Background and overview

Everyone gets the same chance to learn. ZJUintl-China concurs that education ought to be a lifetime pursuit. The rapid advancement of science has, however, also resulted in an uneven distribution of regional resources, including educational opportunities. Some communities lack educational resources, other families struggle financially, and some people are unable to access the information they are interested in learning. As a result, ZJUintl-China's attention is divided between societal education initiatives and the competition research issue. Our educational initiatives are primarily organized into three categories: public education, education for elementary school pupils, and education for students studying biology who are roughly the same age. A homemade public platform, seminars, lectures on popular science, and an atlas of synthetic biology knowledge are all used as teaching tools. To obtain positive outcomes in this area of our human practice of education, we have chosen several methodologies for a variety of educational subjects. These present us with the chance to impart our knowledge and enthusiasm for synthetic biology, cell therapy, and anti-aging immunotherapy. In addition, it will pique more people's interest in synthetic biology, encouraging them to learn more about it and make contributions to this area.

Educating the general public

The term "general public" refers to those who have free access to the Internet, are well-educated, comprehend some of the fundamentals of science, and are sufficiently interested in it. Through Tencent's WeChat public platform, we built an account for our team called ZJUintl-China. It serves as a forum for public education on synthetic biology and for showcasing the work of our team. We try to be as accurate and funny as we can when we tweet. At the same time, we scrupulously credit the original author or source for any contributions from other sources. Please visit this website's Human Practices Public Engagement section for further details. At the same time, we have certain team members that monitor the team's email, actively respond to private messages from inquiries or concerns raised in public, as well as interact with them, hear their thoughts, and learn from their experiences.

In the meantime, ZJUintl-China and six other iGEM 2022 teams have worked together to produce an accessible atlas of synthetic biology knowledge. This map is divided into sections on the history and principles of synthetic biology, synthetic biology methods, prospects for synthetic biology, cross-applications, and applications. It aims to offer a rather thorough introduction to synthetic biology for the general public. To provide new opportunities to include more people in shaping synthetic biology, we share the synthetic biology atlas with the nearby community, such as our classmates, friends, and parents. We had an extensive discussion with them about the content of the synthetic biology atlas. They said that the atlas is easy to understand and also showed considerable interest in synthetic biology. Based on their suggestions, we have modified the way we utilized to introduce some of the synthetic biology knowledge. To expand the influence of the synthetic biology atlas on the broader community, we uploaded this education tool for synthetic biology on various websites, such as Facebook, Medium and Bilibili. Search for 'Synthetic Biology Atlas' on these websites can get more information. The link to the Medium page is: https://medium.com/@ZJUintl-China_iGEM/synthetic-biology-atlas-74cef730aed0. The product of our team's accomplishments also includes an important form in the shape of an atlas of synthetic biology knowledge. The human practice Implementation section contains more information.


Figure 1. Synthetic Biology Atlas for educating the general public.


Figure 2. WeChat public platform for educating the general public.

Revealing a hidden world to children in poor areas

From June to July, some members of our team went to Zhangjiazhuang Primary School in Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, China, Yulihua School in Jiayi Town, Pingjiang County, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, China, and the Central Primary School in Mabian Yi Autonomous County, Leshan City, Sichuan Province, China, to conduct human practice education activities. These three provinces are relatively prosperous places in China, but the distribution of educational resources is uneven. We took into account the local children's acceptance of knowledge and set up interesting and interactive popular science lectures. Popular science lectures in ZJUintl-China mainly include the following aspects:

a. Basic introduction to synthetic biology

b. Human immune system and cellular immunotherapy

c. Concept of Chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR)

d. Current application of Chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR)

Most kids from low-income regions struggle to communicate effectively in English. We have also re-dubbed an interesting video about CAR from YouTube and presented it to children in Chinese. In addition to lectures, we also had seminars. We led the kids in a discussion on what they've heard in the lecture, as well as some of the things they've observed in the world around them that are linked to the content. To better understand synthetic biology, we had a few of the students tell us about their introduction to the field and provide some examples. We expose our children to cutting-edge medical treatments and inspire them to learn and improve themselves. Additionally, we work together with the ZJUT group to take part in their human practice education programs for kids from low-income communities. We filmed the entire class for them to watch afterwards.






Figure 3. Popular science lectures in poor areas.

Inspiring biology major students

The team members of ZJuintl-China are mainly composed of students majoring in biomedicine, medicine, bioinformatics, civil engineering, and computer science. On our campus, there are many students majoring in biology; they can be our classmates or good friends. Although they did not participate in the iGEM competition, they are also interested in synthetic biology and cellular immunotherapy against aging. So, we discussed with our classmates and held lectures on campus. We introduce the content of the ZJUintl-China project to them and and ask them for advice for improvement.


Figure 4. Communication with biology major students