Gastrointestinal Health Lectures for Children:
Our Actions:
As a team committed to overcoming the challenges of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), we do not confine ourselves to merely treating IBD through technological means. The best way to combat disease is through prevention. We also place great emphasis on disseminating knowledge about gastrointestinal health to raise awareness about IBD, understand it, and prevent it. In this way, we aim to curb the occurrence of IBD from the source and contribute to the gastrointestinal health of humanity worldwide.
In recent years, the incidence of IBD has become increasingly younger. Therefore, it is essential to start paying attention to children's gastrointestinal health as early as possible. We must start with children, helping 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. Therefore, our team has initiated a far-reaching activity, bringing gastrointestinal health knowledge and humanistic care to children in both urban and rural areas through educational and promotional activities.
Since our team is composed of students from Nankai University, we make full use of existing resources and have cooperated with the "Xiang Yang Project" teaching team from Nankai University. We provide the teaching group with gastrointestinal health-related courseware, and during the holiday, we go to rural or remote town schools to incorporate gastrointestinal health promotion into the teaching curriculum, popularizing 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, ensure the accuracy of the knowledge by consulting literature and interviewing clinical doctors, and ensure 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 compare our engineered bacteria as warriors defending gastrointestinal health and our drug molecules as weapons against inflammation, making it easy for children to 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 also 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.
Summary:
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. Although our project has achieved preliminary results, we know that the road to gastrointestinal health education is still long. We will continue to work hard, extend our footprints to more areas, and benefit more children. We believe that through our unremitting efforts, we can contribute to the healthy growth of children, enable early detection and intervention for IBD patients, and make our contribution to the progress of society and the conquest of IBD.