1. Overview of education
There is a Chinese idiom called "individualize the teaching approach to each person's aptitude, personality and interest", which means that we need to design different teaching programs for different individuals. NJU-China agrees with this view and has organized a variety of educational activities for different age groups. We allow children and adults to learn synthetic biology through hands-on practice with fun, achieving our goal of spreading the flame of synthetic biology around the world. Here are the highlights of our events:
1. In our educational activities, we use three-fold pages, clay, comics and other novel ways to convey synthetic biology knowledge in a more interesting way.
2. A total of 300+ people participated in our Star Bazaar. We let participants with non-synthetic biology backgrounds understand the various possibilities of synthetic biology through various forms such as drawing and answering questions.
3. We found that the development of synthetic biology in northern Jiangsu was insufficient, so we went to Suqian City in northern Jiangsu to carry out volunteer teaching activities. We let rural children experience activities such as AI experience activities and making yeast models with clay, which launched their original desire to learn synthetic biology and helped the development of synthetic biology in northern Jiangsu.
4. For high school students, we taught them the cutting edge knowledge of synthetic biology. Through using Freshman mode by themselves, students intuitively felt the charm and potential of synthetic biology design.
5. We noticed that new biology majors do not understand synthetic biology as a branch of biology, so we invited 30+ biology freshmen to participate in a synthetic biology seminar, which may influence their future career choices.
6. We bring biology-related comic books and coloring cards to sick children in hospitals, illuminating their dull and lonely treatment with color and knowledge.
7. We promote synthetic biology and our projects on wechat, bilibili and other social media platforms, so that more non-biological practitioners can be exposed to synthetic biology and spread the knowledge of synthetic biology more quickly.
2.Starlight Bazaar - Creative activities for all ages
On the evening of May 18, NJU-China participated in the Nanjing University's Starlight Bazaar. NJU-China actively interacts with the participating retired teachers, active teachers, their family members and students to share knowledge with them of synthetic biology and popularize the importance of synthetic biology.We carried out a charity sale and sold dozens of handbags, badges and creative hand-painted stickers, with a total revenue of over 400 yuan. In the volunteer teaching activity we participated in July, we used all the proceeds of the charity sale to buy cultural creations and gifts for children in Suqian.
In total, hundreds of participants participated in our mini-game, "Design the creature you most want to create." Through this activity and our speech, we let more abiotic background teachers and students understand what synthetic biology is, and also planted biological kindling for many children who may participate in the field of life science in the future. This is in line with our team spirit "Prometheus" - the transmission of the fire of life to humanity.
3.Volunteer teaching in Suqian -- Open up the vision of rural children
From July 6th to July 9th, we went to Yuelai Town, Suqian City to carry out a four-day volunteer teaching activity. We discussed artificial intelligence, medical applications of synthetic biology with the kids, and introduced them to synthetic biology through our Prometheus model.Using clay as an innovative teaching aid, we led the children to learn the structure of yeast and let them create their dream creatures.The following is our volunteer teaching diary."
July 6 Weather: Cloudy to light rain Recorded by: Shiyuan Chen
At 7:30 am on July 6, we set out for Yuelai Town, Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. After a more than four hours' journey, we arrived at Yuelai nine-year school in Shuyang County. The children warmly welcome us.
Today is the first day of volunteer teaching. We introduce synthetic biology and artificial intelligence to two classes in Grade 7, and hold the "Synthetic Biology and Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Competition" In addition, we also discussed the application scenarios and advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence with the students, and the students also propose the application of artificial intelligence in biology and medicine, such as the application of artificial intelligence robots in tumor treatment.
July 7 Weather: Heavy rain Recorded by: Zecheng Guan
Today is our clay activity day. In the morning, we have clay lessons for Grade 7 students. We learned that they had studied the cellular structure of animal cells and plant cells last semester, so we wanted to conduct a special clay lesson for them, using the model organism of our experiment, yeast. We explained to the students the cell structure and application of yeast, and taught them to create yeast cell models with clay.
In the afternoon, in the sixth grade class, we asked them to imagine that you have a technology that allows you to modify creatures at will, to create their dream creatures out of clay. Some students created colorful fish and flowers, and we briefly introduced synthetic biology technology to them, encouraging them that they can use synthetic biology technology to realize their dreams.
July 8 Weather: Fog Recorded by: Yourong Shi
Today is the third day of volunteer teaching. In the first two days of volunteer teaching, we learned that only a small number of children used large language model and AI painting before, so we decided to take them to experience large language model and AI painting today. We encounter some problems during the experience, such as their teaching multimedia could not be connected to the network. We solved this problem by using our own laptop to connect to a personal hotspot. The children surround Feng He and actively discuss with him about AI. We have also guided the kids through our Prometheus model and we are gald to use our team's own model to teach the kids about biology and AI.
July 9 Weather: Cloudy Recorded by: Feng He
Today, the theme of our lesson is "Insects and plants -- our good friends". I introduce the children to common plants and insects such as butterflies, beetles, cockroaches and so on. The children are excited to see some familiar insects. After class, the children talk with us about biology and ecology. I am surprised that they know so much.
Today is also the last day of volunteer teaching, we will leave here soon. Although very reluctant, we are still happy to bring cutting-edge and interesting knowledge to rural children. Just like the spirit of Prometheus, we hope to spread the flame of education to every corner.
During the volunteer teaching process, NJU-China found that it was difficult for people without a background in synthetic biology to use our model, which could lead to a sense of intimidation and resistance towards synthetic biology. Therefore, we developed Freshman mode for our model to promote synthetic biology among people without background in biology by utilizing our model.
4.Danyang Senior High School Synthetic Biology Lecture - Expose high school students to cutting-edge biology knowledge
On August 15, NJU-China successfully held a unique lecture on synthetic biology in Danyang Senior High School, which not only deepened the high school students' cognition of cutting-edge science and technology, but also stimulated their strong interest in scientific exploration and infinite imagination. The activity was led by Zecheng Guan, who brought a scientific feast to the teachers and students with his profound academic skills and vivid explanations.
At the beginning of the lecture, Zecheng Guan took the basic principles of synthetic biology as the starting point, and explained this complex and cutting-edge scientific field through vivid cases and clear logic. He introduced in detail the research scope and core technology of synthetic biology, as well as its wide application and significant contribution in the fields of medicine, agriculture, environmental protection, etc., so that every high school student present can feel the huge driving force of synthetic biology for the development of modern society.
At the climax of the lecture, Guan introduced Prometheus model, a large language model of synthetic biology independently developed by our team. This innovative achievement not only shows the profound accumulation and forward-looking vision of NJU-China in the field of synthetic biology, but also provides a rare experience opportunity for on-site teachers and students.By using the model by themselves, the students intuitively felt the charm and potential of designing bioparts, and expressed their expectations and aspirations for the future development of technology.
After the lecture, the atmosphere was still warm, and the students actively asked Zecheng Guan questions about the technical details of synthetic biology, the future development trend, ethics and other aspects. Guan's patient solution not only deepened the students' understanding of synthetic biology, but also encouraged them to explore the unknown and actively participate in the scientific career. At the same time, the students also put forward valuable suggestions for the improvement of Prometheus model, which provides an important reference for the further optimization and perfection of the model.
The successful holding of this synthetic biology lecture not only opened a door to the future world of science and technology for the teachers and students of Danyang Senior High School, but also stimulated their enthusiasm and dreams for scientific exploration. Through close contact with cutting-edge technology, students not only increased their knowledge, but also broaden their horizons, laying a solid foundation for their future study and career planning.
5.Popular science interview - Let more biology undergraduates pursue synthetic biology in the future
In the process of popularizing science, we have observed that many biology students and practitioners do not understand synthetic biology, which is likely to affect their future choice of professional direction. So we randomly invited 30 junior undergraduates majoring in biological sciences, and we conducted a mixed online and offline interview with them, as they will face a deeper choice of major two years later. We first surveyed them about their knowledge of synthetic biology.
Although they were all undergraduates majoring in biological sciences, about 60% of the students said they did not know about synthetic biology before the interview, but they had a vague understanding of the definition of synthetic biology. The students' understanding of synthetic biology is as follows:
Yihe Zhao
I think synthetic biology is a discipline that is fundamentally different from the traditional research by disassembling the whole. It is a discipline that realizes the combination and assembly of basic biological components such as proteins through manual manipulation of DNA, in order to achieve some artificial biological system.
Weihan Jiang
Synthetic biology combines the fields of biology, engineering, computing, and chemistry to design and build new biological systems or redesign existing biological systems so that they have specific functions. The core idea of synthetic biology is to modularize and optimize organisms like engineering devices through standardized biological components (e.g., genes, enzymes, etc.).
Zimu Zhu
Synthetic biology is the use of some artificial methods, the gene sequence found in nature or artificially designed gene sequence processing, transplanting into some specific organisms, so that it can show the traits we need.
Yunze Jiang
I think synthetic biology is about designing and building artificial living systems.
We designed several questions about synthetic biology for the students to answer. We were very happy to find that although most of the students did not know much about synthetic biology, the correct rates of these questions were 73.3%, 40% and 60% respectively (pie chart below), indicating that students majoring in biology have a certain understanding of some basic synthetic biology knowledge. However, due to the lack of systematic learning, their understanding of synthetic biology is still vague, so we think it is necessary to give them more in-depth science popularization. We explained the definition, research paradigm and functional components of synthetic biology to them in detail, which lit the fire for their future research in synthetic biology.
Zixuan Zhao led the students to try Freshman Mode of our model for synthetic biology - Prometheus, and provided the students with feedback channels, hoping that they can give suggestions to our large language model.
We analyzed the requirements submitted when using the model, and found that through our sharing, these students now have a better understanding of bioparts, as can be seen from the word cloud map, people are most concerned about promoters and protein-related elements:
After the interview, many students said that they have a new understanding of synthetic biology and iGEM, and they hope to engage in the research of synthetic biology in the future, participate in the team of popular science synthetic biology, and contribute to the dissemination of synthetic biology. Here's what the students think:
Zhongqiu Wei : Through the sharing of senior students, I learned how to use iGEM website, and how to use data models to find biological components with certain characteristics, and also learned some knowledge of synthetic biology.
Zimu Zhu : Synthetic biology is an extremely inclusive discipline. In addition to traditional biology, it can integrate many other disciplines, such as AI, computers, social sciences, and so on. Synthetic biology is a future-oriented discipline. And there is still a lot to improve in the field of synthetic biology, which is what we can do in the future.
Kaijie Qu : Through the introduction of the NJU-China team members, I have learned the general process of iGEM competition and the main research direction of the team every year, and learned the close relationship between gene elements and function. I hope to join the wet experimental group next year and make contributions.
Zhizhong Shen : The HP group shared with us some of the activities they have done to promote synthetic biology, and I think they have made an effort at the social level to get more people involved in synthetic biology, which I think is very meaningful.
Weihan Jiang : I hope I can participate in iGEM. I learned that iGEM dry experiments need to have a good computer foundation. I think the model you constructed is very useful, and the difficulty of retrieval can be greatly reduced by a reasonable and intelligent retrieval software. Saw the senior demonstration, feel this tool is very good. He also said that the scope of the database could be expanded beyond iGEM.
Jiayu Lu : Synthetic biology is a relatively cutting-edge interdisciplinary subject, which has high requirements for gene understanding and engineering information of life sciences.
Yixuan Wang : As the third biotechnology revolution after "DNA double helix structure" and "genome technology", synthetic biology has a vigorous development status and broad application prospects in the 21st century. With the wide application of artificial intelligence large models such as ChatGPT, the intersection of AI technology and synthetic biology is very worthy of our attention - such a cross helps biologists to carry out experiments efficiently and quickly, promotes the development of biology and other fields, and confirms that "the 21st century is the century of biology". The crossover with AI technology is also in line with the trend of The Times, and this approach is conducive to the development of synthetic biology itself.
Zixiao Dou : I learned some concepts of synthetic biology, some ideas and concepts of iGEM.
Yuxuan Lin : For beginners, finding some suitable plasmids is the key to the smooth development of the research, so a powerful search function can greatly facilitate the research in this field.
Zixiao Dou : For some of the more chaotic database construction, with the help of the model can be more convenient to retrieve the sequence that may be needed with high probability, this tool is very useful.
6. Hospital visits - Bring more joy to sick children with comic books
On September 14, NJU-China visited the sick children at Yangzhong People's Hospital in Zhenjiang City. This day coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and the children were frustrated because they could not go home to be with their families, and they were glad that we could accompany them to have a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.
We taught children about the mechanisms behind their colds so they can better protect themselves from getting sick in the future. We also read biology science comic books to them; the children listened with relish. In addition to this, we also presented the children with coloring picture books made by our team, which added color to their boring Mid-Autumn holiday.
7. Social media - Spread synthetic biology knowledge further
We have posted a total of 8 tweets on our WeChat Official Account to document our HP journey and promote knowledge of synthetic biology. We have received a total of 996 views and 331 followers. We hope to establish a dialogue channel with readers of synthetic biology through social media, so that people around the world can access knowledge related to synthetic biology without leaving their homes, thus achieving our goal of spreading the spark of synthetic biology to every corner of the world.
8. Conclusion
Looking forward to the future, NJU-China will continue to devote itself to the research and popularization of synthetic biology, and build a bridge between researchers and young people by holding more similar activities, so as to jointly promote scientific and technological innovation and social progress. At the same time, we also expect that Prometheus model can be continuously improved with the attention and support of all sectors of society, and contribute more power to the development of synthetic biology.
