As revealed by our survey results, bacterial wilt has not attracted much significant public attention, yet over 90% of respondents expressed an interest in learning more about this devastating disease. This clear gap in awareness and willingness to learn highlights an urgent need for public education. Our team is therefore committed to launching educational initiatives aimed at raising awareness about bacterial wilt's impact, current prevention measures, and our team's project. By empowering farmers, companies, and the general public with knowledge, we hope to support sustainable farming practices, and ultimately contribute to food security in affected regions.
When executing our educational projects, we make sure that we actively incorporate public feedback to continuously improve our future initiatives.
To deepen understanding of plant bacterial wilt within our school community, our team organized a specialized seminar open to all students and faculty. The event featured a comprehensive introduction to the disease, its impact on agriculture, and our design of solution. The seminar successfully fostered engagement and highlighted the importance of synthetic biology in addressing global challenges.
Furthermore, we extended our educational efforts to the local community. We organized introductory sessions and hands-on activities to raise awareness about bacterial wilt and showcase our proposed solutions.
To foster a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and its associated safety protocols, we hosted a series of lectures. These sessions were designed to introduce the fundamentals of the field to students interested in biology and chemistry, while emphasizing the critical importance of laboratory safety and responsible conduct in future experiments.
As a way to promote our product and to spread awareness on bacterial wilt, our team designed pamphlet and poster that briefly introduce what is bacterial wilt and how we designed our project. Their characteristics of visually appealling and easily digestible made them the ideal choice in a varity of circumstances: introducing our project to companies and farmers during interviews for human practice activities, exchanging ideas with other iGEM teams, and educational purposes to the general public.
Our team has developed an interactive Laboratory Safety Quiz, as part of our commitment to promoting a culture of biosafety and responsible science. This educational tool is designed mainly for students who are new and interested to working in a lab environment. The quiz covers essential topics such as proper personal protective equipment usage, chemical and biological material handling, emergency procedures, and waste disposal protocols. By making safety knowledge engaging and accessible, we aim to empower our peers with the confidence and understanding necessary to conduct research safely. This initiative underscores our team's emphasis on ensuring safety is the funamental for every scientific innovation.
To further extend our educational outreach, we established an official account on WeChat, China's most prominent social media platform. Through this channel, we regularly publish popular fun facts about gardening techniques, plants' diseases (such as bacterial wilt), and prevention methods. Together we also share introduction and updates about our team's progress. This initiative aims to attract a broader audience, increase the visibility of our project, and raise public awareness about the severe threat posed by bacterial wilt.
Our survey results indicated a strong public preference for video content. In response, our team produced a series of educational videos to cater to this preference and make our project more accessible and engaging.
Through a diverse and targeted educational campaign, our team bridged the gap between bacterial wilt and public awareness. We engaged students and community members through a dynamic mix of interactive tools to highlight the threat of bacterial wilt and the promise of synthetic biology. By organizing both on-campus seminars and community events, we not only raised interest in scientific research but also emphasized the importance of safety and responsibility in future innovation.
