Team:XMU-China/Engagement

Engagement

Sparking interest relating to synthetic biology.

In order to improve the awareness of the detriment of antibiotics abuse, we promote it in many ways and enhance public engagement.

Online

Wechat is a communication platform widely used in China. XMU-China published an article on Xiamen University official account, which attracted thousands of people to read it. In this article, XMU-China briefly introduced what is iGEM, what does synthetic biology do, what XMU-China has achieved in our gene loop experiments, etc. Not only students in Xiamen University, but also graduates and ordinary people were our readers.

QQ is the most used social software in China and all Chinese teams communicate with each other on QQ. With the group email system of QQ, XMU-China’s emails can be received by all Chinese teams. So, XMU-China issued questionnaires, collaboration information and Newsletter on QQ. Also, XMU-China received many emails of other teams and found collaboration in this QQ group. In this way, there was no barriers of communication. All Chinese teams assist each other and make progress together.

Twitter is welcomed all over the world and XMU-China shares beautiful parts of life and experiments on the team account. The failure of a try, the joy of a success, the pleasure of a journey, all of which will be put on Twitter. This precious memory is the real meaning of participating iGEM.

Almost every team has its own Facebook page so XMU-China contacts with tens of teams on Facebook. We cooperated Newsletter, replied online messages, concerned about other teams’ update,etc. What else, we asked for gene parts from Oxford and accepted the interview of EPFL.

Offline

Brochure

For propagating synthetic biology and iGEM, we made two types of delicate brochures. Take advantage of new semester begin, we sent the brochures to students in Xiamen University. Via scanning our brochures, those who are interested in synthetic biology and iGEM are able to join our QQ group and make further communication. A good effect of publicity was made.

Leaflet

XMU-China designed nice leaflets and distributed hundreds of copies to villagers in undeveloped areas. Some easy and simple knowledge of synthetic biology and antibiotic are printed on the leaflets. We talk to the villagers using shallow words which can be easily accepted.

Practice

Questionnaire

In order to get a understanding of people’s awareness of antibiotics, we carried on a survey which provided a base to further study. The 580 questionnaires yielded a return of 572. The original data were analyzed by Excel while the analysis methods were frequency analysis and describing the statistical analysis. This survey basically covered all ages, and the gender distribution is almost balanced.


Result
Interview

XMU-China interviewed a dean of a hospital who told us some valuable knowledge of clinical medicine and analysed the practicability of our project. Also, we interviewed some professors, students, passers-by and so on. Some simple questions were asked and their answers helped us to have a clearer understanding of what the most citizens have known. People who were interviewed knew new things in return.


Video
Class

XMU-China had a class at Hengcuo Primary school, which made us kind of amazed of what a good basic knowledge children already had. We believed that this phenomenon stood for China being in a right way for primary education. We asked ten questions about basic health knowledge, if kids answered right, they would be awarded. What’s more, we created a scene play which is about an ill girl and bacteria in her body. This class was a success, which was enjoyed by the students very much. We borrowed costumes and gained help from Fenghuanghua student community, with whom we enjoyed that afternoon.

Summary
Video

XMU-China made several elegant videos of synthetic biology and our activities. We presented them to students in the class intervals so that they can have a basic understanding of iGEM and synthetic biology.

Newsletter

XMU-China published the Newsletter with two versions. The part version is composed of five parts, team, project, collaboration, human practice and discussion. Another type is based on teams , each of the team occupied a piece of the journal. 46 teams from 21 countries sent their contributions to us and Newsletter helped teams to know what other guys were doing. Also, we sorted out and listed contact information, so it’s convenient to contact other teams now.

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Name: XMU-China School: Xiamen University


Address: Xiamen University, No. 422, Siming South Road, Xiamen, Fujian, P. R. China 361005

Name: XMU-China School: Xiamen University


Address: Xiamen University, No. 422, Siming South Road, Xiamen, Fujian, P. R. China 361005