"Education is not indoctrination. It is about lighting a fire." — Socrates
In NNU-CHINA's educational activities, we are committed to sowing the seeds of knowledge to every corner and making the concepts of green agriculture and synthetic biology deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so as to ignite people's desire for unlimited exploration and innovation in this field.
Our educational slogan is NNU - Nourish the mind, Nurture the heart, Unite the spirit.
We pursue to nourish the mind, nurture the heart, unite the spirit, and deepen the knowledge of synthetic biology and green agriculture into everyone's heart.
Xingzhi Tao, a famous Chinese educator and thinker, once said, "Cultivating and educating people is the same as planting flowers and trees. We should first understand the characteristics of flowers and trees, and fertilize and water them from different situations." Therefore, our team consulted with Yunqiu Zhai, a doctor of Education from Nanjing Normal University, and hoped that she could give us constructive suggestions for our educational journey. She said, "In order to make the professional publicity of green agriculture and synthetic biology more powerful, it is necessary to clarify the goal and audience of each presentation, analyze the background, interests and needs of the target audience, and learn how to promote the customized content. Secondly, she inspired us to add interactive elements for younger children, such as designing questionnaires and related games, etc. Additionally, she told us to actively collect feedback, so as to constantly adjust the content, form and promotion strategy to continuously enhance the influence.
To understand the public attitude and knowledge about synthetic biology, we produced relevant questionnaires. By gathering public opinions and feedback, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the social need for synthetic biology teaching and thus expand the worldwide reach of synthetic biology.
The results of the questionnaires show that most of the respondents are interested in synthetic biology because of its wide practical application. It is widely used in medical health, green energy, daily cosmetics, bio-based materials, food consumption and other fields. It is worth noting that 71% of the respondents believe that synthetic biology teaching should focus more on interdisciplinary integration teaching, for example, combining computers for batch operation of big data, thus improving efficiency. In addition, some people rarely receive the popular science lectures of synthetic biology. This suggests a lack of public awareness of synthetic biology, highlighting the importance of our education.
After absorbing the above suggestions, our team's educational journey kicked off. We walked into different communities, streets and schools, and carried out targeted and multi-level educational activities for people of all ages.
Children:Tiny Green Pioneers
Primary school is the stage when children are most curious about everything and explore the world with an increasingly rational attitude. Considering that the knowledge of synthetic biology is still too profound for them, we decided to start with a more superficial food theme, interspersed with ingenious interactions and games.
NNU-CHINA team members walked into Yudai Garden and Laifeng Street Community in Qinhuai District, Nanjing, respectively, and brought a green agriculture science popularization - "Food War" theme lecture to the children aged 8-12 here, so that the children could learn the preciousness of food and the necessity of protecting natural resources.
Then our team members played a flying chess game with the children. At the same time, the team members carried out creative handicraft activities. Each work embodied the wisdom and creativity of the children, and also witnessed their love and yearning for green agriculture and life science.
Senior High School Students:Eco-Leaders
The NNU-CHINA team members not only introduced the project content to the high school students in simple terms, but also took them to understand the operation of cutting-edge instruments. Theory and practice collided with sparks of wisdom in every corner of the laboratory. The viewing stimulated the young generation's strong interest and infinite yearning for synthetic biology.
Meanwhile, NNU-CHINA held a microbial painting event, which aimed to stimulate high school students' interest in microbiology through the combination of creativity and science. This event was not only a scientific experiment, but also a feast of artistic creation, making science education vivid and interesting.
Middle-aged:Mature Green Innovators
NNU-CHINA actively went out into the society and carried out propaganda activities among middle-aged people. We have carefully prepared a wealth of promotional materials with vivid cases and in-depth explanations, to introduce the principle, advantages and application prospects of biopesticides in green agriculture to middle-aged people. In addition, we distributed trifolds and bookmarks to raise public awareness of green agriculture and biotechnology, and stimulate awareness and support for green agriculture from all walks of life.
Elderly People:Golden Green Insights
Most of China's elderly people have a unique land plot, because they have been dealing with the land since childhood, and have a deep connection with the land, but they have little understanding of modern green agricultural technology. Therefore, NNU-CHINA team members went into the Guochang community to introduce the knowledge of green agriculture to the elderly, and advocated a green and healthy lifestyle for the elderly in the community.
Through this activity, the elderly people of the community had a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and green agriculture. While expressing their agreement with the concept of green agriculture, they also placed their ardent expectations for green agriculture.
From the perspective of "practical + popular science", we walked into the community street of Qimin Road and introduced the basic concepts, multiple meanings of green agriculture to the middle-aged and elderly. We also provided a series of green living tips, encouraging everyone to start from the small things around them and jointly promoted the development of green agriculture.
Finally, we conducted a questionnaire survey to accurately understand people's perception and needs for green agriculture. In order to ensure the authenticity and validity of the questionnaire data, we also provided special guidance on questionnaire filling.
NNU-CHINA hopes to make more people to pay attention to and support green agriculture and synthetic biology, make the lifestyle healthier and more environmentally friendly, practice the concepts of green agriculture in action, and let green agriculture be a part of life!
Children in Remote Areas: Rural Green Dreamers
To improve equality in education, we tried to disseminate our knowledge to groups in remote areas. NNU-CHINA's team members brought a fun experiment to the children of Xiliang Village Quanquan Primary School in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, which allowed the children to experience the wonders of science firsthand. It not only stimulated their keen interest in scientific exploration, but also ignited their thirst for knowledge and infinite hope for the future.
After our research, interviews and publicity, we learned that the public knew little about the professional terms of synthetic biology, biological pesticides and biological experiments, which to some extent dispelled people's enthusiasm for food issues, synthetic biology and other aspects. Therefore, we have made a web dictionary that gives a concise and comprehensive explanation of some proper nouns in synthetic biology.
The dictionary gives a detailed explanation of our wet lab terms, including the materials, methods and other aspects of the experiment. We hope that through this way, we can make the principles of our experiments easier to understand, and enable more people to focus on the field of bio-pesticides and food security.
The second Synthetic Biology Industry Expo (SBC2024) was held in the Yangtze River International Convention Center in Nanjing. With the theme of "Building to achieve knowledge, Building to use", this conference gathered industry experts to focus on the disruptive technology of synthetic biology, discussed the blueprint for the future of synthetic biology, and promoted the vigorous development of synthetic biology industry.
Our team members focused on the agriculture and animal husbandry in this conference, and listened to the keynote speech "RNA biosynthesis and green manufacturing of biological pesticide (nucleic acid interferon)" by Professor Xueming Tang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which further deepened our understanding of the current situation, opportunities and future challenges of bio-pesticide research and development.
The team actively used the debate to encourage and guide the team members to deepen their understanding of the genetically modified crops. With our point of view from the shallow to the deep, from the point to the surface, a deep analysis of all aspects carried out, deeply digging the pros and cons. From the changes in the global agricultural situations caused by grain production, to the connection between new crop varieties and the world climate, to the genetic pollution and the ethical dilemma of genetic modification crops, we have had a profound debate and gained many novel and interesting ideas.
