthetic biology as the theme and give a lecture to the students of Shaoxing No. 1 Middle School.
We first gave our talk, in which we presented the concept of synthetic biology as much as possible in the form of cases, hoping to leave a more intuitive impression on the high school students. At the same time, we also introduced to the students the bioethics norms that need to be observed in the future if they are exposed to the frontiers of life sciences in addition to the rapid development of science. We hope to convey to the children of young people the value that the development of the life sciences is a cherishing of human dignity at the earliest possible time. Happily, we found that the students generally listened very engaged and attentive. Subsequently, we conducted interactive questions on the spot.
Finally, we distributed the posters we had prepared, the brochures of our team's projects, and the corresponding peripheral products, such as badges, masks, etc.
Fig 4 a group photo with high school students
High school students: In the beginning, we were worried that high school kids wouldn't be able to digest what we were passing on quickly. Happily, the feedback after the presentation was positive. Students at Shaoxing No.1 Middle School said that the information we conveyed in the lecture was clear and easy to understand.
Our team: We are very pleased to see that some students have taken the initiative to ask us questions about biology majors in the university and express their determination to conduct biology-related scientific research in the university. Our team members also shared their experiences of conducting scientific research in the iGEM competition with the students who came to inquire.
After a morning of theoretical knowledge, we led the students to the laboratory where the high school students had the opportunity to practice the molecular biology operations they had just been taught. Before the experiment, we led the students through a brief review of the sections on the purpose of the experiment, the principles of the experiment and the experimental methods.
Fig 5 Students are Outlooking the experiment
We have prepared two experiments: Amplification of gender identification gene SRY using PCR, and extraction of DNA from E. coli. The ZJU-China team members demonstrated the scraping of oral epithelial cells, the use of a pipettes, the setting up of the PCR apparatus, and other experimental operations.
Fig 6 Students are carrying out their experiments
The students carried out their experiments carefully and our team members gave patient instructions. Surprisingly, although this was the students' first experience with molecular biology, we still got very good results.
Fig 7 The students got satisfactory experimental results
After the experiment, we had the pleasure and honour to talk to many students from Shaoxing First Middle School. We heard many sincere and interesting ideas about experiments, about science and about the future, and we sincerely hope that our EDUCATION will plant a small seed in the hearts of the students.
At the same time, due to the impact of the epidemic, we cannot travel to more distant areas to carry out laboratory education, but we also hope that our laboratory education can be aimed at more young people, so that they also have the opportunity to contact and understand synthetic biology. So we recorded the video while doing the lab education and made the video in the form of a vlog. At the same time, considering that the video is mainly aimed at the youth group, we made the style of the video very interesting and cute when editing, hoping to attract more teenagers.
High school students: For high school students, early exposure to different majors in university helps them to better plan their future lives, yet there is often a large information gap between high school students and university students because of the relatively closed nature of the university community. The presentations and practical activities organized by us aim to eliminate this information imbalance and provide high school students with a window into the study and life patterns of university biology majors. Many students became very interested in the field of life sciences after attending our seminar, and they also said that they would try to broaden their horizons, learn about the frontier research progress of different disciplines and identify their own interests as early as possible.
Our team: Engaging with high school students gave us another perspective on the public's awareness and understanding of synthetic biology, while realizing that there are still gaps in the popularity of synthetic biology among the public, but the strong interest shown by high school students in cutting-edge research advances in biology and cross-disciplinary disciplines still gives us optimism. Many bright students were also able to point out the shortcomings of our project and provide inspiration for iterations of our project.
We hope that iGEM will not only become an exclusive memory for synthetic biology enthusiasts, but its concept of "creation" and "persistence" can affect more people.
New semester begins, many students feel confused of life and study in the next four years, so we contacted ZJU-China 2021 captain Wu Haoran and ZJU-China 2015 team member Liu Chang to share the career planning and iGEM participation experience for the students in the whole school. Through the online and offline mode, hundreds of students have been influenced.
Fig 8 Seminar organized by ZJU-China
Wu Haoran is the captain of the Zhejiang University team in the 2021 iGEM competition. As an ecological researcher, he won the Best Software Award in the 2021 competition through the R package he developed. In October this year, he is going to study at Oxford University's School of Geography and Environment. He shared how to clarify his foreign direction at the university. At the same time, as a scientific research enthusiast, he chose to use a goal-oriented planning method to clarify his achievable goals in stages, so that every step in the future can be solid.In addition, the popular science book Natural Capital and Nature-Based Solutions: Chinese and Foreign Policies and Practices written by him was released at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, which also showed the unique social responsibility and international responsibility of iGEMer.
Liu Chang was a member of the Zhejiang University team in the 2015 iGEM competition. She participated in the popular workplace observation reality show Heartwarming Offer 3 in China, which attracted the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. Currently, she is working as a postdoctoral fellow at Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Starting from her own blank resume, she showed us how she transformed from a freshman to a research-oriented Ph.D. She participated in volunteer teaching, taught classes for children in poverty-stricken areas, and made a ten-year appointment with them to ignite their dreams. She bravely jumped out of her major and chose to do an internship in the Internet industry to explore her own boundaries. In particular, she mentioned that by participating in iGEM, she strengthened her love and gained friends who fought side by side. Through her sharing, we found that iGEMers are not only passionate about synthetic biology.They are also a group of creative and enthusiastic people who dare to explore the boundaries of life. And this spirit is exactly what we hope to see in the iGEM community and what we hope to convey to more people.
Audience: After the presentation, we found that many audience lined up in a long line to take photos with Liu Chang, and many audience had further exchanges with two guests. Few people knew about iGEM on campus before, but after we invited Liu Chang, who has some influence in the recent Chinese variety show circle, our venue was full. Therefore we found that we need to attract our target group first and carefully design our publicity session.Excellent communication + wonderful content constitute a complete publicity.
Cooperation team: Because of the huge audience, we contacted one of the three major organizations of Zhejiang University, the Pioneering And Partwork-study Instructing Center to provide us with venues and Staff support. They provided us with questions that the audience cares about. We found that most of the questions focused on how iGEM could help future development, which was overlooked before, and we will consider this more in future events.
Our team: We are both organizers and participants of this seminar. We have listened to the participation experience of iGEM seniors, their diverse life experiences, and have a deeper understanding of the spiritual core of iGEM's "creation" and "love". This can be great motivation for our work. We realize that iGEM is not just a synthetic biology competition.It is a new life experience and we see more different possibilities here.we are also committed to sharing this life experience with more people.
