Team:Worldshaper-XSHS/InterLab
Worldshaper-XSHS's publicity
Worldshaper-XSHS team has participated inthe Fifth International InterLab Measurement Study, Plate Reader and Colony Forming Unit (CFU), from June to August 2018, and uploaded the results twice, in July and August respectively. We followed the official CFU protocol,took the measurement together with another two high school teams: the ASTWS-China team and the HFLS-ZhejiangUnited team.
We feel greatly honored to able to participate in the Interlab study. As a group of high school students, we have learnt a lot from feeling difficult in even reading the protocol at the beginning to finally being able to complete the whole experiment. However, the process really has been extremely difficult.
It took us two months from registering to join in the study on June 20 to eventually being recognized, which is a much longer time than that of many other teams. Joining in the iGEM competition was our first opportunity to come face to face with professional biological knowledge, upon which we realized that we lacked in both technical knowledge and experimental skills. In order to do a better job, we started preparing for Interlab early. We urged our group members to study the protocol carefully and thoroughly, confirm the materials and equipment for the experiment and practice the various experimental skills in advance. In this process, we encountered a lot of difficulties, all of which were solved, fortunately. For example, during the study of the protocol, we didn’t know how to prepare the serial dilution of Microspheres in a more evenly way, what the differences between OD600 and Abs600 are as well as how to dilute the bacterial solutions to a specific OD value. Fortunately, our laboratory is located in the College of Life Science of Zhejiang University, which gives us the convenience in consulting with the graduate students Qiu Yue and Lei Zhaoying. Under their explanation and guidance, we got a grasp of the specific steps. Another example is in terms of experimental conditions. We did not have plate readers in our lab. Luckily, we eventually borrowed one from other labs in the College of Life Science with the help of our mentor. Yet, the greatest difficulty comes from the actual operations in the experiment. In high school study, we never had the opportunity to see such complex instruments and equipment, let alone to use them. But thanks to the guidance of Dr. Huang Fangliang and the partnership with ASTWS-China and HFLS-ZhejiangUnited, we worked together by learning from each other and helping each other and thus the experiment was finally successfullystarted.
We started our first experiment on July 15. But due to the fact that it was our fisrt experience, we spent a total of 6 daysfrom the beginning plasmid transfection to the completion of colony counting. While we were praying in our mind nervously to pass the review after submitting the results online,we received the following reply from Mrs. Traci Haddock-Angelli on July 30: Your submission is not yet acceptable for fulfillment of the bronze medal requirement. In the reply, she kindly pointed out the reason, which was that the values of our fluorescence and OD measurements for cell samples were not within the values of the standard curvesfor fluorescence and OD. The organizing committee hoped that we could repeat the standard curves, the cell measurements, or both. So, we reflected on the entire experimental process, the only thing we could think of was that we waited for more than one hour before the measurement of fluorescence intensity, resulting in probable partial bacterial proliferation that elevated the expression offluorescent proteins. We had to wait because at that time the plate reader was not preheated and there were a lot of people waiting to use the device. So, we decided to strictly control the time during the next experiment and to never make mistakes again on this same issue. We are especially thankful to the help of ASTWS-China and HFLS-ZhejiangUnited for their help and advice during the summary of our first experiment, and for the bacteria strain they provided for our second measurement.
We started our second experiment on August 15. Upon finishing the experiment, after we checked the data in the table carefully and confirmed that all of our fluorescence and OD measurements for cell samples were within the values of the standard curves for fluorescence and OD, we submitted the results to the organizing committee. Unfortunately, on August 20, we received a message from Mr. Vinoo Selvarajah, which put us in a mixed state of feeling. On the one hand, our results were still not ideal. He said “your new data also have an issue: some of your devices have lower raw fluorescence readings at the hour 6 than at hour 0, even though they grew. Additionally, while within the range, some cells show similar fluorescence to the highest concentration of Fluorescein tested.” On the other hand, our efforts were recognized. He said “however, given the time remaining, your current works and effort on the InterLab would be sufficient for the medal criteria (Bronze criteria #4)”! We also did a reflection on our own experimental results this time and figured out several possibilities: 1) The impurities in the bacterial solution has resulted in the low fluorescence values; 2) The bacterial load during inoculating was too small, resulting in insufficient concentration of bacteria; 3) Possible operational errors due to unskilled experimental techniques, etc. Unfortunately, time is limited on our hands now because our summer vacation is about to end and we have a lot of other experiments that are yet to be done. So, we have to put these possibilities on hold so that we can rule out one by one when we have the time in the future.
With these ups and downs, we have gained a deeper understanding of Interlab and iGEM, as well as the sentence "measurement is fundamental toeverything we do". After all, every iGEMer is a seeker of the ultimate and only in this pursuit of the ultimate spirit can we make the iGEM more and more amazing!
Advertising our project
In order to advertise the IGEM competition as well as promote the knowledge of synthetic biology, our team popularized the knowledge of second-hand smoke to all kinds of people. The problem of second-hand smoke would be solved by using technology about synthetic biology. Ⅰ. WeChat——worldshaperXSHS
1.Our official account
As the second team participating in the IGEM competition of Xiaoshan High School, we continued to develop the current team, WorldshaperXSHS, rather than recreate it.
FIG.1 logo of iGEM team in Xiaoshan High School
FIG.2 public account WeChat
The content mainly introduced the team：the working progress of the wet team, dry team, and the publicity for human activities
FIG. 3 careful study of synthetic biology
FIG. 4 popular science knowledge among children
Ⅱ. Xiaoshan High School official website
The official website of Xiaoshan High School and the official account of WeChat have pushed our news to help expand the popularity of IGEM. The IGEM project also gave great support and affirmation.ies
FIG.5、FIG.6 Xiaoshan High School website
Ⅲ. Educational publicity of social practice
On May 19, we went to the Zhejiang Technology Market to participate Technology week in order to advertise the products of synthetic biology. On the one hand, we introduced iGEM and took the research result of last year's Worldshaper-XSHS, which includes synthetic biology. On the other hand, we proposed a project proposal and analyzed the harm of second-hand smoke to our healthy. To further develop our projects, we handed out more than 200 electronic questionnaires to Learn about public attitudes to secondhand smoke. Visitors were also willing to support our activities. The results showed that the majority of respondents were inevitably exposed to the second-hand smoke due to work or family environment. According to the field interview, we knew that most of people are only familiar with disadvantages of second-hand smoking, but they did not understand how it works and how to dispose it. We got very comprehensive feedback from the questionnaire, and our assumption also provided great help to the society. This is the first time that we made a public presentation in the society, which contained great educational value by helping the public to learn synthetic biology. At the same time, we also attained beneficial from it, determining our research topic.
Education
During the summer vacation, we worked together with other IGEM teams.Held in the science and technology museum, the activity opened up to primary and secondary school students; The activity included fun games, prized competition, and so on. The targets were draw public attention to IGEM and synthetic biology as well as inspire students' interests to biological science. Ⅰ.Low-carbon Science Museum
On August 5, we carried out the first popular science activity at the low-carbon science museum in Hangzhou, China.
Figure 7 the first education popular science activity
Figure 8 parents and children are full of praise for our popular science activities
Figure 9 the first presentation successfully concludes
Ⅱ.Science and Technology Museum in Zhejiang, China.
On August 19, we carried out the second popular science activity at the science and technology museum in Zhejiang, China. This education science popularization went well with prizes provided. Parents and children highly evaluated our activities. This education campaign brought happiness and knowledge to children. It brought the recognition of IGEM to parents; and taught people more knowledge about second-hand smoke; furthermore, it enhanced our confidence. I firmly believe that Xiao’s IGEM will bring us more knowledge and aids to the society.
Figure 10 second publicity activity
Figure 11 the second presentation is successfully concluded
The iGEM club in our school
EB Club in Xiaoshan High School, Zhejiang Province
Xiaoshan High School held a 80 anniversary celebration and invited outstanding alumni from all over the world in October 6. There were many exhibitions in the festival, but our advertisement was the most appealing one. Our team introduced many biological devices to alumni, and prepared many simple experiments like chlorophyll extraction, wall separation observation, cell mitosis observation, and so on. moreover, we've introduced IGEM competition to our alumni and showed our subject—using synthetic biology to detect nicotine. Everyone embraced with strong curiosity, consulting “what the various equipment is”, “what did we use, how to cultivate bacteria in the experiment”, and “how to build plasmid”. This presentation was held in the celebration of the festival, which was gained wide attention. Not only the alumni learned from our project, but also the students learned a lot about synthetic biology.
TO Top
Social Support
EB Club in Xiaoshan High School, Zhejiang Province
Crowd funding
During the summer vacation, we launched an online crowdfunding project through the easy fundraising platform, which is mainly aimed at teachers, students, parents, friends, and social related people who support us. The crowdfunding project carried out in 2017 has been widely praised. We are grateful for their support and appreciation, but we still haven’t achieved our goal. Nonetheless, our team sticks to the spirit of preciseness as well as work meticulously.
With our in-depth study and the help of public, we succeeded in becoming a fund-raising target of 20,000 yuan. We are grateful to those who have recognized and supported our work, which bring great encouragement to us.
We have just completed the fundraising goal of 20,000 for the purchase of laboratory equipment that provided great convenience for our experiment
Figure 12 the online crowdfunding project.