As mentioned in Mencius, the wise enlighten others through their own clarity; today, those who are confused can also enlighten others. This underscores the importance of self-education before educating others. We realize that understanding knowledge from the perspective of learners is essential for effective education. Thus, while conducting our educational activities this year, we focuse on exploring the needs of our target audience and developing the educational skills of our members.
According to Bandura's Social Cognitive Career Theory, SCCT, early exposure to high-quality science education can enhance students' career-related self-efficacy, potentially influencing their future career choices and involvement in the scientific field.
However, we are concerned that directly designing courses for younger children from the perspective of undergraduates may not adequately meet their expectations. Therefore, we decided to gradually expand our educational focus to younger age groups.
So, our goal is to inspire students across all educational stages in China, planting the seeds of synthetic biology within schools, so they can consider this field in their future career paths and interests.
Education for University Students
📅 Date: Nov.11, 2023
🗣️ Organizers: Ziming Suo, Kexin Zheng, Xujie Tan, Ruiwen Ma, Hongcheng Chen
👥 Audience: Public in Fudan University
Our team secured two booths at the Starry Sky Academic Culture Festival at Fudan University to showcase synthetic biology and our project. During this event, we enthusiastically introduced synthetic biology concepts and information about iGEM to undergraduate and graduate students. We also gained insights into effective educational approaches and the appropriate complexity of popular science for higher education students, laying a solid foundation for future educational initiatives. This experience also helped our team members refine their presentation skills and abilities.
However, during the activities, we realized that our team members' proficiency in synthetic biology knowledge was not sufficient to effectively carry out our educational initiatives. Therefore, we decided to participate in Education Forum and conduct internal training to learn and enhance education skills.
Details about the Education Forum
Some members of the team participated in the Expedition Education Forum, an exchange event aimed at providing better educational services to disadvantaged groups in society. Our team representative spoke, shared our goals and vision—to provide accessible synthetic biology knowledge to people across all educational stages. We also objectively highlighted the challenges we face in engaging students and the complexity of the material, which garnered enthusiastic support and guidance from the attending professional education teams.
Problem | Feedback |
---|---|
How to attract listeners? | Understand your listeners first. Only by that can you engage their interest. |
What if synthetic biology is too difficult for listeners? | Then make it easy. Pictures, mini games, story telling... Any vivid forms. |
Do some disadvantaged groups really need knowledge of synthetic biology? | That should be determined by themselves. What we do is to give them opportunity. |
Other advice? | The essence of education means that: one tree shakes another tree, one cloud pushes another cloud, and one soul awakens another soul. |
During discussions in 4 sub-forums, we learned an important educational principle — supply and demand balance. Following this principle, the knowledge we provided should meet the needs of students/audiences. Additionally, learner-centered education is crucial. We need more understanding and adaptation when addressing diverse and unique learners. Each roundtable discussion sparked educational ideas, and our team members not only gained teaching skills but also embraced the responsibility that comes with education.
Further Explosion for Higher Education Students
📅 Date: Nov.20, 2023
🗣️ Organizers: Yuhan Wang, Kexin Zheng, Xujie Tan, Xueting Chen
👥 Audience: Exchange students in Fudan University
To building a collaborative world, international exchange and understanding among global youth are important.
After we graduated from the Education Forum, we carried out our second round education practice with international students on our campus, aiming to enhance the universality and readability of educational tools. Exchange students from countries and regions including Indonesia, Germany, Slovakia, Morocco, Norway, Macau, Singapore, and Nipple participated in this event, greatly contributing to our understanding of education. This experience laid the groundwork for adapting our upcoming illustrated educational tools into multiple languages.
After this event, we were pleased to see a significant improvement in our team members' understanding of education, as well as a further enhancement of their communication skills. With this progress, we moved forward to promote synthetic biology knowledge to high school students in China.
Education for High School Students
📅 Date: Mar.3, 2024
🗣️ Organizers: Yuhan Li, Kexin Zheng, Xujie Tan, Wanqi Li, Hongcheng Chen, Kevin Qi
👥 Audience: High school students from all over China
By collaborating with the State Key Laboratory of Genetics Engineering, we invited high school students from across China to participate in a summer camp at Fudan University focused on understanding biological sciences. During the camp, we guided the students on a tour of the campus and biology labs, culminating in a roundtable discussion where we aimed to learn about their perceptions of synthetic biology and provide educational outreach.
In the discussion, we found that high school students' understanding of synthetic biology could cover the basics, especially if they had taken high school biology courses. They expressed more interest in the research aspects of synthetic biology. They eager to participate some kind daily lab work, which could help them clarify their aspirations when choosing majors in college. This points to a future collaboration between synthetic biology education and high school students' career planning.
After thoroughly understanding the expectations and needs of high school students, we visited the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Educational Base in Shanghai, China, to offer another group of high school students a more comprehensive career experience.
📅 Date: Apr.10, 2024
🗣️ Organizers: Yuhan Li, Kexin Zheng, Xujie Tan, Wanqi Li, Hongcheng Chen
👥 Audience: Students in AnTing High School
Building on the roundtable discussion, we gained a clearer understanding of how to conduct education aimed at high school students. To stimulate their interest, we collaborated with the Science Popularization Education Base at Shanghai Jiaotong University to plan a career experience event for high school students from Anting Middle School. The activities included a GMO lecture, a tour of genetically modified rice fields, and a sharing session on synthetic biology, planting the seeds of synthetic biology in their minds.
Education for Junior Students and Pupils
After conducting educational practices for high school students, we decided to expand our outreach to students in China's compulsory education system.
📅 Date: Apr.23, 2024
🗣️ Organizers: Xujie Tan
👥 Audience: Students in Shizuishan Experimental Junior Middle School
First, we visited Shizuishan Experimental Junior Middle School in Ningxia, a region known for its ethnic diversity and perceptions of being underdeveloped. Before preparing this course, we conducted thorough research to express our specialized knowledge in as simple a manner as possible. In addition to bringing picture books, we prepared dynamic teaching materials and origami games.
However, during the on-site teaching, we realized that the proliferation of the internet has improved information exchange in what we once thought were isolated areas. The children are no longer constrained by local economic conditions and educational resources; they can now share the same perspectives as those from more developed regions. This prompted us to rethink the meaning of education. If these children can now easily see the outside world, perhaps the true purpose of education lies in teaching them how to explore the world and understand synthetic biology knowledge on their own.
📅 Date: 9.3, 2024
🗣️ Organizers: Xujie Tan, Yuhan Wang, Ruiwen Ma
👥 Audience: Students in Shanghai Shangde Experimental School
Building on our progressively refined education system, we further expanded our target audience to elementary school students. Thus, we visited Shanghai Shangde Experimental School to deliver a series of science education courses. In the classroom, the children displayed a strong interest in and ability to learn about synthetic biology. This strongly validated the effectiveness of our educational strategies and provided valuable insights for future endeavors.
Education for Kindergarten
📅 Date: 9.20, 2024
🗣️ Organizers: Xujie Tan, Yuhan Wang, Ruiwen Ma
👥 Audience: Kids in Shijiazhuang Huihua University Affiliated Kindergarten
Finally, as an innovative attempt to explore the boundaries of education, we reached out to Shijiazhuang Huihua University Affiliated Kindergarten and prepared a set of engaging science education courses for the young children. This experience validated the universality and maturity of our education system.
Our Ground for Future‘s Building On
去年做了什么 今年改进了什么 As we advanced our educational work, we improved a picture book as a science education tool for all educational levels. We designed an educational kit 这是什么,下面的pdf不是toolbox called the Picture Book Toolbox,
which includes story-driven content, maze activities, "find the difference" games, origami templates, and visual experiment diagrams to enhance the appeal of the picture books. Additionally, this toolkit can be easily adapted for similar courses in our future endeavors, allowing for flexible modifications. The vividly illustrated English picture books successfully fulfilled their mission in classes for middle school, elementary school, and kindergarten students!
Summary
In summary, our education initiative began with educating ourselves, equipping team members with ample specialized knowledge and teaching skills, and firmly advancing the strategy of tailored education plans for our target audiences. We also believe that introducing synthetic biology knowledge at a younger age could increase the likelihood of these children actively seeking to understand and participate in synthetic biology research in the future.
Therefore, during the main phase of our education efforts, we covered all educational stages in China—from university students to high schoolers, compulsory education students, and kindergarten children. We identified different focal points for each group.
For university students, we emphasized the exploration of interdisciplinary applications of synthetic biology.
For high school students, we focused on hands-on research to help them explore potential career paths.
For middle school students, we prioritized explaining the principles of synthetic biology and interpreting everyday phenomena to enhance their self-awareness and understanding of the world.
For kindergarten children, we emphasized the engaging aspects of synthetic biology to plant a seed of interest in the field.