Team:XJTU-China/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
Overview
Beyond the lab, iGEM is a synthetic biology competition whose one major goal is to spread all around the world creativity and engineering possibilities that biology can offer to address and solve current problems. Education and public engagement embodies this policy and encourages us to share this knowledge to people by teaching, exchanging and engaging. To achieve this goal, we think Scientific and rational education and participation in communication are the best ways to raise people's awareness and let the public get close to science. That is what we tried to accomplish through different Science popularization activities and contributions.
Basic Education
Laboratory Open Day: Bacterial Painting
For our project we have a science camp on synthetic biology. One of the most interesting activities is Bacterial Painting. We used solid-state medium as the "paper" for painting, using heat-activated, IPTG-activated expression of RFP, GFP, and BFP as luminescent proteins. We also invited the school's professors to give a lecture on aseptic handling and microbes before the event began.
In this way, we showed the infinite possibilities and fun of IGEM competition and synthetic biology to the students in the lower grades. At the same time, they also like to have a broader exchange and discussion with us. The proximity with us allowed them to communicate and ask many questions around fields of study in biology and jobs.
In addition to this, we also had a remote interaction with TUST's IGEMers to promote team and team communication.
Teaching in Mawu Primary School
Mawu Primary School is a very common public elementary school in Xi'an with limited teaching resources. In order to give children a chance to get to the field of synthetic biology earlier, we volunteered to go there for a simple tutorial. We showed them bacteria in a way that was shown in a drawing and a model, letting them understand that small bacteria are a perfect small factory for a variety of tasks. In the classroom, they are eager to ask for knowledge and raise their hands frequently. We did achieve the purpose of our trip by answering questions and getting them to participate actively. In the communication with the children we taught them some simple biological knowledge, they taught us to expand our thinking, and we can make the road in IGEM wider and wider.
Questionaire on Sweeteners
For this part，We received a total of 1121 questionnaires. Because the trend of diabetes is becoming younger and younger and young people are more adaptable to online questionnaires, most of the people we surveyed are young people. Such choices do not affect the accuracy of our findings, as older people's knowledge of diabetes and most of the prevention knowledge are derived from related young people. Young people are also more able to express their own subjective opinions in the survey, and are not affected by other non-professional speech.
After analysis, we found that everyone buys things subjectively without choosing sweeteners, and they all want their food to have sugar but energy is low enough. Although D-psicose is a kind of natural sugar, there are less person know this sugar. We know that D-psicose is a natural sugar with a sweetness of 70%-80% of sucrose but very low energy, which has a good effect on diabetes. So, when we ask, if D-psicose is added to the food, if you are willing to try, more than half of them choose to. We believe that the outlook for D-psicose in food will be very good.
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1. Here are some sweeteners, which one are you familiar with?
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2. Will you notice the sweetener marked on the package, when you buy food?
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3. Do you think the number of sweeteners is higher in cheaper food than that in the same kind?
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4. Here are some common foods, which one do you think have a lot of sweetener?
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5. Do you know any alternatives to white sugar?
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6. Would you like to buy some sugar with low energy and good taste to replace white sugar even though it is more expensive?
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7. Would you mind adding sweeteners to the food?
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8. Do you think sweeteners are harmful to us?
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9. Do you know the difference between real sugar and sugar substitute?
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10. Do you know whether sugar substitute can be added into food separately?
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11. Here are several possible reasons which cause sweetener harmful to us. Which are plausible?
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12. Here are some sugar and sweeteners, Which one can be eaten by diabetic patients?
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13. D-psicose is a nature sugar with low energy and good taste. Would you like to add it into your food or drink?
Communicate with Diabetics
Visiting the Jinqiu Nursing Home and Community
There is a distance between science and the masses most of the time, especially with some older people. In order to make it easy for people of all ages to understand and benefit from our IGEM project, we organized trips to Xi'an Jinqiu Nursing Home and community to visit the elderly and explain their scientific and reasonable eating habits. In this activity, we not only let the old people feel the warm companionship, but also let them have a deeper understanding of the scientific and rational planning and eating life. They may not understand the competition in the field of synthetic biology, but they can feel the benefits of science. From this perspective, our activities are important and meaningful. Our projects can also effectively solve some of the problems they face.
Brochure about Scientific Diet
Since our project is about the production of D-psicose, we think its low calorie and blood sugar lowering function is very meaningful. Diabetes is a high incidence of middle-aged and older people in China and diabetic patients are gradually becoming younger, so we have prepared a small handbook designed and edited by our team. In this handbook, some of the ways and precautions for a scientific and healthy diet are recorded in detail, so that people in need can achieve the goal of health and longevity. The distribution of the manual gives people a better understanding of the importance of life sciences and also makes people understand that our IGEM competition and our projects are far-reaching. We walked into the nursing home, and the old people were very happy because of our company and the manuals they issued. While they have a deeper understanding of diabetes, they also expressed their expectation for the success of our project. From here, our activities are meaningful. This meaning comes not only from the practical handbook, but also from the power to make them aware of cutting-edge technology.
WeChat Official Account
Since the beginning of the IGEM competition, we have realized that many people may not be very familiar with the competition and the field of synthetic biology. So, we created the IGEM WeChat public account of Xi'an Jiaotong University to let the public know about the competition and try to use simple and relevant knowledge to solve problems in life. In our WeChat public account, we not only introduce and promote the IGEM competition and our projects, we also regularly publish articles on the science of synthetic biology to get the public into the life sciences.
At present a total of 20 push issued, the total number of people concerned about 171 people, the highest single-piece push hits 304, pushing the total of all clicks 2526, the average single piece of hits 126 people. The public often conducts comments and discussions under the public account, and we will respond to questions and answers in a timely manner. This proves that the creation of the public has brought us closer to the public and has brought the public and science closer. This fits well with the theme of the IGEM competition that should be combined with public and practical issues.
In addition, we set up a team public post and twitter to communicate with other schools. For example, we emailed the paris-evry 2017 team's experimental design questions and interacted with many school teams on Twitter.
Energy saving and Emission Reduction Creative Competition
Our project is based on a directed evolution of D-psicose synthesis system. Compared with traditional chemical synthesis methods and biosynthesis methods, our method has the advantages of high yield, low energy consumption and low carbon emissions. Therefore, we took this direction as an entry point, expanded our project, participated in the 4th China "Internet +" College Students Entrepreneurship Innovation Contest Finals and the energy conservation and emission reduction competition, achieving good results in the Bronze Award and Excellence Award. By introducing the synthetic ideas of our projects and comparing them with other traditional methods, we have fully demonstrated the superiority of our projects and made more students and teachers aware of the broader use of synthetic biology. The field of synthetic biology is not far from our lives, and in many cases, it is only a bad attempt, and the IGEM competition has given us a platform for a broader attempt.
Summary
Public participation is very important given that the IGEM competition is a competition that was born to solve practical problems. we actively participated in various online and offline communities in order to let the public know. We created the We Chat public number, Twitter, and public mailbox to communicate online with the public and other teams. We have established questionnaires for offline surveys and online international surveys. In addition, we have contributed to the social practice of IGEM competition by offering lectures on synthetic biology science, visiting nursing homes, and issuing health manuals.