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Public Education

In this part, we brought synthetic biology and MagicBlock to the public. We visited high schools to introduce synthetic biology to the students and to guide them to design bio-product using MagicBlock. We also used Social media to publicize synthetic biology and our project.

School visiting

Synthetic Biology Introduction

Fig 1. An iGEMer is introducing synthetic biology to students

Our team members went to high schools to introduce the concept of synthetic biology and popularize our project. We were fascinated by their curiosity and passionate feedback which inspired us to finish our project.

We gave a seminar to students of “Innovate Class” in No 2 High school attached to ECNU. Although the students never heard of synthetic biology, they understood the concept quickly, and generated fantastic ideas using synthetic biology. The philosophy of our Magic Blocks brings infinite possibilities to them whose curiosity never get satisfied.

Another activity has taken place in the High School attached to Fudan University, where we gave another seminar on modern synthetic biology to senior students. Most of them never thought of get things done in synthetic biology before, and our project in lowering the barrier for the public to participate synthetic biology kindled their interest. We got a lot of questions even after the seminar.

Bio-design Thinking Class

Fig 2. An iGEMer is introducing basic biology experiments to students

To get better understanding of teenagers’ views of biology and to promote the concept of modern biology, we held a seminar class named ‘Bio+?’ for students from the Experimental Middle School Attached to Xuhui Institute of Education Shanghai (XJYFZ). The 9 participants were from junior high school students aged from 13 to 14.

After the class, students participated in a brainstorm of ‘Bio + ?’. They showed great creativity, like ‘Bio + Computer’, ‘Bio + artificial rainfall’, ‘Bio + Bluetooth’, ‘Bio + Sound’. Everyone drew their designs. The great passion of students in scientific innovation indeed is infectious to us. We also interviewed their instructors Zhe Jin to discuss about her ideas in instructing students to technological events. We hope that our Magic-Block platform would help tp realize their dreams with modern biology.

Social Media

WeChat official account

Fig 3. WeChat platform

In order to spread synthetic biology and our project to the public, we also created a WeChat account. Every month, we posted several articles on the account. The topics include popular scientific articles in synthetic biology, brief introduction of MagicBlock, introducing our workshops. We have received many comments saying that they are excited to find a new area about design and creation. Also, a number of suggestions from the readers really inspired us to improve our project.