Team:UESTC-China/Human Practices

team

"Gene go!"

“Gene go!” was held in Sichuan Science and Technology Museum(SCSTM) on June 17 by UESTC-China and UESTC-Software, which is an event of Education and Public Engagement. We released information on the activities through the platform of SCSTM. Within one day, we received registration forms from more than 300 families, reaching the maximum capacity of the activity.

“Gene go!” including five section, such as DIY classroom, “Cellulose Go” Show, Exploring the micro world etc. We created an atmosphere of synthetic biology, telling them what is iGEM and what we’re doing for the world.

“Gene go!” was appreciated by SCSTM and a lot of parents, they both expected us to hold such a great event next year.

DIY Classroom

a) Making a leaf vein bookmark

Based on cellulose, which plays an important part in our project, we set up our first course called “Making a leaf vein bookmark”. Through the process of making vein bookmarks, the children can easily recognize the toughness of the veins and learn about cellulose which plays an important role in it

b) Making cell model with plasticine

The second course we set up called “Making cell model with plasticine”. We introduced the cell model to children simply and took them to make cell models with plasticine. Under our careful guidance, the children succeeded in making beautiful cell models. After class, the children said they were happy to learn the structure of cell today.

Exploring the micro world

After finishing the course of “Making cell model with plasticine”, we led the children to observe the real cells with microscopes. We also offer different types of slices, taking them to operate the microscope and introduce related knowledge to them.

“Cellulose Go” Stage Play

We have adapted our project “Straw-Degrading Energy E.coli” into a stage play called “Cellulose Go” to explain our project. In the play, our protagonist “Cellulose” is an adventurer who is aiming at exploring ways to change herself into clean energy. But she was prisoned by the big devil, lignin. At this time, 3 warriors from UESTC take their plasmid sword to save the cellulose and help her change into clean energy.

It was a play that combined knowledge and fun. The stage play was so interesting that the children all burst out laughing. We also set some questions after our play to see whether children have learned from it. We were impressed by a girl who not only gave us the right answer of “Why butanol is harmful to bacterial” but also explained her choice perfectly with the plot in our play.

Gene Card

We invited children to play gene card. Children had fun and learned synthetic biology’s basic process and tools in the game. Gene card successfully provoked their interest to synthetic biology.

Learning about iGEM

We have designed several posters about iGEM and Synthetic Biology for exhibition, introducing what is iGEM and what we are doing for changing the world.
High School Education

lab open day

We held a lab open day which attracted students of Chengdu NO.7 middle school. We introduced iGEM to them and showed them around our lab. At last we let them do some basic experiments and they experienced the real life of lab.

Video for the Experimental High School Attached to UESTC：

What is synthetic biology?

What can synthetic biology do?

What filed synthetic biology contributes for?

All answers are in our advertising video for the Experimental High School Attached to UESTC.

Team establishment of Chengdu no. 4 High School：

In order to increase the influence of iGEM in the southwest region and facilitate the participation of iGEM events in the southwest region, some members of the iGEM school team of our university went to Chengdu no. 4 high school for recruitment and publicity. We spread the knowledge of iGEM to them, and answer questions for students who are willing to form a team. With our help, they establish an iGEM team this year.
Our Edutainment Item

Plasmid Rubik

We place a plasmid ring which contains promoter, terminator, target gene and resistant gene on each side of the Rubik, different genes can produce different plasmid ring. It shows more fun and possibility in combination of gene. We hope Plasmid Rubik could help people to learn about synthetic biology as edutainment.

Part：

Promoter：Starting switch for transcription work.

Target gene： The gene we want to express.

Resistance gene：The gene fragment, which is selection marker of the plasmid.

Tools：Environmental-friendly resin, 3D printer

Operation：There is only one goal: making a correct plasmid on every side, no matter what combination it is.

Crazy Lab

Our board game “Crazy Lab” combines our project this year. The “Crazy Lab” describes how we turn the straw into hydrogen and butanol. We design an interesting story to make it more relevant to life. We want to share it with more people, expecting them to know about our project and the fun of synthetic biology.

Gene Card online

“Gene Card online” is a turn-based online card game adapting from our product, “Gene Card”, which is a card game based on synthetic biology and genetic engineering. The game is a turn-based game. Through the game between players, the first to get six different base cards will win the game. It was very popular among iGEMers last year, so we decide to put it online.

Click here to experience the Gene Card

E.mocoli

Using coli as a prototype, we created a series of emoticon similar to Emoji for iGEMers’ daily use. All expressions are drawn by members of UESTC-China and they are still being added. Their inspiration comes from our daily and experiments, even our educational product. And now, we are trying to applying for qualification of putting it on emoticon store such as WeChat and Twitter.
Meet-up

E.mocoli

As the "Southwest Union" (iGEM team in Southwest China exchange seminar, UESTC-China) founder, we actively participate in mutual exchanges and academic discussions on a yearly basis and meet with other research teams in the region so as to seeking for new cooperation and breakthroughs.

This is the 4th Southwest Union which is hosted by SiCAU. The teams participating this year are SiCAU, UESTC-China, UESTC-software and SCU. We make a presentation in our project design and experimental progress, sharing the difficulties we encountered and experience in the project with each other.

Forum with SCU and NWU

We meet up with SCU-China and NWU-CHINA to have a discussion with them in our recent work. We exchange our experience in experiment, Design and Human Practice with each other.

CCiC(Conference of China iGEMer Committee)

This year we have also participated in the 5th CCIC (Conference of China iGEMer Committee), and communicated with other iGEM teams from all over China.

The conference was hosted by Shanghaitech and welcomed more than 480 people from all over the country. Meanwhile, the meeting also invited Ms. Meagan Lizarazo and some well-known scholars in the field of synthetic biology to give us a chance talking with them face to face.

In addition to the presentation and posters, we also shared our experience in Education and Public Engagement these year as a special guest. We made a presentation of our innovative ideas such as gene cards, Emoji-coli, and Plasmid Rubik, which have been warmly welcomed by various teams.
Our work

We made a small video for ourselves to record our daily experiments~