Propagation of iGEM - iGEM Day for Public Interests (iDPI)
Aiming at spreading the iGEM as well as contributing to the local community, ShanghaiTech iGEM Day for Public Interests (iDPI) was found in 2016, along with the establishment of the first ever iGEM team at ShanghaiTech University. The iDPI at ShanghaiTech is set up to encourage every iGEM team to dedicate themselves not only into scientific researches, but also social practices. Sciences and technologies are used to serve people and the society; therefore the awareness to contribute to the social interests is of equal importance with the research explorations. In the acronym name iDPI, “D” stands for dedication, “P” stands for passion, and “I” stands for inspiration. Our hope is that with the establishment of iDPI, every iGEMer at ShanghaiTech would bear a strong social awareness in minds, to yield profound contributions and achieve social values.
This year, iDPI collaborated with Shanghai Coordinate International School, holding an iGEM Lab Open House Day on Zhangjiang campus. The activity took place in the early September. At noon time, along with another iGEM team at ShanghaiTech, our iGEM team members warmly welcomed the visiting delegation from Shanghai Coordinate International School at the conference room. Leaded by Teacher Gordon, a leading science teacher at the Coordinate, the delegation consisted of 8 high school students from different grades.
An introduction speech to the ShanghaiTech was first delivered by the team member Haolong. Then he continued to further talked about the background of iGEM as well as synthetic biology. After that, delegates from two of the iGEM team conducted a brief presentation on the iGEM project subsequently. Finally an open discussion session was held, where the high school students demonstrated strong interests about synthetic biology and actively asked questions about the iGEM and our projects. Some of them even showed strong willingness to participate in the iGEM in the following year. As we responded at the meeting, we would be very happy to try to provide all sorts of assistance they may need to build up their own high school team for the iGEM. Also, if any of they were interested in real experience of hand-on lab operations, our iGEM lab was always open to them to visit and explore. Additionally, last week we were just informed by Teacher Gordon that their school would be very likely to build up their first-ever high school iGEM team; hopefully they may officially participate in the competition in the following years. We would keep providing them sufficient assistance and support as long as necessary.
After the speech and discussion, a lab visiting was scheduled as the second session of the Open House Day. Our team members paired with the visiting high school students, guiding them around the research center at school. We introduced the equipment to them one by one, from the cell disruptor to the ultra-centrifuge, from the FACS to TEM, explaining the mechanisms behind in popular and easy-to-understand language. Part of our lab results were demonstrated as well, so as to help them build a better understanding on our projects.
The Open House Day ended around 6 in the evening. As one of the visiting students commented, this lab tour was very impressive and amazing which greatly aroused his curiosity to explore the secrets of nature. And this was just the core value shared by iDPI to pass the knowledge and inspire the interests to the next young generations.
