Synthetic biology has its unique magic: every element works together for one purpose in the system we design, just like an imaginative idea can act as a magnet to draw people together. Involving the public stays on in our mind. In this spirit, we delivered a set of lectures and mini-labs to students of all ages to unlock a world of synthetic biology for juniors. Excitedly, vibrant students from High School Affiliated to Fudan University applauded the idea of synthetic biology and newly established an iGEM team on our instruction. In addition, inspired by the principle of opening science, we interviewed Ms. Shi, a doctoral student in pharmacy, revealing the true living and studying condition of common sci-researchers in China to people outside the industry. Finally, some artwork was created to help explain our STEP system to the public, saturated in the two-way constructing process of humanity and technology. In our wildest dream of childhood, there always existed a profession named ‘scientist’. But only a few of us hold on to it ultimately. Researchers are always a mystery to the public. In public mind they are a group of people burying themselves in labs and isolated from normal society. Nevertheless, the truth is far from that while the public has started to think differently. Rooted in China, we focus on the topic Society, Research, Researchers to reveal the true living condition of sci-researchers in China today.

In the meeting with Shi, a typical doctoral student of pharmacy, we discover the change of public attitude towards the field of research. What’s their working pattern? How do they step into this field? What do their future look like? Her one-step-at-a-time experience gave the answer. To propagate synthetic biology and share the fun of iGEM with future synthetic biologists, we organized a series of activities and lectures to students of all ages. Kindergarten: A mini-lab For kids in kindergarten, we host a mini-biolab to introduce some basic concepts regarding microorganisms in an interesting way. Moreover, we helped the lovely children cultivate their interest in synthetic biology as well as inform them of the significance of keeping personal hygiene. PS: Safety is guaranteed during this activity. Canton primary school: Volunteer teaching When our team is working as volunteer teacher in rural areas of Canton, we also always bear the responsibility of sharing the idea of iGEM to more people. In Canton, to broaden their horizon to a grander world, our deliver introduced our project and some basic situations of iGEM to hundreds of seated students from primary school and junior high school. Though due to the limit of equipment and knowledge, they could not be iGEMers now, we have planted seeds of synthetic biology in their naïve heart which might grow up to a glorious tree one day in the future. Senior High School: A newly set-up iGEM team As for senior high school, we organized some lectures to introduce synthetic biology and our project. Firstly, we held a lecture in High School Affiliated to Fudan University (FDFZ). And this lecture gave us unexpected pleasure. FDFZ is a well-known high school in Shanghai having a long history. And thanks to the abundant resource of Fudan University, the students of FDFZ can get easy access to top theory and technology in the science field and the atmosphere of exploring is really thick there. Thus, we reached a biology teacher in FDFZ discussing about holding a lecture in FDFZ and the possibility of establishing an iGEM high school team to help them participate in this creative competition. To attract more students to our lecture, we prepared beautiful posters for every classroom and made sufficient plans. The outcome is more than fantastic. The number of students that came to our lecture is far over our expectation, and they were all eager to know iGEM and how to take part in it. Thus, we organized two interviews together with a teacher of FDFZ to select suitable students for future competition. In the interview, we asked about lots of things such as their basic knowledge of modern biology, experience in laboratory, the understanding of iGEM and their current ideas. To our surprise, some had attended the John Hopkins Summer Camp and had the experience of PCR, Western Blot and etc. And some had learned pharmacodynamic evaluation, mice emergency immunization, flow cytometry, labeling fluorescent antibody and so on. And their ideas were also innovative concerning Chinese traditional herb, malaria, controlling blood pressure, and regulation of K+. As for the division of labor, they also have their considerations. Some prefer wet laboratory, and others would like to major in modeling or visual designing…… We not only shared basic knowledge of synthetic biology, lab skills and safety rules with them in our mini-class, but also achieved a lot from them- discussing ethic and law issues in regard to advanced technology. What impressed us most is their passion on practice with their own hands. The knowledge they’ve learnt in class inspired fantastic ideas, while we provide a stage to help them realize. Welcome, new iGEMers! It’s a really successful try, and we did help our next generation not only know about iGEM and synthetic biology but assist them to become one of us, to make them enjoy the interest of it. Now, a promising iGEM team is coming into formation and we will also support them theoretically and practically. The world is changing. Except this, we were also invited to Shanghai Shixi High School, a famous high school to deliver a lecture named Synthesis + Biology = Synthetic Biology to expand their view. University: iGEM club During our summer vacation, we attended a sharing meeting with BIOS (Biology Intensive Orientation Summer) students who were learning basic biological technique to discuss our project and absorb positive opinion to polish our STEP system. Despite their relatively poor experience in research, but their fancy thoughts did inspire us and make our project more charming. In Fudan University, iGEM exists as a club. In this semester’s giant meeting of all clubs, iGEM has attracted much attention from students of all majors and some showed great interest in iGEM. Through our introduction, they had a deeper understanding of iGEM and synthetic biology and got deeply fascinated by the idea. It’s predictable that next year, there will be more students fond of synthetic biology taking part in iGEM to share the fun. Are you attracted by our mascot on the poster? It’s a set of "Tuanzi"（团子）！Really cute , aren’t they? Each represents one of our team member and instructor. Pipette, protein, E.coli, culture medium, camera, computer engineering… As part of our team culture, Tuanzi are our little bonus, for us and for other iGEMers. They were printed on sweaters and key rings, delivered to friends, instructors and others who gave us a hand during our preparation. Also we will bring them to Giant Jamboree. Thanks to them, more and more people come to know our team, realizing that iGEM involves more than wet-lab students. No matter what you are responsible for- human practice, modeling, art design and so on- we wish to express gratitude to every member’s effort in iGEM. As a cutting-edge therapy, cellular immunology is really a hot spot. Mostly people only know it by the media, but hardly understand how it works. To make the public get acquaintance with the STEP system and how it comes to our mind, an animated video was created. Producing a video helps us reflect on the whole project design as well as plays an educational role.

What’s the connection between porcelain and STEP? We came to a workshop and made a STEP plate with our own hands. As a traditional Chinese art, it contains philosophy from our ancestor. Round and smooth, the porcelain plate serves people as a container, while it would easily hurt us when broken into pieces. Just like our system, it’s never easy to create one and make it serve the public for the right purpose.