Team:SMS Shenzhen/Public Engagement
1.WeChat Official Account
1) What’s WeChat official account?
WeChat is now the most popular app in China with 1.04 Billion monthly active WeChat users globally (Source: Tencent Biznext, 2018). We registered a WeChat official account: when we send messages, people who follow our accounts will see the update information in the subscription area.
We are the only team in China that use our WeChat official account to introduce our Synthetic Biology project in detail (Other teams always only introduce their projects briefly). Our articles are also the best in quality and quantity.
2) What can we do with subscription account?
We send our articles regularly. Articles include introductions to Synthetic Biology, iGEM Competition, our team, and our project.
3) How does it relate to the public?
People can know more about our team and the scientific knowledge in our articles. It is easy to follow us on WeChat, just scanning a QR Code or searching for our team’s name. People can glance over our articles in their spare time and share our articles on the “moments,” a function in WeChat that would allow all of their friends to see our work. If people appreciate our work, they can click the "like" button or discuss on the discussion board under our article. We would reply and answer their questions dedicatedly in the discussion board.
4) What do we achieve?
For all the articles we sent, hundreds of people read them and click the “like” button. When a new article comes out, our friends and classmates are pleased to share these articles on their “moment.” Since we use a lively and interesting tone to share our knowledge of Synthetic Biology, most people appreciate our works and are willing to share these articles.
Most importantly, our official account recently became a Verified Original Official Account in Science, an honorary title which is hard to get, indicating that our account provides high-quality-original popular science articles.
2.Establishing the Biology Club in Shenzhen Middle School (SMS)
1) Why did we establish the Biology Club?
Being one of the most successful high schools on iGEM competition, we have always been trying to add more element of synthetic biology in our school. From managing to set a synthetic biology lab at school to giving lecture to all the freshmen about iGEM annually, we have increased the influence of both synthetic biology and iGEM in our school continuously. This year, we succeeded in applying a biology club at school, which majorly focuses on synthetic biology. Also, we believe that this activity would let more students know about Synthetic Biology and iGEM competition. We hope that they will grow an interest in life science and become passionate about it.
2) What did we do?
We organize various activities such as giving lectures frequently, holding the iGEM forum, organizing synthetic biology lab tour, and provoking individual projects. All the members of Biology Club visited our lab and listened to our introduction to our project. We also taught them about some of the knowledge in synthetic biology which they would understand. Additionally, we taught them some basic experimental skills like how to use pipettes.
