Team:USTC-Software/HP/Silver

Human Practice

Science and Technology Week

Science and Technology Week is an on-campus annually celebration of science, technology, and engineering involving different colleges students in USTC conducting various science-based activities. This year, Science and Technology Week attracted over ten thousand citizens to USTC, varying from innocent pupils, high school students and college students in biology-related majors to the public from all walks who may have limited knowledge of Synthetic Biology. Our team cooperated with Team USTC and offered visitors a feast of biological knowledge.

We introduced elementary knowledge of genetics to citizens by poster presentation, then showed them some basic experiment operation, like liquid relief, centrifugation and etc. We used metaphors of LEGO and principle of programming to introduce the concept of biobricks and Synthetic Biology. What’s more, the game Foldit is used to give children a vivid model of protein. In addition, we distributed questionnaires to the visitors to get some feedback to improve the design idea of our software.

Figure 1: Science and Technology Week

Science and Technology Exhibition

We held a Synthetic Biology exhibition in Hefei science museum, which is the largest off-campus science class. This exhibition attracts thousands of citizens including innocent pupils, high school students and their parents. And our team coordinated with team USTC and provide a flood of synthetic knowledge to the visitors.

We used metaphors of LEGO and principle of programming to introduce the concept of biobricks and Synthetic Biology. In addition, we invited teenagers to play Foldit (an online puzzle video game about protein folding) to give them a sense of computer-aided design. We also prepared several games so that they could learn knowledge while having fun.

Figure 2: Science and Technology Exhibition