Introduction

Participating in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses is a valuable opportunity. Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that education is a fundamental right, there are still many barriers preventing people from equally participating in scientific researches, such as gender, language, ethnicity and socioeconomic background and so on. This inequality limits the potential of science, as diverse teams are often able to bring innovative solutions.

If the dissemination and exchange of scientific results can not cover all populations, the development of science is incomplete. Our goal is to make scientific achievements more accessible. Obviously, there is still a long way to go.

We analyzed the groups with barriers to STEM participation. They are affected by various objective factors, mainly including the following four parts:

Inclusive Education

Age Inclusive

Although synthetic biology is an emerging research hotspot in recent years, the public, especially students, do not have much understanding and recognition of synthetic biology. For example, within the CAU-China team, most people didn't know anything about synthetic biology until college. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary to popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology to students of all ages. Based on this, we carried out science popularization education of synthetic biology for students across various age groups, including kindergarten, primary school, middle and high school. We also adjusted our courses to appropriate level of complexity in order to match their respective understanding stages.

(See SDG 4 - Quality Education for more details)

Region inclusive

In China, although compulsory education has been widely popularized, there are still great differences in educational resources and educational popularization between urban and rural areas, different regions and different provinces. This year, the volunteer teaching of CAU-China covered many provinces and regions around China, including many cities and rural areas.

(See SDG 4 - Quality Education for more details)

Facts prove that our conjecture before volunteer teaching is correct. Children of similar ages from urban and rural regions across different regions often show notable disparities in their understanding of fundamental STEM concepts, which can be attributed to variations in their educational experiences. The essential reason for this difference is the unequal distribution of educational resources.

Although our efforts are insignificant, we believe that we must accumulate again and again in order to bring the spark of knowledge into the areas where education resources are lacking. Finally, we believe that the inclusiveness of education resources in space will be realized.

Special Groups

We paid attention to the DHA and EPA produced by our project, which have positive therapeutic significance for various mental diseases. So focused on people with mental disorders, such as Eating disorder, Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD and Alzheimer (See SDG 10 - Reduce Inequalities for more details).

Communication with special groups is a serious matter. The key is not only to help them, but to make more people aware of the existence of these groups. So before our actions, we consulted Teacher Zhou Mi, a psychologist from the Chinese Psychological Society (See more details in iHP part), in order to understand the methods and precautions to communicate with special groups, hoping that our work can be more scientific and more effective.

Gender Equality

In the field of science, there is still prejudice that women are at a disadvantage. In fact, there is great potential for women in science. In recent years, more and more women have broken the stereotypes and got involved in science. However, according to Zambrano, by 2023, women will only make up 28 percent of the STEM workforce.

"She Power, She Universe"

On March 8, International Women's Day, we held a special event "She Power She Universe" to let everyone see the power of women.

We invited female researchers to write a nice message to "her" on the letter paper, take away another "her" message, passing on "her blessing" and "her power" in this way.

We also invite female teachers to join the iGEM laboratory for a moss micro-landscape terrarium workshop. By assembling by hand, they create a delicate miniature world, adding a touch of green to their busy lives (Figure 5).

The Elderly

Aging populations represent an increasingly significant global issue. However, the elderly can still provide guidance to the younger generation through their experiences and wisdom. By sharing their knowledge and life experiences, they can help shape societal values and principles. Therefore, we focuses on the elderly community, hoping that society will pay attention to this group and also leverage their wisdom and experience.

Anti-counterfeit propaganda of health care products

On September 12th, we visited the Jianguomen Community in Chaoyang District, Beijing, to conduct a lecture on health product literacy and the principles of synthetic biology in health product production for the elderly residents. After our explanation, some elderly people asked questions about the nutritional effects of health products such as sea cucumber and bird's nest, questioning whether they are as effective as advertised on the market. We used our professional knowledge to answer these questions (For more details, see SDG 4 Quality Education).

Finally, we introduced our team project: using synthetic biology to modify rhizobia to produce the main component of the health product, fish oil. Many seniors were curious about our project, raised doubts about the idea of rhizobia producing fish oil, and expressed their affirmation for our efforts. They hope we can create a low-cost and innovative soy health product for them (Figure 6).

References

1. Kidd P. M. (2007). Omega-3 DHA and EPA for cognition, behavior, and mood: clinical findings and structural-functional synergies with cell membrane phospholipids. Alternative medicine review : a journal of clinical therapeutic, 12(3), 207–227.
2. Zambrano, J. (2023). The Gender Gap in STEM | MIT Professional Education. https://professionalprograms.mit.edu/blog/leadership/the-gender-gap-in-stem/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20gender%20gap