Team:GZHS-United/Engagement
Public Engagement and Education
Talk to the Public
We talked to the society about their opinions on synthetic biology, GMO and mosquitos, and their opinions have directed us the way to a better project.
Surveys
We have designed two questionnaires and distributed them online to investigate people’s attitude towards mosquito control and genetically modified organisms. Finally, over 860 responses were collected, for our results, click here
Synthetic Biology and iGEM Club
2/3 of students in the synthetic biology club haven’t got any chance to learn the issue of GMO and technologies in synthetic biology in a comprehensive view until they got into the club. Discussion in the club with these students is a perfect chance for us to get to know the attitude and concerns of the general public towards generic modification technology.
We have collected and discussed many frequently asked questions about GMO, like whether eating GMO would change people’s gene, whether eating GMO would cause cancer and what GMOs could be seen in daily life.
Public Education
We used various ways to promote knowledge about mosquito control, GMO and synthetic biology to the public.
Lectures and Workshops
We established numerous offline and online lectures and seminars to improve people’s understanding on mosquito control and synthetic biology as well as to clear misconceptions on them. We made a lecture in our school’s auditorium for parents in the school open day, with over 500 people reached. We have invited several doctors, teachers and professors in the field of biology to share their opinions, knowledge and experiences in our online workshop with over 400 participants. Here are some of the topics we have covered: “what GMO actually is”, “why the society need GMO”, “Introduction to mosquito-borne diseases”, and “Introduction to DNA and synthetic biology”.
Posters and Leaflets
We designed two activities about biology to attract the public and showed our posters about mosquito control and GMO to settlers in three different communities in Guangzhou and Foshan. During our promotion, we have explained the principles and proper ways of mosquito control, introduced GMO and answered many questions about the two main topics of ours. Our promotion in the three communities covered at least 300 people. Our team members went to the metro system in Guangzhou to distribute leaflets about mosquito control to the passengers, and we have placed the rest of the leaflets to the newsstands in each station after permition, therefore other passengers could take and read them.
Community Education
We went to 3 different communities (Shunde Country Garden, Shidai Meiguiyuan and Dongfang Xinshijie Xiyuan) in Guangzhou and Foshan, conducted two activities, vein bookmark DIY and transplant seedlings DIY, and distributed 100 leaflets (all the leaflets we have) in each of the communities. We have in touched with more than 300 people in each community, mostly kids and elderlies, and affected over 1000 individuals in total.
Wechat Official Account
The Wechat Official Account of ours is called iGEMers, which functions like a blog, and we used it to document our project, iGEM and synthetic biology all together. Our Official Account has over 2400 followers right now.
Juvenile Education
According to our investigation and communication with our fellows, synthetic biology and genetic modification is a popular topic in juveniles, not only those who study biology, but also the others.
Biology Class for Elementary School
We went to the elementary section in Country Garden School, and brought two classes to all the grade 5 students. In the first class, we conducted several activities like bacterial culture to give them a direct view about the concept of micro-organisms, and explained the idea of DNA and complementary base pairing. In the second class, we introduced the mosquito-borne diseases, and showed some interesting aspects of mosquitos, like the functions of each mouthparts of mosquitos, and the reason why people feel itchy after being bitten.
Synthetic Biology and iGEM Club
Apart from letting our team members know the attitude of the public, the iGEM Club has another important function, which is to educate the club members and let the club members participate into the education of other students. In the club, we discussed the definition of genetic engineering, the methods and principles of gene manipulation, and the introduction to proteins.
Inquiry and Service Week
Our team members took the responsibility to organize the annual Inquiry and Service Week for IBMYP biology students. We have invited them to come to our lab, given them a lecture about experiment safety and directed them to do a RFP cloning and prokaryotic expression experiment and a plant tissue culturing experiment.
Timeline
2017.4.14
Country Garden School High School Open Day
Public Engagement
One of us made a lecture in the school auditorium, which was full house with more than 500 people. After the lecture, we preached about the facts of GMO to more than 200 passing students, teachers and parents in the campus, and have successfully distributed all the GMO leaflets we have brought (150).
2017.5.5
Survey on GMO
413 valid questionnaires about GMO were collected through an online mutual questionnaire filling community to survey the opinions of the public toward GMO. Samples are mostly from Guangdong, Anhui and Beijing.
2017.5.27
Country Garden School Science Festival
We promoted facts about GMO to the passing parents and students, distributed 107 leaflets about GMO, and conducted a bacteria drawing activity with 50 people involved (because all of our culture dishes were used up).
2017.5.27
Biology Class for Elementary School Students
Our team members went to the elementary section of Country Garden School and given courses about mosquito control and mosquito-borne diseases to all the grade 5 students.
2017.7.21
Survey on Mosquito Eradication
461 valid questionnaires about mosquito eradication were collected online to survey the market demand of our product, mostly from Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
2017.7.22
Public Education in Shidai Meiguiyuan and Dongfang Xinshijie Xiyuan
We conducted two activities, vein bookmark DIY and transplant seedlings DIY, and distributed 100 leaflets (all the leaflets we have) in each of the communities, in touched with more than 300 people, mostly kids and elderlies.
2017.7.29
Public Education in Shunde Country Garden
We did a preach about the principles, reasons and proper ways of mosquito eradication to dwellers in the community, with 139 mosquito eradication leaflets distributed.
2017.8.3
Online Workshop
We have invited Dr. Jiabao Xu to conduct an online workshop named ‘Mosquito-borne Diseases’ on Wechat. There were 224 participators and the workshop was 2 hours long.
2017.8.14, 8.22, 8.24
Online Workshop
We have invited several teachers and professors to conduct online workshops with topics about what GMO stand for, why the society needs GMO and the introduction to DNA and synthetic biology.
2017.9.1
Foundation of Country Garden School iGEM Club
We founded the iGEM Club in our school for high school students to really participate in the experiments that they have read on their textbooks and insight into synthetic biology as well as genetic engineering. This club is also used
2017.10.13
Biology Class for Elementary School Students
Our team members went to the elementary section of Country Garden School and given courses about micro-organisms, DNA and complementary base pairing to all the grade 5 students.
