HumanPractices-Education

Before coming to the main content, here are two facts seemingly irrelevant:

Human production uses a lot of energy and contributes to higher and higher levels of carbon dioxide on Earth. Nowadays, energy and environment are two of the biggest concerns.
Nearly 200 years ago, the world's first electric lamp was lit. Since then, people can get the light wherever wire exists. Nowadays, most electric lights still rely on wires.

With the help of synthetic biology, both of these problems can probably be solved, and our world will be a better place.

What we do is trying to increase public engagement and let people of all ages and all walks of life realize the needs of our world and feel the charm and potential of synthetic biology!

Outline

A brief introduction

Figure 1. Three progressive goals during our education.

Prepare tools needed for for education and communication

Tools needed

A poster to introduction to synthetic biology and our projects
Fairy tale books drawing about a story of "The Prince of Cyanobacteria and the Princess of Yeast defeat the carbon dioxide monster to reclaim the light for the people" (still being written now)
A slide introducing basic knowledge of synthetic biology, which can be easily understood by junior high school students
Brochures corresponds to our project, emphasizing the environmental and energy value of the project

Figure 2. Some illustrations.

Strive for our goals

Education and publicity

At this stage, we are trying to educate the general public about our project and synthetic biology. Tools we use for this stage are posters, fairy tale books and brochures.

We need to combine both online and offline forms and use the power of online media to expand our influence:

Online form : Use online articles, videos, and live broadcasts on all platforms
Offline form : Promote our programs and synthetic biology in parks, indergartens and other places.

Perception and inspiration

At this stage,our goal is to inspire middle school students who are just beginning to learn about biology and other sciences to feel the charm and inspiration of synthetic biology.

We mainly introduce synthetic biology and our project to middle school students and some primary school students in the form of volunteer teaching and micro-class.

Trust and expectation

At this stage, we will no longer focus on different people, but focus on the significance of our projects to solve environmental, energy and other issues, and further let the whole society realize the power of synthetic biology to solve current problems and build a better world, so that they can trust and look forward to synthetic biology.