Team:SIAT-SCIE/HP/Silver
The Popularization of Synthetic Biology and iGEM
On Oct 27th, our team and SMS_Shenzhen gave a lecture to students in Shenzhen Middle School. Since the junior high students have already been exposed to basic biology including fundamental knowledge about DNA, in an-hour-long lecture we told them more about detailed DNA structure, inheritance and plasmid working mechanism. We then introduced them to the central theme of synthetic biology. Most students showed great interest in the lecture and asked tons of questions, not only about what we have covered but also some extended ones. In the end, we delivered our “iGEM survival guide” to them to popularize both synthetic biology and iGEM competition.
After the lecture finished, iGEMers from SMS_Shenzhen gave us and their middle school students a tour of their laboratory. We taught the students how to use micropipettes and they were quite impressed by so many accurate, delicate equipments.
A grand gathering of young iGEMers—the first High school meetup in China
Nowadays, there are a number of successful collegiate iGEM conferences such as CCIC (Conference of China iGEMer Community) in China while there are no formal, well-organized opportunities of communication for high school iGEMers, who, in fact, could benefit more from exchange of novel ideas and experience at the beginning of their scientific research journey. So, at an attempt to strengthen the bonds between iGEM juniors and improve our learning experience, we united with SFLS_Shenzhen to hold the first iGEM China Regional High School Meeting on Aug.19th and Aug.20th.
Considering we are relatively inexperienced in preparation for iGEM and our knowledge could be limited in solving academic challenges, we have invited an expert—Dr.ZHANG Haoqian, the iGEM Asia Representative, and friendly collegiate teams—SUSTech_Shenzhen, SZU_China and SCAU_China, whose precious advice and inspiring instructions would be very beneficial to every high school team participating.
On Aug 19th, the meetup started off by a introductory speech by Dr.ZHANG Haoqian, who gave an insight into the key factors of excellent performance and important points of attention throughout the preparation for iGEM. Then, different teams gave their delicate presentations, which were followed by a short Q&A session. After being introduced to various, intriguing projects, all high school teams were able to carry out specific, one-to-one collaboration with another team according to different interests.
