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Education:
The 2024 KCIS Xiugang iGEM aims to solve the issue of global PET plastic pollution. Along with efforts put in the lab to increase the efficiency of bio-recycling methods, we promoted education on the issue and synthetic biology to spread awareness for a more significant impact. We hosted several educational events to spread awareness in the local community and created social media to educate more people with knowledge of plastic and synthetic biology. Several highlights in our education goes to the postcard event, which calls education on an international scale, our educational speeches and workshops, and our social media account.
International iGEM Postcard Exchange by KCIS Xiugang
For the postcard event, we collaborated with teams across the world. Every team shares their project information and the SDGs they are relating to. Teams then translate and display postcards in their local scenes, allowing each team’s projects and SDGs to reach international ranges. We hope that through such displays, audiences worldwide will be able to learn about the various methods by which environmental and sustainability challenges could be tackled. Furthermore, we wish to raise awareness of synthetic biology as a potential solution for everyday problems and promote the iGEM competition.
Click to see the backside of the postcards!
KCIS-Xiugang-Taipei
CCU
VIT Vellore
MSP_iGem
PETabytes_iGem
iiser_tvm
Taipei wego iGem
TEC CEM
UCM spain
UFlorida iGem
igem_cityu - bevatech
At the end, our team created a space with a total of 11 teams’ postcards, creating a total of 46 postcards including translations! Our team’s postcard specifically is translated into a total of 14 languages: English, Mandarin, Indonesian, Cantonese, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Hindi, Malayalam, Polish, Russian, Korean, and Urdu. A total of 14 languages were used throughout all teams, creating a language environment that covers the majority of the world’s population.
Educational Events
Science Fair Educational Event:
Figure 1: Science Fair Presentation Poster
In an annual science fair event at Kang Chiao International School, we prepared a booth with posters and presentations for students, teachers, and parents to learn about our project and project motivations, as well as their interest in our topic. The poster and presentation covered a detailed introduction to the problem, addressing the hazards and current trends. Then, we briefly discussed our experimental design and synthetic biology technology. Lastly, we connect the issues with UNSDGs to justify the project's significance.
At the end of our presentation, listeners have a decent understanding of iGEM and the urgency of global PET pollution. We achieved two main goals from the science fair educational event: First, we increased awareness and initiated discussion on the microplastics issue, explaining how synthetic biology and iGEM could become potential solutions to everyday problems. Second, we surveyed the audience of students and parents to get a better idea of the public perspective on the issue of microplastic hazards and our project. (Click here to learn about the survey results) With the information from the survey, we also learned about common misconceptions about the causes, effects, and hazards relating to microplastics, which helped us design the educational events and campaigns following.
SP side 7th Grade Education Workshop
Figure 2: SP Educational presentation SDGs introduction
Kang Chiao International School has two departments: the IP department and the SP department. The IP side is for international students who plan to study abroad for university. On the other hand, the SP department is for students planning to attend local universities in Taiwan. For that reason, some students in the SP department are less aware of international problems and goals. Therefore, we hosted a session at the conference hall to inform all SP 7th-grade students of our project and the problem we intend to solve. We focused on SDGs, microplastic hazards, and a brief introduction to synthetic biology. Daniel Chen, our team member and leader, had several meetings with the SP staff and teachers, fully considering the intellectual level of the presentation and whether any analogies and jokes would allow these students to understand the content better.
To promote inclusivity, the presentation was presented in Chinese, our first language. More importantly, the SP students only learned biology in Chinese. These efforts not only made sure everyone could understand the severity of the microplastic problem but also made sure everyone understood the potential of synthetic biology. Moreover, it made sure everyone could have access to the knowledge we have quickly without the language barrier. By doing so, these 7th-grade students can get a glimpse of international goals and how synthetic biology can impact real-life problems.
Historically, SP students were less involved in the iGEM team, mostly due to a lack of knowledge of the iGEM team’s existence. By promoting our project in the event, we also hope to increase SP students’ interests in joining the class. This year, however, we have a briefly identical ratio of IP to SP students at school and in our team, which we hope to maintain in the future years.
SP Side 7th Grade Education Workshop Slide
2024 KCIS Xiugang Taipei iGEM X Library Collaboration Workshop:
Figure 3: Our team’s booth presentation
Figure 4: Students listening to our opening presentation
Our goal for this event was to promote the UN SDGs to students at Kang Chiao. Besides the IGEM team at Kang Chiao, there were various student-founded clubs and organizations at Kang Chiao that also discuss significant issues related to the SDGs—such as KC Model United Nations, KC Gin, Insiders Production (a platform for people to express their thoughts freely), KC Health Council, Computer Science Honor Society (with CS Ambassadors from code.org), IURA (a club focused on SDG promotion), Psychsight Youth Psychology Team, and Green 4 Tomorrow (an organization promoting environmental issues). However, not all students at Kang Chiao were aware of these groups. Therefore, we aimed to raise awareness among Kang Chiao students about these organizations and the impactful issues we were addressing by gathering them for an SDGs event.
In this event, each invited group and our IGEM team hosted booths to present the problems we are passionate about and SDGs related to our topics. All students were encouraged to walk around, engage with those groups, and even join them in the future to continue those important works.
A signup to the Junior high students iGEM synergy workshop was also provided in the event. It helped us identify students interested in hands-on experiences, as well as provided additional opportunities to further educate them on the basics of synthetic biology and the SDGs. A total of 11 students signed up for the event, where the details could be seen below in its dedicated section.
The postcards of all teams would also be on display in the library for the following months, allowing students to access the postcards whenever they enter the library and learn more about the variety of projects and problems synthetic biology could solve. The school newspaper also requested an interview to follow up on the event.
Figure 5,6: Postcard and posters display starting from 9/27 for student access
Scroll to see more posters
2024 Kcis Xiugang Taipei iGEM X Library Collaboration Workshop Slide
New team education workshop
The workshop gave the students a brief introduction to what we do in the lab and some basic concepts when cloning. The students also learnt how to use the pipetmans and how to set up the electrophoresis apparatus. At last, the students read the data and analyzed it with our guidance.
Figure 7, 8: Team members lead the new iGEM team on their first SynBio class
We taught our school’s new iGEM team’s first iGEM class. We started by introducing what molecular biology is with memes. It quickly caught the students' attention, and we then talked about what a plasmid is and what cloning means. After having a very brief introduction, we talked about a more detailed plasmid map and started introducing electrophoresis, the experiment we were going to do. After the students wore their safety equipment, we started with how to use the pipetmans. Then we followed the electrophoresis protocol step by step, demonstrating and explaining every step to the students. While waiting for the gel to run, we talked about the mechanisms of gel electrophoresis, how to analyze the data, and compared PCR with in-cell DNA replication.
Lastly, we asked the students some questions about today’s knowledge. We evaluated students’ satisfaction with the lecture and how much they learned by using a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least satisfied/learned and 5 being the most satisfied/learned. According to the survey, 72% of the students rated a 4 and above for how much they learned about molecular biology, 61% of the students rated a 4 and above for how much they learned about PCR, 78% of the students rated a 4 and above for how much they learned about gel electrophoresis. The results showed that their understanding of synthetic biology significantly increased after the education workshop. All students rated a 4 and above on their interest in synthetic biology after the education workshop, showing how the event has prompted more people to pursue an interest in synthetic biology and possibly contribute to the field in the future.
Figure 9: New Team Education Workshop Slide
Junior high students iGEM Synergy Workshop
Figure 10: Students interested front the SDGs event entering the lab
This workshop is specifically designed for junior high students interested in iGEM but don’t have much background in doing molecular biology research. The students first got a brief introduction to molecular biology and cloning, then got an idea of what we really do in the iGEM lab. The students then learnt about how to do bacterial inoculation and the reason to do so. At last, the students learnt about how to use pipetmans and the way to dilute plasmids in the lab which was taught by competing in a “pipetman contest”.
We designed this workshop for the students that came to the SDGs library workshop who wanted to come to our lab and experience what we do in the lab. We started by using a meme about biologists, microbiologists, and molecular biologists to attract everyone’s attention. Then, we talked about what we do in the lab (cloning, testing, and writing), what it means, and why we do those things. After the short introduction, we talked about what bacterial inoculation is and why a we do that. The students then went to wear their safety equipments and we started the experiment. We went with our bacterial inoculation protocol while also discussing why it’s written that way (like the reason for not labeling on the cap or why use this specific technique) with the students. After everyone’s plates were in the incubator, we started teaching them to use the pipetman and explained the rules of our pipetman contest (everyone gets a tube of 50 µl, 1200ng/µl plasmids and the goal is to give us a final concentration of 100 ng/µl, the fast table wins). Because many students hadn’t learned to calculate concentration, we also taught them what concentration means, how to calculate, what m(milli), µ(micro), and n(nano) means, and how to do dilution. All the students were able to add the correct volume of water. At last, we had a little quiz of the lecture where if you get one answer right, you get some cookies.
Instagram Posts
Figure 11: Sample instagram posts from our page
We used our social media account, specifically on instagram, to educate the public on our project and product. After conducting surveys to understand the weak points in public knowledge on the problem of microplastics, we included information specifically dedicated to the identified knowledge weaknesses, such as the sources and effects of microplastics to the environment. The instagram posts have shown success by gaining 8000 views and 115 interactions over a month (addressed to September 2024). On top of that, the instagram posts also call attention to international events such as World Water Day, which increased public awareness on the importance of environmental conservation. It also helped us promote our other educational events, such as the KCIS iGEM x Library SDGs event and the postcards event.
