General Overview

Our education program focuses on three ideas often overlooked: synthetic biology, the black soldier fly (BSF), and food waste. Synthetic biology is evolving at a rapid pace, yet many people still associate it with some sort of chemical hazard. The black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), which are useful in food waste management, are often dismissed because they look intimidating. Food waste, despite being a global issue, seldom receives attention.
To change these views, our educational program offers lessons suited to different age groups and communities. The materials that we designed are adapted for different age groups, public events, and online platforms, making the topics more accessible. At our core, we aim to raise awareness and change people's perception of these challenges.

Education has always been reciprocal. Reflecting on this idea, our education section is divided into four parts: beginning with learning from others, followed by adaptive education, then immersive learning, and finally, voices and networks. This sequence reflects the crux of education: from gaining knowledge, to tailoring it, to making it engaging, and finally, to amplifying its reach.

(All pictures displayed on our Wiki that feature individuals were taken with full consent from themselves or their parents/legal guardians. We have required explicit permission for the use of these photos. This includes all images captured during outreach and educational activities.)

1. Learning From Others
Before teaching others, we first focused on learning ourselves. This involved attending conferences, open lab days, and expert talks to deepen our understanding of synthetic biology, BSF, and general enzyme engineering. By listening to professors, researchers, and industry stakeholders, we gained valuable information on how to shape both our project design and our education strategies.

2. Adaptive Education
We adapted our teaching plans to accommodate different audiences from kindergarten students to secondary level students. We also considered elderly learners and international learners in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Each program was designed with specific methods to match the learning abilities and cultural context of the group. This approach ensured accessibility and inclusiveness.

3. Immersive Learning
Our focus here was to create active learning experiences rather than passive listening. We designed activities such as BioQuest and Empty Plate, as well as interactive events at school science fairs. These programs encouraged students to play, solve problems, and actively participate in their own learning.

4. Voices and Netweoks
Education also meant amplifying voices beyond the classroom. We launched podcasts, published magazines, and created social media campaigns to reach broader audiences. These platforms turned education into a dialogue, where we shared our ideas and also learned from the feedback of others.

Learning From Others

Overview

To guide others effectively, we first focused on deepening our own understanding. To strengthen our project, we received guidance from experts and the research community. Academic conferences, college lab visits, and expert gatherings have expanded our knowledge in synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, and BSF research. These experiences widened the scientific perspective of our team and introduced approaches that could be carried into our own project. In addition, informal conversations with professors, researchers, and industry leaders gave us inspiration that later guided both our lab work and human practices.

National Taiwan University (NTU) 2025 Lab Open Day

National Taiwan University (NTU), as the best university in Taiwan, stands as a key hub for synthetic biology research. During the Lab Open Day, visitors are introduced to projects in genetic engineering and related fields. For us, this event offered a chance to learn about the latest techniques and strategies that might strengthen our project. The event also facilitated connections with professors who went on to serve as external advisors to our project.

Conversations with professors revealed the challenges of biosafety concerns. For instance, during a conversation with Professor Yang, a synthetic biology researcher at NTU, it washe noted that some people still doubt the role of biotech in the future. Yet, he expressed confidence that, as time approaches, a new generation would demonstrate how synthetic biology could contribute to the world. He also shared advice on how to find and read academic papers more efficiently, guidance that felt especially valuable for students like us who are still learning in the field of research.

The Lab Open Day provided a clearer understanding of what a dry lab entails. Researchers demonstrated their approaches, including the use of AlphaFold, Rosetta, and other computational tools. For a high school team with limited access to such resources, seeing these methods was especially advantageous. The experience showed us how dry lab work complements wet lab experiments. Overall, the event offered models of practice that could be adapted to strengthen our own project.

"Promoting Research Engagement in Black Soldier Fly Farming in Taiwan" Conference at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU)

We attended this conference introduced by one of our stakeholders, Dr. Chih-Qing Lin, from Kunyi Biotech Co., Ltd. This was a worthwhile opportunity as it is closely tied to our project centering on BSF farming and other related scientific research. Our participation gave us a clearer understanding of the latest findings on BSF and it enabled us to explore which directions researchers see as most promising for sustainable development. The conference also gathered many stakeholders and professors that created future collaboration opportunities for us.

The insights gained from the BSF conference directly impact our wet lab. We refined our design to emphasize cellulase-based pretreatment, targeting the breakdown of fibrous components in food waste before larval ingestion. Guidance from Dr. Jeffery K. Tomberlin, Professor of Entomology at Texas A&M University and Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Insect Biomanufacturing and Innovation, who specializes in BSF research, suggested the need to prioritize enzymes that can function in environments similar to compost piles, where temperature and pH fluctuate. The conference also emphasized the role of industry collaboration, motivating our team to expand stakeholder outreach on practical application within BSF farming systems, aligning with industry expectations and environmental goals.

Exploring Synthetic Biology at the 2025 Taiwan Yeast Seminar

We attended the 2025 Taiwan Year Seminar to help with our understanding of synthetic biology as a whole. The seminar discussed chromatin dynamics, mitochondrial function, nuclear envelope assembly, ER-associated degradation, sexual reproduction in yeast species. Yeast, similar to E. coli, is a widely used host organism in genetic engineering, while our project focuses on employing E. coli to produce enzymes at scale. By joining the meeting, we aimed to explore concepts that are new to us.

We learned that yeast is engineered to produce compounds such as biofuels and food supplements. A key takeaway for us was the process of how researchers optimize gene expression in yeast. The meeting also emphasized the challenges of building stable systems, including the need to balance metabolic loads and maintain the functions over cultures. Granted, as high school students, we could not fully understand the concept, but we did our best to learn and take notes on what we were not familiar with.

Although the content of the Yeast Conference was not directly linked to our project, it still offered helpful guidance. Hearing about yeast pathways reminded us of the importance of carefully selecting signal peptides and promoters to maximize expression levels in our own enzyme secretion system.

Adaptive Education

Overview

After receiving guidance ourselves, we felt a responsibility and an urge to share knowledge with others. "Education for all," a principle rooted in Confucian thought, emphasized the importance of making knowledge accessible to everyone. With this idea in mind, our team adopted the "Backward Design" framework to ensure our program would be inclusive for audiences of different ages and backgrounds. This teaching method, introduced by Wiggins and McTighe in the book Understanding by Design, is an educational method that places learners at the center of course planning.

We divided our target audience into distinct age groups: kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, and the elderly. This separation of each group could receive materials tailored to their level of understanding.

The Three Stages of Backward Design:

Kindergarten Education

Objective
In our education plan for kindergarteners, the goal was to gently introduce the issue of food waste and show how BSF can help address it. At this age, children are naturally curious about familiar things (such as food) which makes the topic relatable and imaginable for kids. Building on that curiosity, we used metaphors heavily to demonstrate the abstract ideas. We presented BSF as "helpers" that "consume food waste and clean the Earth," framing insects as small heroes for our planet.

Through simple narratives and illustrations, children were encouraged to see themselves as "mini-scientists". Along the way, they were introduced to the idea that living organisms have different roles in nature, with BSF uniquely suited to tackle food waste.

Program
To engage our youngest audience, we transformed the idea of enzymes that help with food waste leftovers into a storybook adventure. The centerpiece was "Bob the Black Soldier Fly," a comic-style character illustrated with bold colors and expressive faces. We created an eight-panel comic narrated by our team, allowing children to follow the storyline visually while listening to the narration.

We consulted kindergarten teachers experienced in working with young children, who advised us to rely on images with minimal oral explanation. As a result, we created Bob and his friends, E.coli Tim and Bacillus subtilis Sam, on an adventure. The comic introduced the core ideas of our project through engaging stories to children's imaginations.

Comics of Bob the Black Soldier Fly

To add a hands-on element, each child colored or designed their own version of Bob, turning the lesson into a personal creative activity. Together, the comic, illustrations, and presentation formed a toolkit that helped kids understand the role of BSF without fear.

After the session, we gave out our own stickers as rewards for the Q&A. This made the kids more engaged, and the stickers also served as a reminder of what they had learned that day.

Special case for kindergarten education-Principal American School (pre-school)

In one of our kindergarten programs, the Principal American School (pre-school), required us to use only English, even though the children's first language was Mandarin. This made it challenging to express scientific concepts at their level of English proficiency (merely five years old!). We simplified our language use, relied more on illustrations, and incorporated YouTube videos to support their understanding.

In sum, we designed three activities for the kindergarten students: a concise presentation, a drawing session where each child colored their own Bob, and storytelling through the eight-panel comic. Together, these activities combined visuals and narrative to make learning about BSF relatively accessible.

Elementary School Education

Objective
Our goal with elementary students was to introduce the BSF project in ways that connect directly to their daily lives. But, unlike the kindergarten program, which relied heavily on storytelling and imagination, this stage allowed us to go further: guiding elementary students into the world of biology by linking scientific ideas to experiences they have already recognized. Since Taiwan's national curriculum introduces basic science concepts beginning in grade three of elementary school (approximately 9 years old), we were able to frame our teaching in ways that matched what students were already learning.

Also, recognizing that elementary school children are often more energetic and harder to keep focused, we prepared a variety of group activities, such as interactive songs and board games, to channel their energy while teaching.

Program

The centerpiece was our custom board game, Bob's Life Adventure, where the students progressed through the BSF's growth stages, facing challenges and making choices connected to biology, such as finding nutrients or breaking down waste.

Board game PDF:

To bring the concept to life visually, we also produced a short Scratch animation showing Bob in action, helping children see how BSF breaks down trash.

About Scratch
Scratch is a free, beginner-friendly programming platform widely used in Taiwanese elementary schools as part of information technology classes. Instead of requiring written code, Scratch uses visual blocks, like digital LEGO, to represent actions or settings for characters and scenes. For instance, purple blocks can make a character speak, move, or disappear, while blue blocks control the background. This simplicity makes Scratch especially engaging for youth. By creating a Scratch video, we introduced our project and biology concepts through a platform children were already familiar with, allowing them to interact by controlling Bob and even adding their own creative elements to the story, which deepened their impression of the session.

Our Scratch Video Story

The video introduces BSF as a solution to food waste, while also addressing one of the key challenges: breaking down fiber. We explained that through synthetic biology, E. coli (Tim) and Bacillus subtilis (Sam) can work together to produce endoglucanase, an enzyme (represented by a pair of scissors) that cuts down fiber and makes BSFL digestion more efficient.

Scratch video demo:

Exploring Biology Camp- LarVase x One For All
We organized a two-day camp for elementary school students called One For All, with the dual goal of introducing synthetic biology concepts and cultivating leadership and presentation skills. To make the camp possible, we recruited over 30 volunteers and brought the program to Chang Keng Elementary School, a rural public school in Taiwan with no more than 100 students. The schedule was designed to balance science and personal growth. Each day featured two hours of courses focused on our project and biology, while the rest of the time was devoted to leadership-building activities like "escape room", drama performing, and other outdoor activities.

On the first day, we introduced students to the urgency of the food waste issue in Taiwan and presented the main idea of our project. To help them understand the seriousness of the problem, we showed pictures of common examples—school lunch leftovers, discarded night market food, and large bags of unsold vegetables from traditional markets. Afterward, students used clay to recreate items they had seen in the images. This activity reinforced and encouraged them to reflect on the value of food and the importance of reducing waste in daily life.

On the second day, we shifted the focus to biology. Taking the students' level into account, we selected the topic of genes and heredity. The lesson introduced concepts such as dominant and recessive traits as well as the basics of blood types. Our main activity was "Little Gene Detective". Students were shown pictures of dogs of different breeds and asked to write down their observed features on separate notes. These notes were then placed into a "mystery box," from which each student randomly drew traits to design their own imaginary pet. Through this process, they experienced how genetic traits are inherited randomly and how they shape appearance. The activity was aimed to reinforce their understanding of genetics and also encourage their collaboration skill when analysing the different appearances of dogs.

Elementary School Education slides:

Junior & Senior High School Education

Objectives
As we transitioned to junior and senior high school students, our goal shifted towards promoting a deeper understanding of synthetic biology. Topics included gene cloning and the integration of lab and hardware technologies. Certainly, we explained the reasoning behind our focus on BSF and provided information about its unique life cycle.

Recognizing that a simple introduction would not be enough to engage older students, we also shared our own lab experiences. This session became a vital part of our project design, capturing student interest by walking them through key concepts such as extracting genes from organisms, amplifying DNA using PCR, and engineering genes in different ways. Besides synthetic biology, we emphasized the importance of sustainability and demonstrated how our work connects to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


Methods
For junior and senior students, we designed materials that matched their ability to engage with greater detail. One was a custom teaching card deck, styled like poker cards, with each card featuring a graphic from our project. These cards supported group activities and memory challenges, helping students retain abstract terms more easily.

We organized two games using our custom teaching card deck:

1. If the facilitator called out "3 DNA times 5 E. coli plus 10 enzymes," the player would need to quickly find them and do the math. The challenge was not as easy as it sounds, which made the students even more engaged in the activity.
2. Each student received one card representing part of the elements of our project, such as DNA, E. coli, enzymes, and food waste. The facilitator would then announce a "mission," for example, "2 DNA plus 3 E. coli to produce one enzyme," or "1 enzyme plus 2 food waste to complete decomposition." Students had to quickly search through each other's cards to assemble the correct combination.



Junior & Senior High School Education Slides:

Elders Education

Objective

For the elders, our teaching method differed from that used with students. Since their familiarity with scientific concepts was generally lower, we adopted a style closer to our kindergarten program. We used simple, image-based slides instead of text materials without overwhelming detail. To make the session more interactive, we apply the same card game, in which each character represents a different element in our project.

Program
It was not an easy task to take care of 30 elderly participants with only a few members of our human practice team. Before the program, we consulted the nursing home staff to learn how to look after them properly. From these conversations, we discovered that their cognitive abilities were roughly comparable to a 7-year-old kid, though with one important difference: most of them could barely understand Mandarin and were more accustomed to speaking in traditional Taiwanese. For us, a group of Gen Z students used to communicating mainly in Mandarin, this language barrier became one of the main challenges since only a few of us could attempt to speak in Taiwanese.

Even so, we didn't give up. We practiced, rewrote our materials, and ensured that everything was clear. Eventually, we confirmed the teaching date and visited several local community centers where many elders gathered. They were amazed at how we used metaphors and simple visualization to explain concepts that initially seemed difficult. Ms. Chang and Mr. Chien, who were nearly 90 years old from Yong He Nursing Home, admitted it was their very first time receiving teaching, as they had never had the chance to attend school before. In a sense, we were offering a first experience of education to those who had missed such opportunities earlier in life.

We were quite nervous at first, unsure of how the elderly would react to our presentation. But as we spoke, we noticed them listening attentively and smiling throughout the activity. Some shared personal stories about food and how life used to be in their younger days, a time when resources were scarce and poverty made every piece of rice treasured. They told us they were proud of us and glad to see young people caring about the environment.

Teaching Materials
In many of the participants, some had vision difficulties, and some preferred Traditional Taiwanese over Mandarin. To address these needs, we redesigned our materials with larger fonts, traditional Taiwanese characters, and bigger illustrations that explained food waste and BSF in simple steps. For those with eyesight or hearing difficulties, we adapted the content into simpler oral storytelling with the aid of microphones. Moreover, recognizing that not everyone was comfortable with the pace of the lesson, we left a gap for a break for them to discuss and chat with us.



These adjustments transformed the session into a link between two divergent generations. We cannot guarantee that every elder fully understood our project, but hopefully, this kind of experience encouraged them to stay curious, leaving a little yet lasting impact.

Elders Education slides:

International Education

9-Day Educational Trip in Sri Lanka

Located on the southeastern tip of the Indian subcontinent, there is a country where students have limited insight into synthetic biology. To help resolve this lack of unexplored knowledge and unveil the mission to spread synthetic biology as far as we could, we went to Sri Lanka for nine days.

This country has unresolved issues with resource limitations, especially in rural schools. There is a shortage of qualified teachers and outdated curricula that do not foster modern skills. The division between the rich and the poor is visible to the naked eye. This ongoing economic crisis has led to one of the world's biggest issues: inequality in education. Being part of the global community, we want to help through a series of lectures that include information on biodiversity, basic biology concepts, and the idea of the food chain. The reason that we chose these biological concepts instead of many other ideas is that our target audience is a group of young pupils. Given these circumstances, and assuming that they have limited prior knowledge on the given topic, we choose to start from the basics and add information gradually.

We taught the kids through the assistance of English vocabulary, music, dancing, and graphics. The structure of each class is backed by Team-Based Learning, in which they work in teams and focus on collaboration to discuss the answer to each question posed by our team. We understand that the traditional way of lecturing no longer fits the needs of the 21st-century students, and with that, we adopted this more efficient way of teaching.

In the end, we conclude that the result of the class was a success as students were able to fully incorporate the knowledge that they had learned in class and connect it to their personal experience. Some related personal instances of raising organisms back home, sharing their ideas as well as feelings towards the subject. Such outcomes indicate that the class enhanced their knowledge about STEM and instilled curiosity to discover the interesting, yet concealed, world they live in.

Expanding Access to Biotechnology Education in Rural Vietnam

Vietnam has recently made significant progress in expanding access to education. Primary school enrollment is approximately 98%, and 90% of schools have internet access. Yet, inequities remain; students often face difficulties transitioning to upper secondary education and accessing high-quality resources, particularly in applied or experiential science learning. While recent curricula emphasize competency-based approaches, many STEM lessons at the primary and secondary levels rely on textbooks heavily, giving limited opportunities to connect scientific concepts with the laboratory. This challenge brings both difficulties and opportunities. Children may not have practical exposure to concepts like DNA or RNA, yet outreach holds great potential to make biology and biotechnology accessible to them. With over 40% of Vietnam's population under the age of 25 and increasing national investment in science, we recognized a unique opportunity to take action.

In cooperation with Sunny Education in a rural village, Dong Nai, our team created a program to introduce basic biology concepts such as DNA, RNA, and simple applications of biotechnology. We aimed to help students see biology as approachable and relevant to their lives.

Nothing could stop our enthusiasm for discussing science, not even the language barrier. The session was held with a class of 11 students, ages 14 to 17. Since our team did not speak the same language, we prepared slides with diagrams and images to illustrate key concepts. These were accompanied by Vietnamese translations and relatable examples to ensure the students could fully engage. We used analogies to compare DNA to an "instruction book," built simple DNA helix models, and watched a live strawberry DNA extraction in a laboratory. When some of the words were too difficult for kids to understand, the teacher helped translate, which made the whole session flow much more smoothly. Despite differences in age and background, the students were actively engaged and asked questions about what they observed. One of the kids (the boy with the green shirt) with STEM interest found this program interesting, even claimed that he would like to become a scientist after this!

Through this program, we showed that even with barriers, science education can be inclusive and dynamic. By incorporating biology into visuals and stories, we helped students experience science–not just on page 267 of their science book.

Immersive Learning

Overview

Immersive learning delivers knowledge by encouraging students to actively participate rather than remain passive listeners. To achieve this, we designed interactive events such as BioQuest and Empty Plate, and took part in the school Science Fair. These experiences drew in students, teachers, and the school community together. For our team, the process reinforced that education is most effective when learners are engaged directly, making immersive learning a powerful tool for activity outreaches.

BioQuest

To enhance and promote our project, we designed a series of activities named BioQuest. The purpose of this was to get more people involved in synthetic biology, especially teenagers at their interest-developmental stage. We set up 6 stations, each specifically designed to learn, understand, connect, explore, or memorize. We have also incorporated mission cards along with the task completion to make the entire process more entertaining, and at the same time, when the participants finish collecting all the stamps incorporated on the collection cards, they are more than welcome to gain one of our swags designed by our team.

Station #1: Lab Gear Discovery Zone
This is where they gain scientific knowledge on how to use specific laboratory instruments, where we will present photos of micropipettes, centrifuges, agarose gels, and many more. Also, we will educate people on the fundamental functions and usage of the instruments in our experiments for the crowd.



Station #2: Human Practice Story Wall
During the past months, there has been extensive progress on human practices in the different countries, places, and educational institutions we have visited to promote our project. We wanted to share our insights on our education journey and involvement with the stakeholders and professors.

Station #3: Interactive Play Area
Using the game cards that we designed, we wanted to leverage the uniqueness of the different suits to make it into a memory-flipping game. It is designed to challenge and improve players' concentration, recall ability, and pattern recognition. All the cards are laid face down, and players take turns flipping over two cards at a time. The goal is to find matching pairs by remembering the position and suit of previously revealed cards.



Station #4: History of Synthetic Biology
We wanted to give participants a clear and engaging introduction to synthetic biology by exploring its history and evolution. We guided participants through the key milestones and breakthroughs that have shaped the field, from early genetic engineering to modern applications in medicine, agriculture, and sustainability.

History of Synthetic Biology slides:

Target Audience & Inclusivity

The design of the BioQuest activity was meant to be universal, which means we can educate and promote our project to the highest degree possible. We took the activity as far as possible with middle and high school students, and it doesn't stop there. We also informed our teachers about the event, which gets more people involved in the momentum that we're currently promoting. There is multilingual content written to simplify explanation with visuals, analogies, and interactive games as support.

The activity that we plan to design is a place that includes various interactions and triggers innovative discussions that help people to spark their inner STEM spirit. As for high school students, while entering a phase where they are expected to know what they are interested in and what they want to do in the future, introducing synthetic biology opens a clear path to explore interdisciplinary fields connected to their interests.

Outcomes
The interactive booths and hands-on game stations all provide the participants with a clearer understanding of what synthetic biology is, what people in the lab do, and what impact we are making through our project. Hosting the BioQuest reassured our purpose in promoting information in the STEM field to a wider public, and these accumulated efforts can therefore embark on more innovation in the future.

Science Fair

We hosted a science fair in our school for all teachers and students from middle to high school to introduce the concept of synthetic biology and connect it to the urgent issue of food waste. But for many students, synthetic biology is often pictured as a tedious field. The science fair is a great opportunity to showcase this concept to broader audiences clearly and simply.

Our team believes that our job is to make the science fair an interactive experience. We designed 2 large posters summarizing the project's objective and procedures, along with a 3D cell model of E.coli and simple illustrations that help us translate obscure biological processes into something approachable. These visuals served as starters, helping visitors visualize how enzymes and BSFL can be applied to waste reduction. To make the presentation engaging, we rotated between short speeches and conversations with visitors. We explained the procedures of our experiment step by step, encouraged questions of any kind, and adapted the explanations depending on whether the listener was a middle school student, a high school student, or a teacher. For those interested in deeper content, we also prepared a presentation, while younger students were guided through simplified demonstrations. Instead of a stiff presentation, we turned the booth into a place for exchange, where students and teachers could explore how synthetic biology affects our everyday life, and we could make use of their questions to prepare for the presentation in the actual event at the Jamboree.

From the moment the fair began, our booth with a striking signboard labeled "iGEM" quickly turned into one of the busiest corners of the building. By the end of the event, nearly 200 people stopped by, and even the principal came for a look.

Moments like these are exactly what we are trying to achieve through our Human Practice: to enlighten curiosity, to encourage discussion, and to prove that synthetic biology can be accessible and meaningful to people of different ages and backgrounds.

Empty the Plate

Our project focuses on food waste treatment, but reducing waste from the very beginning is just as important. With this in mind, we launched what we called the "Empty the Plate" project. This encouraged students to finish the meals they took and leave no leftovers behind. The campaign was grounded in a simple belief: no matter how advanced biotechnology becomes, the most direct way to cut waste is still to avoid creating it in the first place. Every empty plate meant less food sent to bins, less energy spent on disposal, and a reminder that personal choices scale into collective impact. To carry the message across campus, we put up posters with straightforward slogans in the hallways and delivered reminders through announcements during lunchtime.

The staff of our cafeteria mentioned the bins seemed lighter at the end of the day, and some students even commented that they started paying more attention to portion sizes when lining up for food. While not every plate came back spotless, the campaign showed that awareness could translate into visible changes.

Vietnam Rice Donation Plan

Food insecurity is a global challenge that touches countries and communities every day. Some areas face mountains of leftovers, while others struggle with shortages and unstable meals. To help our team and others truly get to know what food insecurity looks like, we designed a rice donation project as part of immersive education. Instead of staying in classrooms or focusing only on lab experiments, this activity brought us into direct contact with communities experiencing hunger.

We announced our idea to the community, recruited volunteers, and raised more than 20,000 NTD funds before traveling to Vietnam. This experience showed how education can be transformed into action, turning awareness into meaningful participation. Inspiring others to learn and then act has always been central to our mission.,

We collaborated with local companies and government officials to organize rice distribution. More than 100 sacks of rice and instant noodles were prepared and delivered across 80 neighborhoods, reaching vulnerable families, the elderly, the disabled, and even a charity kitchen serving children with cancer.

This project transformed abstract statistics into lived experiences. Watching children quietly line up for a simple plate of fried rice revealed the human weight of food shortages in a way no textbook could. Families shared that our support eased their financial stress. For our team, the experience became an education in itself, showing that learning extends beyond science and includes responsibility and inclusivity. These are lessons that can be fully understood through direct engagement.

Through this immersive learning project, we supported more than 120 people while also gaining a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of food waste and insecurity. We view this effort as the beginning of linking science education with community needs rather than just a single activity. By documenting and sharing our journey, we hope to inspire other students and iGEM teams to design outreach that transforms learning into meaningful action.

Rice Donation Plan video:

Voices & Networks

Overview

Beyond classrooms and events, we expanded our reach by building a network on the internet. We launched podcasts, published magazines, organized meetups with 2025 iGEM teams, shared posts on Instagram, and even took part in economic competitions. These platforms allowed us to connect with a broader community, giving people easier access to science online.

Podcast

As part of our effort to promote public engagement, we launched a podcast series on Spotify. We produced three episodes, each focusing on a different perspective: students, professors, and stakeholders. Understanding the project from these multiple viewpoints is crucial for our way to success.
The first episode featured our lab group, who shared insights into experimental design, ongoing work, and even a few hilarious stories from daily lab life. The second episode introduces our Human Practices team, in which we discussed how we planned education programs, conducted interviews, and prepared lesson materials. The final episode included conversations with our professor and key stakeholders, reflecting on how partnerships were formed and why cooperation is important to anyone, not only the iGEM teams.

Ep.1 - Lab Life
This episode gave listeners a closer look at what life in the lab is really like. While many imagine science labs as serious, quiet spaces filled with complicated machines, we wanted to show the more authentic side: the teamwork, the trial and error, and even the moments of fun. We walked through a typical day, explaining how experiments are planned, the tools we use, and the step-by-step process of testing ideas. We also talked about the challenges we faced, such as failed PCRs, broken machines, and long nights ending with failed results. But more importantly, we shared how we dealt with these problems together and learned from our mistakes.

Our goal with this episode is to make lab life feel less distant. We hope to inspire students who are curious about science to see that being a researcher is about "patience".

Ep.2 - Human Practice
We shared three main parts: education, camps, and field visits.

First, we explained how we taught synthetic biology to younger students. We used fun games, drawings, and stories to help them learn. We also shared some funny and touching moments from the 14 teaching sessions we've done, and how it felt to work with students of all different ages.

Next, we talked about our field visits, where we met professors, experts, and people from biotech companies. We shared how we introduced our project to them, asked for advice, and worked hard to get their support.

At the end of the episode, we saved some time to speak from the heart. We talked about everything we've been through this year, including our challenges, our proudest moments, and what we've learned. This part was special to us because this team was led mostly by students. We, a group of high school students, have to deal with almost everything that happened.

Ep.3 - Reflections
In this episode, we spoke with people who have walked the iGEM path before us. We interviewed second-time iGEMers and professors who kindly shared their experiences, advice, and reflections. The returning iGEM team members told us about how they grew from their first iGEM journey: what worked, what didn't, and what they would do differently. Their honest stories helped us see things more clearly and allowed us to avoid common mistakes. They also reminded us that every team faces challenges, but growth comes from pushing through. On the other hand, we've also talked about our interviews with professors who gave us a deeper understanding of BSF and general synthetic biology. Hearing from people with more experience helped us become more mature and focused as a team. This episode meant a lot to us, and we hope it inspires other teams to reach out, listen, and grow.

For us, this podcast series marked a milestone in communication and collaboration. For listeners, it offered a behind-the-scenes look at iGEM—what it feels like to participate, and everything about synthetic biology.

International and National Meetups

Purpose & Audience

We organized both international and national meetups for collaboration in the iGEM community, and in the meantime, aiming to broaden our perspective on synthetic biology. These activities were built as a platform where we could exchange our ideas, compare each other's methodologies, and discuss challenges and solutions of our experiments and financial situations together. Our intended audience included fellow iGEM participants from Taiwan and abroad, along with students from diverse backgrounds and ages. Through these meetups, we aimed to spark conversations, cultivate inspiration, and establish long-term connections between groups to strengthen teamwork across people who love synthetic biology.

Action / Implementation

The first event was the Mexico Team Meeting, held virtually for two hours. The session began with a science trivia activity that encouraged participation and helped teams connect in a relaxed environment. Following this, each team introduced its members and presented its project. We shared the principles behind our work and, in turn, learned about the distinct research directions of the Mexican teams. Open discussions allowed us to reflect on synthetic biology from multiple cultural perspectives, compare strategies for overcoming technical barriers, and consider new methods for public engagement.
The second activity was the Taiwan Teams' Meetup, which was hosted by us. We invited three universities, including CCU, NTHU, and CSMU iGEM teams, and then prepared by studying their projects in advance. About 45 students joined the meetup. Each team delivered a brief introduction to their project and their team members, and the meetup continued with Q&A sessions. The event created an environment where we could exchange constructive feedback while also identifying possibilities for collaboration and inspiration.

Outcome & Impact

The meeting with the Mexico teams broadened our perspective as we saw diverse approaches to applying synthetic biology, which expanded our imagination and provided us with concrete inspiration for refining our own design. The combination of trivia, presentations, and dialogue also made the experience especially engaging and memorable. The Taiwan Meetup had a more immediate impact on our team. With active participation, the discussions also created insights that improved our understanding of our project design and financial management, which created lasting impacts on our own project as a whole.

Public Speech

"We are LarVase, a group of high school students who aim to solve global problems and stand on the podium at the 2025 iGEM competition, Paris."

This was what we announced to the school. After so many educational programs that we held outside the school, we decided to give a speech in front of the entire school. It was the first day of school, and all of the students had just come back from summer vacation. We were pleased to have the chance to promote our project and synthetic biology during the School.

Opening Ceremony

In our speech, we emphasized the seriousness of Taiwan's food waste problem by asking the audience, "Do you know how people deal with wasted food?" Some students raised their hands and guessed answers like "turn it into compost" or "feed it to the pigs." These responses reflected the common practices people are familiar with. As expected, no one mentioned BSFL as a solution, and that was exactly what we had predicted. When we introduced BSFL to the audience, their curiosity was immediately sparked, and they became actively engaged in the discussion.

On the other hand, we also talked about our Human Practices work. We began by sharing our teaching plans designed for different groups of people, covering both local and international education programs. We encouraged them to get involved as well, whether by participating in competitions or by joining volunteer events that serve the community.

Looking back, it wasn't easy for us to step outside of our comfort zone. Reaching out, giving speeches, and sharing our project with the public were all things that we had never done before. But now, we're proud that we took that first step. Whether it's teaching in kindergartens, presenting to professors, or standing in front of our entire school, we've learned that science is shared, experienced, and passed on. And that's what we'll keep doing in the future.

Magazine

Publishing an article in a student-led magazine, Terra Anatomy, gives us another way to share our project outside of papers and screens. The article brought readers to the idea of using engineered E. coli to produce enzymes that help BSFL digest vegetable waste more efficiently. Instead of burying the readers in our experiments with tons of indigestible scientific vocabulary, we explained the challenge of cellulose in food waste through everyday comparisons, showing in simple terms why enzymes matter.

The chance to write for the magazine pushed us to think differently about the delivery. We had to step back from the lab and consider how to tell the story of our project in a way that would catch the attention of someone scrolling through articles unintentionally. That meant simplifying without oversimplifying, finding the balance between being professional and maintaining simplicity. This aim shaped our article into more than a discussion of enzymes and BSF; it became a way to show how science carried out by high school students connects to larger issues that can affect everyone.

The article presented our project in a format very different from posters or lab reports. Rather than outlining every experiment, it opened with the familiar problem of leftover food and then unfolded the science through storytelling. For example, cellular activity was explained in the same way as describing softening food before eating, making the idea easier to grasp without prior background in biology.

Because it appeared in a student-led magazine, the style leaned toward accessibility and flow. The layout paired sections of text with illustrations and headings, creating a rhythm closer to a feature story than a research summary. This approach gave the article a lighter tone that still conveyed the essential details: why E. coli was engineered, what role BSFL plays, and how enzymes make a difference in handling tough plant waste. In this way, the magazine format allowed us to present the project in two dimensions: as an experiment and as a story that linked science to everyday life.

Instagram

When we first created our Instagram account, we didn't want it to feel like just another boring science page. Our goal was simple: to show people what we're working on, let them get to know us, and make science look fun and approachable. Instead of filling it with heavy text or long explanations, we decided to keep things visual and easy to follow, almost like a diary of LarVase's journey through iGEM.

The posts covered pretty much everything we did as a team. Some were about our actual project, including updates on big milestones we hit. A big part of our post was also about outreach. Whenever we went to schools or camps, or even on missions to places like Vietnam and Sri Lanka, we shared snapshots of what happened there. You could see kids playing the board game we designed, and people listening to our talks. Those posts always felt the most alive, because you could see the energy and reactions from the people we were teaching. We also used Instagram to share parts of our team life. We posted group pictures from team-building days, portraits of every member with their role, and even some fun designs for things like merch, donation drives, and our "Girls in STEM" campaign. That side of the page made it feel less like an organization and more like a group of real people trying to do something cool together.

To make everything look consistent, we have our promotion director stuck to a certain style. Same color palette, same kind of fonts, our logo showing up here and there, that way, no matter what the post was about, it all felt like part of one big story. And of course, our mascot Bob showed up too. Having him pop in now and then tied the page back to our education materials and gave us a recognizable little character that people could remember.

Looking back, running Instagram was a lot of work, but it turned into one of the best ways we connected with people. Students liked the animations and bright designs, teachers paid attention to our workshop updates, and even community members followed along when we posted about donations or service projects. Our social media was like our scrapbook, capturing all the moments that made this project meaningful, and letting others be part of it with us.

Economic Competition

After completing the brainstorming stage of our project, we began to struggle with developing real-world business models. To address this, we joined the Blue Ocean Competition and the KCISLK Shark Tank business simulation, aiming to push our project beyond the laboratory and explore its real-world applications. Through these events, we learned how synthetic biology solutions could be shaped into viable business models and how to present our ideas to audiences outside the scientific community. These competitions also gave us the chance to strengthen our communication skills and connect with mentors and professionals.

Blue Ocean Competition

This competition challenged students to design innovative and sustainable business models that addressed global issues while remaining profitable from a company's perspective. For our entry, we developed a model that combined BSFL with biodiesel production. After conducting research, we produced a short video to present our purpose and business plan, which we later posted on YouTube to reach a wider audience. One teacher remarked that our video explained the concept more clearly than he expected from high school students. This experience gave us our first taste of promoting a project to the public, extending our impact beyond the classroom.

Blue Ocean Video:

KCISLK Shark Tank

This school competition required students to apply microeconomic principles by pitching their own business ideas to a panel of 5 external judges. Participants were expected to design, analyze costs, project revenue, and defend their ideas under questioning. For our project, we proposed an enzyme supernatant designed to accelerate food waste decomposition and improve the nutritional value of BSFL.

During the presentation, one judge posed a critical question: "From an economic perspective, what would make our solution competitive compared to current waste management methods?" This was an urgent challenge—one that we also face in iGEM. One of our team members responded that our enzyme was tailored specifically for BSF farms to pretreat food waste, a niche market that existing industrial enzymes do not address. She further explained that our business model included a subscription plan, positioning LarVase as a reliable service. Hearing this, one judge nodded and remarked, "That's the kind of answer investors want."

Through these two competitions, we understand that scientific ideas need to be tested in the marketplace, and it is as important as tests in the lab. When we face the real question from judges and other audiences outside the school, we learn how to promote and communicate our project more effectively.

Souvenir

To help promote our project, we designed a set of souvenirs that combine practicality with awareness. The pen is simple and convenient, making it easy to share our message in everyday use. The sticker carries our logo and can be placed on notebooks or laptops as a reminder of sustainable ideas. The cup holder is both useful and eco-friendly, encouraging people to reduce single-use waste. The pendant is a small keepsake symbolizing our project's spirit. Finally, the folder provides a practical way to organize documents while showcasing our design and theme. By applying the SWAG approach, we ensured that our souvenirs were evaluated in terms of visibility, maximizing their impact in educational outreach.

Conclusion

Our goal has been to introduce synthetic biology, food waste issues, and black soldier fly applications to diverse audiences while also learning from the perspectives and experiences of others. By engaging with different age groups and working with international partners in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, we developed teaching plans and materials tailored to each audience and region, making science more accessible, creative, and inspiring. At the same time, initiatives such as surveys, podcasts, BioQuest, and science fairs allowed us to share our project on a larger scale while receiving valuable feedback to refine our approach. These experiences showed us that outreach is a cycle of sharing and listening: we hope our work inspires others to generate their own ideas, which they can then share in turn, gradually bridging the gap between science and society. This reciprocal process has amplified our impact and provided insights that will guide our team toward more inclusive and meaningful practices in the future.