Best Education
In today's society, the development of synthetic biology has provided new approaches to solving many complex health issues. Our team is attempting to use this method to benefit more patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). At the same time, as a team that values social impact, we understand that advanced technology can only play a greater role when it is popularized among more people. Therefore, in addition to designing effective products, we also place great emphasis on disseminating knowledge about gastrointestinal health and synthetic biology to raise awareness about IBD and garner support for our use of synthetic biology in treating IBD. To achieve this goal, we have carried out a series of educational activities to promote knowledge of gastrointestinal health and guide the public to recognize the tremendous potential of synthetic biology in improving health. We are actively promoting the spread of knowledge and creating a healthier future together with the public.
Gastrointestinal Health Lectures for Children
Gastrointestinal health lectures for children are an essential part of our educational activities. In recent years, the incidence of IBD has become increasingly younger, making it essential to start paying attention to children's gastrointestinal health early on and help them develop healthy eating habits. However, due to the imbalance of educational resources, many children and parents in various regions lack sufficient understanding of the importance of gastrointestinal health. We hope to fill this knowledge gap through our efforts and contribute to the healthy growth of children.
Our Actions
Our team, composed of students from Nankai University, makes full use of existing resources and has cooperated with the "Sunshine Project" teaching team from Nankai University. We utilize holiday time to go to rural or remote town schools, incorporating gastrointestinal health advocacy into the teaching curriculum to popularize gastrointestinal health-related content among children in remote areas. In addition, we have also cooperated with youth palaces and other youth educational institutions to share gastrointestinal health knowledge with urban children.
In our activities, we take gastrointestinal health as the main line to connect the content of the lecture, ensuring the accuracy of the knowledge by consulting literature and interviewing clinical doctors, and ensuring the fun of the activity by combining novel forms such as small dramas and games. In addition, we have also distributed project-related cultural products to the children, leaving a deep impression on them. We explain to the children the important role of the intestines in the human body, share basic knowledge of IBD, such as the causes, diagnostic methods, and treatment methods. We tell them how to maintain gastrointestinal health in life, such as eating healthily and reducing the intake of sugar, salt, and fats.
We also use vivid metaphors to integrate synthetic biology knowledge. For example, we compare engineered bacteria to warriors defending gastrointestinal health and our drug molecules to weapons against inflammation. In a way that is easy for children to understand, we expose them to synthetic biology and help them understand our project. We also present the scientific problems encountered in the advancement of our project in a simplified form to the children, encouraging them to think about how to fight IBD from a scientist's perspective. This not only better promotes our project content but also cultivates the children's thinking and innovation abilities, encouraging them to explore the mysteries of science and achieving good scientific popularization effects. The children gain knowledge in happiness and sow the seeds of gastrointestinal health protection in their hearts.
At present, we have carried out gastrointestinal health lecture activities in three provinces in China, crossing more than 1400 kilometers, and have brought gastrointestinal health-related knowledge to hundreds of children. In the future, we will move towards more areas, share more knowledge, and benefit more people.
Our Footprints
Baiyin Gansu: Lectures on the Loess Plateau
Baiyin, located on the Loess Plateau, has a long history and is named for its silver mines, but the vast loess plateau is golden. Although the area is rich in resources, it is relatively backward in children's health education. Therefore, we chose this place as the starting point for our lecture activities. Our team went deep into the rural areas and schools of Baiyin, introducing the structure and function of the intestines, intestinal flora, and how to maintain gastrointestinal health through a reasonable diet and good living habits through vivid pictures and interactive games. The children here are very interested in knowledge, so we mainly share knowledge, explaining the scientific and technological knowledge of our project in a simple way. Many children surrounded us as soon as we finished the first class, asking questions they were curious about, so much so that we had to continue explaining after class. Although a bit tired, we gained the children's favor and recognition, and also gained a lot of happiness. This lecture not only attracted the children's interest but also attracted the attention of parents and teachers, who expressed hope that we could provide more health education resources. Our cooperation is still ongoing.
Shangluo Shaanxi: Health Classroom in the Mountain Area
Shangluo, located in the Qinling Mountains, is also a small city with a long history. Many small villages in the area are inaccessible and information is closed off. Our team overcame many difficulties and brought the knowledge of gastrointestinal health here. We cooperated with local schools to hold a series of gastrointestinal health lectures and seminars. The children here are also lively and enthusiastic, and they actively share the knowledge they have learned with their family and friends after class. The dissemination we hope for is just like this. Each lecture not only helps the children who listen, but also allows the children to become new disseminators of health knowledge, sharing the concept of health with more people. We only brought the spark of knowledge, and these children are the main force in promoting the dissemination of knowledge.
Tianjin Xiqing District: Urban Health Guide
Xiqing District, as an important area of Tianjin, is relatively developed economically, but the fast-paced life often makes people neglect health. Our lecture activities here are different from those in underdeveloped areas, focusing more on how to integrate gastrointestinal health knowledge into daily life, such as eating less fried food and paying attention to the regularity of three meals. In one class, a little boy was particularly active and eager to answer the questions we raised in class. He also had a deep knowledge reserve of biology and a certain understanding of the principles of our project. He also proposed some interesting ideas, hoping that our engineered bacteria could express antibodies to eliminate pathogens, or eat things that the human body cannot digest. We have to admit that we college students were also inspired. We cooperated with the children's palace to carry out a series of health education courses, encouraging parents and children to participate together, and jointly creating a good atmosphere for paying attention to gastrointestinal health. Our project has been strongly supported by local schools and communities, further expanding our influence.
Feedback and Improvement
As our outreach events progress, we have received a lot of positive feedback, including encouragement from children and parents, as well as support from schools and communities. At the same time, we have identified and summarized the issues that arose during the lecture activities. In response to these issues, we regularly organize seminars to review and discuss how to solve problems, how to improve the content of the lectures, and how to plan the upcoming outreach activities. We also learn from other science popularization bloggers on video websites and try to apply their methods to our activities. These preparations have played a very important role in the smooth progress and continuous improvement of our outreach events, and have laid a solid foundation for us to better engage in human practice.
During the lecture event in Xiqing District, we found that children in the city are exposed to the internet more often and are deeply influenced by some self-media videos. Although these videos have brought a lot of knowledge to the children, the rigor of many popular science self-media videos is relatively poor, which may have a negative impact on the construction of children's knowledge systems. For example, during the lecture in Xiqing District, a child learned a lot of professional knowledge in biology, such as the basic structure of the human body, gene engineering operations, etc. However, his use of professional terms such as plasmids, transfection, and gene expression vectors was still quite confusing. After asking him after class, we learned that he mainly learned about them through watching related videos on video websites. After this incident, we decided to include detailed explanations of professional terms in our subsequent courseware and strive to describe them scientifically and accurately. This initiative corrected many children's misconceptions about biology and intestinal health, and better disseminated health knowledge.
We also found on video websites that many popular science bloggers attract children's interest through situational performances. Therefore, we also try to enhance the fun of our lectures by using situational performances. For example, one team member plays the role of an IBD patient, the children play the role of little doctors, and another team member guides the children to inquire from the perspective of professional doctors and participate in the diagnostic process. Through this form, we immerse the children in the diagnosis and treatment process of IBD, making it more vivid and effective.
We believe that human practice is about people-oriented, constantly thinking about how to serve our audience. Our lecture activities are precisely improving and developing in this way, constantly enhancing in summary.
Activity review
Gastrointestinal health is not only a medical topic, it is related to the growth and future of every child and the healthy development of the whole society. Through lecture activities, we not only spread knowledge of gastrointestinal health, but more importantly, we have seen an increase in awareness of health issues among children and parents, as well as positive changes in their lifestyle. Each lecture by our team is a care for children and a responsibility to society. We look forward to working with more partners to promote the development of children's gastrointestinal health education, making health a solid cornerstone on the growth path of every child.
Community Gut Health Advocacy
Education and outreach have always been core values of iGEM. Education does not end with childhood, nor does it cease when one leaves school. Therefore, we also hope to bring our knowledge to adults, especially the elderly who are in particular need of health knowledge for health preservation. At the same time, we have noticed that communities are an important link connecting everyone's lives, and the elderly are concentrated in community activities. Therefore, we take the community as a breakthrough point, bringing intestinal health knowledge to adults through community outreach activities, while also introducing how synthetic biology can help solve health problems. Community health outreach is an important part of our educational activities. We hope to enhance the health awareness of residents, promote communication and cooperation within the community, and bring a healthy lifestyle to more families.
Our Actions
Similar to our campus lectures, our community advocacy still revolves around gut health and synthetic biology. The knowledge content involved is basically the same, all of which has been carefully verified by us to ensure its accuracy and scientific nature. However, the target audience of community advocacy is more complex, involving audiences of different ages and knowledge levels, requiring us to formulate differentiated propaganda strategies according to the characteristics of different audiences to ensure the effectiveness of our knowledge dissemination. In addition, the environment of community advocacy is relatively loose, and it is difficult to ensure that residents have enough time to listen to our advocacy. Therefore, we pay more attention to conveying health information through propaganda materials or the Internet. Therefore, we mainly adopt the following strategies:
1.Arrange advocacy activities according to the living habits of different groups: We find that the elderly often go out for outdoor activities in the morning. Therefore, we often arrange advocacy activities for the elderly in the morning. Young people often go out for a walk after dinner, and we will also arrange propaganda activities at this time.
2.Set up different advocacy content: The elderly generally pay more attention to health-related issues, and we will popularize more knowledge on how to maintain gut health and prevent common gastrointestinal diseases in the elderly, even expanding some cancer-related knowledge. Office workers pay more attention to how to maintain health in life, and we will share more knowledge about gut health in daily life. Students pay more attention to science and technology, and we explain more knowledge about synthetic biology to them, and guide them to discuss scientific topics of interest with us.
3.Distribute propaganda materials: Distributing cultural products related to the project is not only to attract more audiences but also to use materials as a carrier to convey information during the process of material transmission. For example, an audience member takes the material home, and his family may also understand the information we want to convey through contact with the material, thereby achieving a broader impact.
4.Use the Internet: We have established the team's WeChat public account and encourage the audience to follow by scanning the QR code. We will regularly publish columns and videos on the theme of gut health, synthetic biology, project introduction, etc. on the public account. Followers can also ask questions on the public account, and we will reply to health-related issues with high attention on the backstage. This form is convenient for people to obtain knowledge conveniently in their fragmented time, and also facilitates our communication with the public, improving our propaganda effect.
5.Cooperate with community neighborhood committees: We have reached a cooperation with many community workers, and the neighborhood committee will assist in holding health advocacy activities or insert our advocacy into other activities. This cooperation has greatly improved the visibility of our activities and the participation of the masses.
Activity Record
When advocating in the community, due to the limitations of time and experience, we plan to start activities in the community near our university first, because our university has established a good cooperative relationship with many nearby communities and often organizes community science popularization activities regularly. This has created convenient conditions for our advocacy, and the residents of these communities generally have a higher level of knowledge and strong health awareness, and are also willing to cooperate with us. Therefore, we choose to hold simple activities in the nearby community to accumulate experience and then gradually expand to other communities. The advocacy experience to be shared next occurred in the Water Park Community near our university.
Before we started the activity, we had already contacted the person in charge of the neighborhood committee of the Water Park Community in advance. The person in charge told us that the neighborhood committee will organize residents to attend a meeting recently, and can help us promote the project through this opportunity. However, there are other arrangements on the venue that day, and we cannot give a unified advocacy on the spot. Therefore, we chose to set up a project propaganda booth in places that people must pass by, such as the entrance of the neighborhood committee, and carry out advocacy through distributing prizes, temporary explanations, and encouraging residents to scan QR codes. Since the residents attending the meeting were mainly the elderly, we focused on preparing knowledge about the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases and prepared portable toilet paper as prizes. On the day of the activity, the team members responsible for publicity set up the booth in advance and pasted the posters on the wall. During the arrangement process, our team members had a sudden idea to arrange the prizes of toilet paper into pyramid shapes and other interesting shapes, making our booth more lively and interesting.
After the meeting, the residents began to leave one after another and pass by the booth. Our advocacy activity came to the most important moment, and the three team members carried out the activity in an orderly manner according to the previous division of labor. One team member was responsible for attracting the audience and maintaining order, one classmate was responsible for explaining health and synthetic biology knowledge, and the last classmate was responsible for taking photos and recording. During the advocacy process, many elderly audiences asked us a lot of questions, such as how to eat healthily, how to avoid IBD, how to find out whether they or their family members have IBD, etc., and we all gave detailed answers.
Many audiences affirmed and thanked us for our advocacy activity. Among them, an elderly woman was particularly interested in our advocacy content. After understanding, we found that her family members are engaged in medical and health-related work and have a certain understanding of the content we explained. She also said that she hopes we can promote the activity and encourages us to learn more knowledge to help more people. We also thanked this kind-hearted old lady.
In this activity, we took more than 20 photos, and our public account gained dozens of new followers. But most importantly, the concept of gut health we advocated has been recognized by more people, and the knowledge of gut health we publicized will help more people stay away from diseases. We have taken a small but important step towards defeating IBD.
Feedback and Improvement
We have also received a lot of positive feedback in the community advocacy, which makes us full of confidence. It also proves that our activities are gradually changing the community and bringing health to more people. Like our campus advocacy, after each community propaganda activity, we will also organize a seminar to review existing problems and discuss how to make future community propaganda better. At the meeting, we pay special attention to how to make community activities more colorful, how to make full use of our limited strength and resources, and how to make our propaganda more influential. We will also use the network to learn more community activity skills. We continue to innovate in activities, and we have never stopped moving forward in order to better practice humanity.
Taking the activity we just shared as an example. Although many residents are interested in our activities, there are also quite a few residents who directly ignore our booth. After our investigation, we found that some residents are unwilling to spend time, and some residents do not trust the authenticity of our propaganda, thinking that we are propagating for commercial purposes. In response to the phenomenon that many residents are unwilling to spend time participating, on the one hand, we choose to join more time-saving methods, such as distributing leaflets or playing videos, etc. On the other hand, we also strengthen the attractiveness of the activity by purchasing more prizes that are close to life, such as fans, eggs, etc. In response to some audiences' concerns about our non-profit nature, on the one hand, we choose to emphasize our identity as students of Nankai University and explain our activity purpose in advance during the propaganda. On the other hand, we believe that the key to residents' distrust of us is to accept a lot of false information from non-official channels. Therefore, we pay more attention to maintaining the accuracy of our content and try to be interesting and useful to win the trust of residents.
In the following activities, we have learned from the experience and lessons of previous activities. As a result, our activities have also gained more and more praise and support.
Activity Review
Through advocacy activities, we have publicized the concept of gut health and popularized synthetic biology technology. We are delighted to see more and more people from not understanding to sincerely supporting, from ignoring health to valuing health. On the road to defeating IBD, we are making friends with actions, helping more people with knowledge and communication, and changing the vast world with love and dedication. We believe that we are doing something meaningful. We will continue to work hard and extend our footprints to farther places to benefit more people.
Summary of Educational Activities
Through our team's educational activities, we have not only disseminated the importance of intestinal health in schools and communities but also demonstrated the potential and applications of synthetic biology in modern medicine.
We regard education as one of the key components of our project, and we actively carry out educational activities, delighted to see the changes and benefits education brings to others. We value the scientific nature of educational content, actively disseminating scientific knowledge; we value the innovative nature of educational methods, trying various forms of publicity; we value the comprehensiveness of education, not only educating young people but also carrying out adult education, especially for the elderly. We have proven the power of education with our actions, which can inspire thinking, stimulate interest, and plant the seeds of health in people's hearts. We firmly believe that through continuous efforts and educational activities, we can raise public awareness of IBD, promote the popularization of a healthy lifestyle, and contribute to the cultivation of the next generation of scientists and medical professionals.
Our educational activities are an investment in the future. We believe that every educated child and every inspired community resident has the potential to become an advocate and practitioner of a healthy lifestyle. Our goal is to establish a healthier, more scientific, and more active society, one that can use modern scientific methods such as synthetic biology to prevent and treat diseases.
As our footprints spread to broader areas, we look forward to seeing more changes and progress. We are hopeful about the future because we are laying the foundation for a healthier society. We will continue our mission, bringing the light of science to more people through educational activities, and together creating a better future.