Challenge:

Children at the preschool age are in a critical period of developing their scientific thinking, and their comprehension abilities are still developing. As a result, it is difficult for them to understand the numerous scientific concepts in traditional science popularization education. Therefore, how to enable children to truly perceive and touch these complex scientific concepts has become the core challenge in the design and implementation of this science enlightenment activity.

Contest:We have noticed that the core literacy of "Creativity + STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)" is gradually becoming a key component of core competitiveness in the future society. Synthetic biology, as a highly promising emerging discipline today, while the current education field somewhat overlooks the cultivation of children's thinking modes in the actual training process. Therefore, we hope to cultivate and develop children's "Creativity + STEM" in this activity and plant a seed in their hearts of using the ideas of synthetic biology to solve problems in life.

Outcome

Children are like "competent cells", sensitive and eager to learn more knowledge. Therefore, we produced some popular science animation videos with lovely images and short durations and showed them to the children to help them understand "Why do some classmates feel uncomfortable in the stomach after drinking milk?" A cute child asked us, "Then how can we tell the stomach not to feel uncomfortable?" We were delighted by this question and explained to the children how to drink milk scientifically.

In the subsequent activities, we prepared some drawing paper and brushes for the children to draw the bacteria in their minds, so as to deepen their understanding of relevant knowledge and demonstrate their creativity. After the activity, we heard a child explaining the new knowledge learned that day to his parents. And the parents watched the children's growth with joy. We are also pleased to see that this seed is gradually germinating. What makes us even more delighted is that some parents hope their children will have more opportunities to demonstrate their creativity in the future, so they expressed their desire to carry out such science enlightenment activities regularly with our team during the communication with us.

Refect

In the process of analyzing this interaction, we encouraged the children to tell others the new knowledge they had learned again. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that the children expressed the content of the videos we prepared in their own words well when sharing with their parents. For example: "Tiny bacteria multiply more and more in the stomach, producing many small bubbles, which make our stomachs big." We believe this shows that the children are willing to accept our activity format and have well absorbed this knowledge.However, we also found some areas that can be improved. For instance, although we tried to use animation in the explanation process, it was still difficult for the children to visualize the bacteria. The children's understanding of this concept may be insufficient, and we believe that we should try to improve this problem in the subsequent activities.

kindergarten artworks

Challenge:

In this activity, we engaged with energetic children outside the school setting, making prioritizing their safety our foremost concern. Furthermore, feedback from our previous "ECE-Visit: Science Enlightenment" activity indicated that children needed tangible objects to help leave a deeper impression of complex scientific concepts in their minds.

Contest:

During our visits to kindergartens, we noticed that many, constrained by teaching resources, found it difficult to conduct specialized science outreach activities. Instruction often relied more on traditional, repetitive knowledge transmission. Compared to being "filled," children's curiosity about the world needs more to be "caught" and nurtured. It was encouraging that our team's university possesses rich teaching resources, including laboratories and a specimen museum. Therefore, we looked forward to sharing these high-quality educational resources with more children.

Outcome：

To ensure the children had an unforgettable experience during this rare off-campus learning opportunity, through our communications, we secured access to open laboratories and the specimen museum for the children to visit. Simultaneously, we invited many teachers with extensive teaching experience: Gong Ye, Yuan Ye, Sun Mingzhou, Meng Yue, Jiang Peng, Wang Xiuli... to help us optimize the science content and guide our members on how to better help children open the door to life sciences.

During the tour, children looking at fluorescent proteins on a computer screen asked, "Why are they colorful?" When facing a Siberian tiger specimen, a little boy pointed at the patterns on the fur and asked, "Are the stripes on every tiger's back different? Why?" We patiently answered each of their endearing questions. At the end of the activity, one of our members crouched down to explain the various meanings embedded in our team logo to the children.

When the activity concluded, reviewing the photos of the children—their smiling faces gathered around various instruments and specimens—deeply moved us. The real equipment and specimens threw the "whys" back to the children, allowing them to gain the self-affirmation that "I can think"—this is closer to the essence of science enlightenment than any specific piece of knowledge.

Refect:

We compared the children's feedback and the observed outcomes with those from our previous kindergarten visit. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, compared to the last activity, the children's descriptions of their newly acquired knowledge were more three-dimensional and accurate. We believe this sufficiently demonstrates that the improvements we made based on the previous activity effectively helped the children better understand the living world. We also look forward to the children using their own hands to push open the door to biology in the future.

Challenge:

Children in primary school are beginning to develop their own ideas and are full of boundless imagination. Our primary task was to help them clarify their thoughts and encourage them to confidently showcase their creativity.

Contest:

Primary school children better understand concrete, tangible things and struggle with overly abstract theories. Although they have their own ideas, these ideas are often fragmented and require guidance to form complete creative concepts. Simple conceptual explanations are insufficient to create a lasting impression; repetition or practical examples are needed for reinforcement.

Outcome:

We adopted a process of "Scenario Introduction -- Knowledge Explanation -- Interactive Consolidation --Frontier Expansion --Creative Practice -- Summary and Elevation." This created a friendly and engaging environment for the children. They actively answered our questions, demonstrated their ideas and creativity, later brainstormed designs for their own "biological little helpers," and confidently took the stage to explain their creations.Reflect Frankly, we were astonished by the creativity the children displayed under our guidance. One particularly impressive instance was a child proposing the use of engineered bacteria to create a helper that could locate cancer cells in the body and secrete 'stomach acid' to eliminate them. Other equally exciting ideas included "mosquitoes that glow in the dark" and "tiny bacteria that decompose trash and produce oxygen simultaneously."

Challenge:

During our research, we identified issues of insufficient teaching resources in some regions and disparities between different areas. Simultaneously, synthetic biology, a key globally developing field, occupies a relatively small portion of primary and secondary education curricula. Therefore, we aimed to visit regions with relatively fewer educational resources and, without deviating from the learning context, transform cutting-edge knowledge like synthetic biology into content suitable for different students, tailoring unique teaching plans for specific areas.

Contest：

Our team members hail from all over the country. Through our interactions, we noticed significant differences in the educational levels received by students from different regions. Based on this, we consulted He Huang, who has long been engaged in educational research, and learned that some rural schools relatively lack teaching resources, practical, and diverse educational opportunities, further limiting rural children's exposure to cutting-edge knowledge and broadening their horizons.

Providing better educational opportunities for these regions is not only a pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality but also, as Benjamin Carson stated, an opportunity for all children to pursue their dreams.

Additionally, under the guidance of Teacher Huang He, we noticed that with economic development, educational hardware in many regions has been improved, yet it still fails to meet rural children's desire for high-quality and diverse education. They need courses that connect their hometowns with the outside world, teaching that ignites interest and dreams, and above all, the hope that "hometowns can nurture growth". We hope to address these needs.

Fortunately, we are able to rely on Northeast Normal University—known as "the cradle of people's teachers"—to provide support for these children in need in terms of teaching facilities, excellent teachers, and teaching methods, and fulfill our social responsibility.

Outcome:

Through our efforts, team members joined six volunteer teaching teams, set off from Changchun, and entered rural schools which are scattered across the length and breadth of China.

To ensure the children have access to high-quality educational resources, our team members discussed and revised teaching plans tailored to each region. When designing the plans, we aimed to let the children truly experience the fun of biology, especially synthetic biology. For primary school students, we prepared plant collages to help them recognize the diversity of plants around them. For junior high school students, we designed more in-depth content: we arranged “Lab Talk with Rural Kids", which not only broadened the children's horizons and introduced them to cutting-edge synthetic biology but also helped them understand how such advanced knowledge changes the world.

In evaluating our teaching effectiveness, we sought a more authentic and heartfelt approach instead of traditional exams. We prepared lacquer fans, allowing the children to express their views on our teaching and synthetic biology while experiencing this traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, we conducted face-to-face interviews with selected students (with actual durations recorded and mapped). Beyond demonstrating their progress, the students also expressed their eager yearning for the outside world. Thus, we decided to collect messages from other outstanding synthetic biology teams for these curious children at the global jamboree in Paris and deliver them during our next volunteer teaching activity.

Refect

In selecting volunteer teaching locations, we recognize that the number of schools covered this time is insufficient, and more activities are needed to help more children.During classes, we found that approximately 98% of the children had no knowledge of synthetic biology due to limited educational resources. However, in the final class after our volunteer teaching, almost all children could share their views on synthetic biology. Many children openly said they never expected science to be so close to their lives; especially after learning that some team members are from rural areas, they became more certain that "life science" is not an unreachable term but a path they can also take. Therefore, we will involve more team members from rural areas in future activities to stand alongside the children.Truly "presenting knowledge to children" requires more than one-time donations; the postcards brought back from Paris are just the beginning, and we will continue to build connections.And many children still need help, but we can’t reach them. Thus, we hope more iGEM teams will join us, and our team will keep expanding this initiative.

Jintang County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province — Plant Colla

Suixian County, Shangqiu City, Henan Province — Laboratory Video Connection & Bookmark Making

Guoyang County, Bozhou City, Anhui Province — Questionnaire Survey

Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region — Lacquer Fan Making

Huarong District, Ezhou City, Hubei Province — Principle Animation Screening

Fengxin County, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province — Life-Scenario-Based Explanation

Challenge:

The 27+ schools selected for this activity are located in remote areas of Jilin Province, where insufficient basic teaching resources and poor transportation pose challenges. Additionally, the large scale of the activity demands more rigorous time management for our team.

Contest:

Following the PE-Volunteering: Cross-Provincial Volunteer Teaching activity, we consistently hoped to once again contribute our share of effort to help children in need. Through multiple contacts, we obtained the opportunity to share educational resources at 27 rural schools within Jilin Province. These schools are also relatively remote, but we had relevant experience. Building on the previous foundation, we improved our plan based on many ideas suggested by the lovely children.

Outcome：

Children from previous activities once expressed concerns: "There are not many teachers here who understand synthetic biology and other cutting-edge disciplines; transportation is difficult, so we can't go outside to learn this knowledge; how can we learn more about synthetic biology after the activity?" To address this problem fundamentally, we included local teachers in our teaching activities during this event. We not only retained the previous interactive sessions with children but also prepared videos and PPTs to help teachers learn about synthetic biology, expanding their understanding of the discipline. By opening this door for teachers first, they can continue to "light the torch" for the children in the long run.

Refect

Before this activity, our team members visited 27 schools within two months and communicated with approximately 12,000 students. After class, many teachers noted that the activity had greatly broadened the children's horizons. What excited us most, however, was that teachers mentioned improvements in their own teaching methods—they said the activity inspired them to incorporate more cutting-edge content into their lessons, allowing the children's minds to transcend the mountains that surround them.

junior high school speech draft

high school speech draft

primary school presentation design

High school in-depth knowledge lesson plan

IGEM Promotion Brochure

IGEM Russian Promotion Brochure

IGEM japanese Promotion Brochure

IGEM Chinese Promotion Brochure

some-common-computer-and-mathematical-french

some-common-computer-and-mathematical-methods-in-the-process-of-synthetic-biology-arabic

some-common-computer-and-mathematical-methods-in-the-process-of-synthetic-biology-japanese

some-common-computer-and-mathematical-methods-in-the-process-of-synthetic-biology-russian

works-by-students-of-primary-school-affiliated-to-northeast-normal-university-compressed

juniorppt

seniorppt

Challenge：

Chinese middle school students face immense pressure, so we aimed to minimize disruption to them.

Simultaneously, we hoped to expand upon their existing knowledge with more前沿 theories, helping them deepen their understanding of biology.

Contest：

Through discussions within the team, we focused on the core developmental needs of the middle school student demographic: In 2-3 years, they will face major choices after the Gaokao and enter university. However, currently, most middle school students have little understanding of university major structures, the research directions of different disciplines, or corresponding future career paths. They often make vague judgments based solely on "name impressions" or "others' suggestions," lacking clear planning based on their own interests and understanding. This undoubtedly hinders their ability to make suitable future choices. Therefore, we hoped to communicate knowledge face-to-face with middle school students, broaden their disciplinary horizons, and assist in their future decision-making.

Outcome：

During our interactions with students, we introduced cutting-edge developments in various branches of biology, particularly synthetic biology, using our project as an example. The students were surprised to find that biological research differs greatly from what they learned in textbooks, and they also recognized the development potential of synthetic biology. They even used their biological knowledge to design a class-specific synthetic biology plan to address lactose intolerance with us; our team members discussed and revised this preliminary plan with them. Undoubtedly, the children's interest in synthetic biology and their ability to apply biological knowledge make us optimistic about their future. The children also expressed a desire for more opportunities to conduct synthetic biology experiments and realize their own ideas.

Refect

Before the presentation, we always worry that middle school students might pose profound scientific questions. As freshmen in college with limited knowledge, we grow so anxious that we stay up late cramming for the session, dreading being unable to answer them.However, during the lectures, the most common question was, "What do you do every day when studying biological science?" At that moment, we realized: what they need at this stage is not the "standard answer" to a specific question, but a "senior who has been there" to say, "I am walking on the path you are curious about. I was once as anxious as you, but you can do it too if you dare to try."

Challenge：

Many students have their own activities during summer vacation, making it difficult to find common free time. Therefore, we needed to ensure students gained a deep understanding of the basic concepts and experimental skills of synthetic biology within a compact schedule, truly igniting sustained interest.

In our SE-Outreach: School Science Lecture, we found that most high school students had basically never personally conducted synthetic biology experiments, thus lacking confidence in their ability to perform these seemingly "cutting-edge" experiments.

Contest:

High school students' perception of life sciences mostly remains at the theoretical textbook level, leading to a superficial understanding of the discipline. They lack experience in professional experiments like PCR and cell transfection, and are skeptical about their ability to complete these synthetic biology experiments, making it difficult for them to appreciate the practical charm of life sciences.

Therefore, we believed we could leverage our university's rich experimental resources and guidance from experts in synthetic biology to give the children a hands-on opportunity to perform synthetic biology experiments, letting them understand that it isn't so complex and that the openness of synthetic biology welcomes all students willing to study it.

Outcome：

Under the guidance of instructors, we led the children in our own laboratory to amplify their own bright bands using a PCR machine. Another group of children saw their successfully transfected cells in fluorescent images. While deepening their understanding of key and difficult biological knowledge from their textbooks, the children also produced excellent experimental results. This demonstrated an exciting possibility to us: many high school students do not lack the ability to produce excellent experimental results. They just need an opportunity to access synthetic biology experiments. There are many more seeds of outstanding synthetic biologists waiting to be discovered. After completing the experiments, we also shared the latest progress in synthetic biology with the students and introduced our project. We hope the students can derive beneficial insights from our project and retain them for the future when they can realize these ideas.

Refect

During the experiments, we noticed that the students performed well in PCR (a key topic in the college entrance examination) and could raise in-depth questions after the experiment. However, the more extensible cell transfection segment required more time for them to understand. Therefore, we believe that synthetic biology education for students should integrate theoretical teaching and experimental practice. This way, students can reflect on theoretical knowledge during experiments and understand experimental principles through theoretical learning.

Challenge

As the Chinese saying goes, “Every area has its own customs”. There are significant cultural differences between regions. How to accurately identify regional gaps during communication and adjust educational directions accordingly is our key challenge.

Contest：

Currently, college students mostly study in the established academic environment of their own universities, with limited opportunities for cross-regional communication. This makes it hard for them to access the thinking characteristics of different regions, and such "vision limitations" easily trap students in rigid thinking patterns—hindering the cultivation of innovative thinking and interdisciplinary abilities. Cross-regional communication is an important way to break this limitation. Meanwhile, the southwest region, as a major gathering area for ethnic minorities in China, has diverse cultures that are ideal for enhancing our thinking abilities.

Outcome：

We hope this activity is not a one-way "top-down" output, but a dialogue conducted from an equal perspective to truly touch people's hearts. Through this activity, we have identified the key points of science popularization in ethnic minority gathering areas. As a Chinese proverb says, "If the mountain will not come to me, I will go to the mountain." Facing language and cultural differences, we plan to convert professional terms into understandable expressions in future activities, ensuring that education is truly implemented rather than remaining superficial.

Challenge：

Previously, our project only received guidance within our university and lacked review from external peers. At this conference, we needed to demonstrate the feasibility and social value of our project to others in a short time. Thus, how to efficiently share our project, showcase its innovations and value, and conduct in-depth discussions with other teams became our core challenge.

Contest：

Many universities in Northeast China have relatively limited experience in participating in iGEM, so they are in urgent need of a platform to exchange innovations and spark ideas. Therefore, after the first Northeast China iGEM Conference organized by the previous iGEM team of our university, we participated in the second session. We shared our perspectives with 13 teams including CJUH-JLU-China and NEFU-China, and gained the opportunity to present our work on stage.

Outcome：

During the conference, we attempted to introduce to other iGEM teams in eight minutes how we used synthetic biology to modify Bifidobacterium to address lactose intolerance. We also conducted exchanges with other iGEM teams; through the collision of ideas, we established a deep friendship with iGEMers from other teams, laying a foundation for future cooperation.

Refect

be replaced with a more potent one?" and "Will transferring multiple plasmids simultaneously impose a heavy burden on engineered bacteria?" have prompted us to think further. It also made us realize that communication with other teams broadens our horizons. We look forward to more opportunities to examine our original design from new perspectives together with other teams.

This exchange helped us gain new perspectives. Questions such as "Can the Pgap promoter

Challenge：

CCiC brings together iGEM teams from all regions of China, and these teams vary significantly in their academic years, educational backgrounds, and research directions.Therefore, we will face more severe challenges in sharing our projects better than how we did at the previous IGEM Exchange Meeting in Northeast China.

Meanwhile, we need to accurately identify content valuable for project improvement from a vast amount of information to enhance our work effectively.

Contest：

During our previous exchanges with iGEM teams from Guizhou Normal University and the Northeast China iGEM teams, we recognized the importance of communication. As the largest iGEM exchange event in China, CCiC gathers 107 outstanding iGEM teams for joint exchanges in Beijing, where numerous new ideas emerge from the collision of perspectives. Thus, we look forward to communicating with like-minded iGEMers and jointly advancing synthetic biology.

Outcome：

During the exchange meeting, we recorded and analyzed the innovations and ideas of other outstanding iGEM teams, communicated with them off-stage, and shared our own ideas on-stage. Gradually, various improvement plans for experimental content and social practice took shape.

During the poster session, we simulated the scenarios we would encounter at the iGEM Jamboree by proactively explaining our project to other participants. In this process, some teams showed great interest in our methods for evaluating children’s learning outcomes, so we discussed our teaching plans with them; other teams raised questions about molecular dynamics simulations, prompting us to analyze the credibility of such simulations. Through this "learning-by-teaching" process, we gradually overcame nervousness, improved our expressive abilities, and made efforts to better communicate synthetic biology in the future.

Refect

Through exchanges with other teams, we found that most mature teams have exclusive "mascots," which not only highlight team characteristics but also enhance recognition and affinity. In contrast, our team previously lacked such representative visual symbols. Therefore, after discussions, we created our own mascot integrating the characteristics of our team. 。Additionally, we summarized a wealth of experiences and areas for improvement, hoping to provide support for the next generation of iGEMers from our university in their exploration of synthetic biology.

Challenge：

The field of synthetic biology involves many controversial topics, so debate topics must combine scientific rigor and discussion value.

Meanwhile, intense confrontations of views may arise during the debate. It is necessary to guide the debate in an orderly manner to avoid meaningless disputes, and summarize the views of both sides after the debate to prevent one-sided perspectives on the ethical issues of synthetic biology.

Contest：

Currently, academic exchanges on synthetic biology in universities mostly take the form of symposiums featuring "experts giving lectures and students listening." In this model, students often remain in a state of "passive reception," lacking opportunities to actively express their views and engage in in-depth discussions with others. They struggle to examine professional issues from multiple perspectives such as technical feasibility, ethical compliance, and social value, leading to their understanding of the discipline being limited to "one-way input" content, which hinders the effective development of their critical thinking and independent thinking abilities.

Outcome：

We invited NEFU-China to engage in a collision of ideas with us on the ethical issues of synthetic biology. After jointly selecting debate topics, we finally determined "Should the scientific community or the public hold the primary right to speak on ethical disputes in synthetic biology?" as the core topic. Around this topic, both sides engaged in intense debates from multiple dimensions, including professional cognition, the essence of ethics, and interest concerns. Questions such as "Professionalism or universality?" and "Should professionals or the public hold the right to define ethics?" demonstrated both sides’ in-depth thinking on the ethical issues of synthetic biology. When the debate concluded, all participants deeply recognized that the healthy development of synthetic biology requires not only adhering to scientific rationality and rigor but also listening to the voices and concerns of the public, so that synthetic biology can truly serve the sustainable development of human society.

Refect

Debate is an activity that involves the collision of thoughts through language. It enables the continuous circulation of different ideas, helps identify one’s own shortcomings, and allows the absorption of others’ strengths. It is in such exchanges that we and other iGEMers explore the role of ethics in synthetic biology and refine our thinking systems. Knowledge acquired through passive reception is sublimated in active expression.

Challenge：

The boot camp targets selected outstanding students within the university, so the course content must balance depth and breadth. The key challenge is designing course content that helps students from different majors and academic years deepen their understanding of synthetic biology and stimulate their interest in exploring the discipline.

Contest：

Our university has established three national key classes in biology, mathematics, and physics. We hope to pass on the "spark" of synthetic biology to these outstanding students and jointly explore synthetic biology. Meanwhile, as an interdisciplinary and integrated discipline, synthetic biology also provides opportunities for students from different majors to develop their abilities.

Outcome：

To help students personally experience the improvement of their abilities and the cultivation of interests through participating in iGEM, we invited Senior Yuming Wang, the team leader of the previous iGEM team, to introduce the applications of synthetic biology and the comprehensive ability training provided by iGEM. After that, our team members shared our current project ideas and invited students to put forward their own opinions. Students majoring in physics and mathematics offered their insights on issues such as the ordinary differential equation descriptions of metabolic pathways and the prevention of gene leakage based on their professional knowledge. These ideas from other majors broadened our perspectives, prompting us to improve the rigor of mathematical descriptions and the handling of boundary conditions to make our descriptions more consistent with experiments. Additionally, many students from other majors expressed curiosity about the implementation process of our ideas and looked forward to personally conducting the experiments presented in our PPT.

Refect

This activity once again proves that synthetic biology, as a cutting-edge interdisciplinary discipline, requires the joint efforts of students from multiple majors to pioneer new paths in synthetic biology with innovative ideas. We hope to pass on our passion for synthetic biology like a "flame," igniting other students’ inspiration for synthetic biology and moving forward together.

Challenge:

Synthetic biology is a cutting-edge field integrating biology, engineering, chemistry, and other disciplines, and exploring synthetic biology requires solid experimental skills. A major challenge we face is designing a teaching plan that balances "universality" and "professionalism" for college students with diverse backgrounds who wish to engage in synthetic biology research.

Meanwhile, a single assessment method cannot fully reflect students’ growth. Another challenge in the course implementation is designing diversified assessment methods to comprehensively evaluate students’ mastery of knowledge and their innovative abilities.

Contest：

As the connection between synthetic biology and daily life becomes increasingly close, more and more students are joining the exploration of the future of synthetic biology. However, many undergraduates have limited opportunities to access this field, lacking chances to learn and understand synthetic biology, which makes it difficult for them to "open the door" to the discipline. Therefore, we hope to share our relevant resources and offer a synthetic biology course for college students to help more people open this door and enter the world of synthetic biology.

Outcome：

We adopted a "case-based teaching + project-driven learning" approach, allowing students to learn theoretical knowledge in the process of solving problems. Meanwhile, we set up a "group project design" task, encouraging students to independently propose synthetic biology issues they are interested in and design experiments to try to solve them, thereby stimulating their enthusiasm for active learning.

According to post-course feedback, over 80% of students stated that "the course content is rich and practical, balancing theory and practice," and 75% of students believed that "project-driven teaching makes learning more goal-oriented."

Through the implementation of this course, the team summarized a synthetic biology undergraduate teaching model of "hierarchical teaching + project-driven learning + diversified assessment," and developed a complete set of course handouts, experimental instruction manuals, and teaching video resources. These materials can provide references for the subsequent iteration of the course and the launch of similar courses in other universities. Meanwhile, the experience in laboratory resource allocation and faculty team collaboration provides a replicable plan for universities to carry out practical teaching in cutting-edge interdisciplinary disciplines.

Refect

What excites us is that students not only mastered relevant skills but also applied the knowledge learned in the course to propose new designs. For example, "Slumber Guardian — an artificial cell system that monitors orexin levels and administers drugs adaptively." The achievements of this activity have been highly recognized by the leaders of our university and are expected to be continued.

Challenge：

Most of the students participating in this activity have not received university-level biology courses and experimental training, so they are not familiar with many basic operations. Additionally, their majors cover physics and mathematics. Therefore, it is necessary to develop experimental guidance methods suitable for students with different academic backgrounds and limited foundational knowledge.

Contest：

After the conclusion of the "TE-Collab: University Partnership Program," we found that many students looked forward to conducting experiments with their own hands. Through our efforts, we obtained the opportunity to open our laboratory to students from other majors. As we learned from the valuable experience with children earlier, theory and experiment should advance hand in hand. Especially for these outstanding students with backgrounds in mathematics and computer science, recognizing the role of their knowledge in other fields can better stimulate their interest.

Outcome：

After providing experimental safety training to the students, we divided them into groups based on their backgrounds in mathematics and computer science. For students majoring in mathematics, after jointly deriving the growth curves of bacterial strains under certain given conditions, we invited them to personally test these conditions and, with our assistance, measure the bacterial density curves within 48 hours. For students with a certain computer background, we prepared basic files to facilitate their exploration of lactase mutation directions under various conditions and invited them to participate in lactase extraction.

Refect

In the final conversations with the students, almost all of them were surprised that their majors can play an important role in other fields and confirmed that the development of synthetic biology indeed requires the joint efforts of people with different academic backgrounds. Therefore, we believe that these outstanding students have established confidence in synthetic biology and will continue to pay attention to the development of the discipline in the future.

Challenge：

Synthetic biology is highly professional, and iGEM, as an internationally renowned competition, is difficult for freshmen—who have limited professional knowledge and a narrow international perspective—to understand in depth.

Freshmen have just transitioned from an exam-oriented education system, so they pay little attention to opportunities in college life such as skill development and exploring personal interests.

Contest：

Freshmen who have just entered the university need guidance from seniors and juniors to learn about study and life experiences and re-examine their previous perceptions of university. We also hope to have a relaxed opportunity to communicate with our juniors and seniors, discuss our views on biology, and look forward to their future growth.

Outcome：

We set up a communication booth at the college's freshman orientation site and shared college life experiences with freshmen while helping them carry their luggage. We believe that such relaxed and casual conversations allow freshmen to express their views freely and alleviate their anxiety about entering the university. During this process, we also popularized knowledge about synthetic biology and corrected some misconceptions about synthetic biology and international competitions represented by iGEM. The freshmen were very willing to communicate with us and expressed a desire to learn more about synthetic biology.

Refect

A parent told us: "My daughter really needs this kind of communication to help her familiarize herself with the campus and see more possibilities in life. The inability to see diverse options is often the reason that prevents children from making better choices." This aligns perfectly with our goal: by helping children understand the various possibilities in life, we give them more opportunities to discover their own interests.

Challenge：

Freshmen have almost no understanding of scientific research, so the lecture content must start with basic concepts. Meanwhile, freshmen’s previous understanding of various fields of biology is relatively superficial. A major difficulty is helping students update their understanding of biology without dampening their interest in the discipline.

Contest：

The words of that parent made us realize that we need to provide more opportunities for freshmen to help them discover biology and, in turn, discover more possibilities for themselves. Additionally, many freshmen consider "scientific research" an unattainable concept for undergraduates. We hope to break this perception and tell them that scientific research is actually within reach.

Outcome：

We shared this idea with many teachers in our college and gained their approval. Therefore, under the guidance of experts in various fields of our university, we designed our PPT and presentation methods and delivered the lecture to approximately 150 freshmen. This helped the freshmen develop a macroscopic and comprehensive understanding of biology. It was also at this lecture that many students heard about synthetic biology for the first time and showed interest in it.

Refect

During the Q&A and communication session with the students, many of them stated that they still find it difficult to understand the impact of some disciplines on daily life and their social value. This indicates that this form of promotion may make it hard for freshmen to perceive the changes that biology brings to life, and we need to explore a more life-oriented and intuitive approach.

Challenge：

Selecting appropriate films is crucial. The films must balance scientific nature and viewing appeal, avoiding those that are too obscure, overly entertaining, or lack scientific connotations. Additionally, it is necessary to guide students to discuss the scientific content in the films to prevent discussions from staying superficial.

Contest：

After team discussions, we noticed that films—an artistic form—can serve as a platform for freshmen to understand the impact of biology on society. Although films are highly artistic, excellent works such as Jurassic Park indeed imply the global impact brought by the development of life sciences and can trigger deeper thinking through artistic processing.

Outcome：

We selected films such as Cell Battle, Upgrade, and Elysium for the salon. To ensure the films balance scientific nature and viewing appeal, we organized discussions and voting in advance to decide which films to screen.

We also prepared scientific background materials and discussed scientific and technological issues presented in the films with students during intermissions. The students also enriched their understanding of biology: Cells at Work! was recognized as a popular science interpretation of systems physiology, and Jurassic Park stimulated their thinking about genetic technology.

Refect

By comparing the depth of students’ thinking before and after watching the films, we found that using films—a life-oriented artistic form—effectively helped students absorb many biological concepts and quietly stimulated their thinking about biological issues. Perhaps in the future, a trace of inspiration for some remarkable scientific research will come from a film made years ago.

Challenge：

We need to conduct surveys to ensure the types of milk we prepare cover most categories, so that participating students can have the opportunity to taste their favorite types of milk.Meanwhile, we need to design sessions to help students truly understand the inconveniences caused by lactose intolerance and discuss our solutions with them.

Contest：

Many students find it difficult to understand the impact of lactose intolerance on patients, lack an understanding of its pathogenesis, and even do not know if they themselves suffer from lactose intolerance. We also hope to find out if there are freshmen with lactose intolerance.

Outcome：

After inviting freshmen to taste various types of milk, we rated the milk based on multiple dimensions and analyzed the ratings together with the content of lactose and other substances to explore the possible relationship between lactose content and milk taste. Meanwhile, we asked the freshmen to imagine the feeling of never being able to drink milk again after enjoying their favorite type of milk and then prevented them from tasting milk again. We hoped that by using the loss of something good, more people would understand the difficulties faced by patients with lactose intolerance.

Refect

After participating in this activity, many students clearly expressed that they felt the impact of lactose deprivation on themselves and further realized that if the troubles brought by the "assumption" are inevitable, real patients will only face more severe risks.

Challenge：

On the streets of Guiyang, we encountered many ethnic minority compatriots who are still accustomed to using their native languages or local dialects. If team members have limited proficiency in dialects, they may find it difficult to accurately convey the scientific principles and coping methods behind lactose intolerance, even leading to misunderstandings. In the international neighborhoods of Beijing, foreigners come from diverse backgrounds, with different English accents and cultural contexts. Many of them lack basic knowledge of professional concepts such as "synthetic biology," posing challenges to communication efficiency. More generally, the public has varying levels of trust in street science popularization activities. Some people are unwilling to proactively share their own confusion about lactose intolerance due to concerns about information authenticity or privacy protection, making it difficult for us to collect real feedback.

Contest：

We realized that there are still gaps in the understanding of lactose intolerance among residents in ethnic minority areas of China, and a smooth bridge has not yet been built between traditional dietary concepts and modern health knowledge. Therefore, we attempted to carry out targeted science popularization for ethnic minority groups in Guiyang and foreign groups in Beijing. We not only aimed to convey accurate knowledge but also hoped to gather questions and suggestions from diverse cultural perspectives to help our project develop a more inclusive and accessible communication path.

Outcome：

In Guiyang, we arranged for team members proficient in the dialects of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan to conduct face-to-face conversations with local ethnic minority compatriots, explaining the causes of lactose intolerance and suggestions on scientific milk consumption in life-oriented language. In Beijing, we mainly communicated with foreigners in English, introducing the content of our project and listening to their opinions and questions from an international perspective.

Reflect：

These two street science popularization activities made us more acutely aware of the difficulties and necessity of cross-cultural communication. We collected 15 pieces of confusion and suggestions from the public with different cultural backgrounds, which directly reflected the blind spots in the understanding of lactose intolerance. They also reminded us that true science popularization is not a one-way output; instead, we must first listen to and understand the other party's words and their context. This experience also strengthened our determination to more proactively incorporate multilingual and multicultural considerations into the design and communication of our project in the future, ensuring that scientific knowledge truly circulates.

Challenge：

At the beginning of the project, we realized that there is still a cognitive gap between book knowledge and the real industry. If we cannot gain in-depth insight into the entire chain of dairy production and visit pastures and workshops in person, our solutions may only remain as paper-based assumptions. True education begins with stepping out of the classroom and into the field.

Contest：

For this reason, we visited the “Adopt a cow” Pasture and the Shandong Intelligent Manufacturing Center. These two sites are like open three-dimensional textbooks: the former illustrates the breeding science and ethical responsibility behind the quality of milk sources, while the latter demonstrates how the modern food industry transforms raw milk into safe and accessible dairy products. We hoped that through these on-site visits, we could bring knowledge back to real scenarios and ensure our project starts from the problem and focuses on practical implementation.

Outcome：

At the “Adopt a cow” Pasture, education took place amid the scent of green grass and the mooing of cows. We were no longer distant onlookers but observed the scientific breeding and health management of cows up close. When the breeders explained how intelligent systems ensure the welfare of cows and the quality of milk production, the textbook concepts of "animal welfare" and "milk source safety" transformed into vivid daily details before our eyes. At the Shandong Intelligent Manufacturing Center, education continued amid the light and shadow of clean workshops and the rhythm of production lines. We witnessed how raw milk goes through a series of sophisticated processes to eventually become a product on the dining table. In the R&D laboratories, we communicated side by side with engineers, listening to how they balance taste and nutrition and address technical bottlenecks in actual production. These conversations turned abstract terms like "technology transformation" and "process optimization" into daily practices full of challenges and wisdom.

Reflect：

This trip was a true "two-way education." We brought the perspectives and questions of young students and returned with the warmth and insights from the frontline of the industry. The standards of raw milk and the pain points in production are no longer just terms in literature but have become real guiding beacons for our project. We made a vlog of this experience, which is not only documentation but also a form of dissemination—we hope to let more people see that education can take place in workshops and science can germinate in dialogues. During this process, we also learned how to make knowledge grounded and useful to people.

Challenge：

The Minister has limited time, so we needed to report our achievements to the Minister within a short period.

Contest：

During Minister Huai's visit to Northeast Normal University, we were honored to have the opportunity to invite Minister Huai to give guidance on our project.

Outcome：

We invited Yuming Wang, the team leader of the 2024 NENU-iGEM team, to sort out and share together the growth she achieved through participating in iGEM. We also introduced the problems our team intends to solve and our approaches this time.

Minister Huai was pleased with the growth Yuming Wang achieved through iGEM and believed that our current project has certain innovativeness, expressing expectation for further discussions on its scientific aspects.

Challenge：

Discussions on synthetic biology issues require perspectives from multiple disciplines. Therefore, a major difficulty is communicating with many teachers from different fields to secure cooperation opportunities.

Contest：

Since Minister Huai expressed expectation for us to conduct further in-depth discussions on the scientific aspects of the project, we decided to establish a communication platform between university experts and student teams. This platform is intended to help students answer questions during the scientific research process and improve their abilities, not only for the current project but also for many future projects.

Outcome：

We held three scientific research forums and discussed how to better optimize our project with Professor Gong Lei, Dean of the School of Life Sciences, and Professor Fan Yuying. Among other suggestions, Professor Fan Yuying proposed that we could select an intestinal probiotic as our bacterial strain, which would provide better prebiotic effects. This prompted us to consider the issue of replacing the engineered bacteria.

Refect：

Guided by the perspectives of experts, this exchange has further strengthened the scientific foundation of the project. However, through analysis and discussions with teachers, we have also realized that the current content still mainly focuses on the biological level. If we hope to transform the results into drugs to help others, we need to seek guidance from professionals in the relevant clinical or nutritional fields of lactose intolerance.

Challenge：

Physicians have a heavy workload in their daily practice, with outpatient consultations, surgeries, and ward rounds occupying most of their time, leaving little room for participating in surveys during continuous periods. The primary challenge we face is how to effectively coordinate time and enhance physicians' willingness to participate without disrupting their clinical work. Meanwhile, the survey content must closely focus on the "clinical diagnosis and treatment of lactose intolerance," and the design of questions must be professional and practical to avoid being detached from physicians' daily practice.

Contest：

Currently, there is a lack of communication between hospitals and research teams regarding lactose intolerance. Physicians' clinical experience cannot be systematically transformed into research resources, and research outcomes often fail to promptly feed back into clinical practice, which restricts the overall improvement of lactose intolerance diagnosis and treatment. Building on previous communications with experts from the School of Life Sciences, we further realized that only by breaking down the barriers between clinical practice and scientific research can we advance the project from theory to application.

Outcome：

During the survey, we proactively communicated our objective: to gather evidence for developing clinical practice guidelines for lactose intolerance that better align with practical needs. We successfully obtained genuine feedback from frontline physicians regarding their diagnostic and treatment experiences.

In discussions, Dr. Shi Ying highlighted prevalent challenges in managing lactose intolerance, including, but not limited to, the lack of convenient diagnostic tools, limited treatment options, and insufficient patient education leading to poor symptom recognition. These insights opened new avenues for our subsequent research direction, such as developing rapid detection methods and exploring personalized intervention strategies.

Reflect：

Upon concluding the meeting with Dr. Shi Ying, we contemplated the need to incorporate perspectives on lactose intolerance that resonate more closely with daily life. Clinical management not only lacks cost-effective and efficient treatments but can also induce psychological apprehension. Perhaps solutions also lie within everyday dietary habits.

Challenge

The primary task we face is designing a targeted research plan that can effectively reflect the nutritional intervention strategies adopted by dietitians for lactose-intolerant individuals across different work scenarios.

Context

Unlike clinical treatment methods for lactose intolerance, dietitians mainly adopt the approach of "scientific milk consumption" to address the issue. This provides a new solution to lactose intolerance and implies a more cost-effective alleviation method.

Outcome：

Through in-depth communications with dietitians, we obtained rich first-hand data. Corporate dietitians focus more on the formula optimization and market promotion of low-lactose products, while clinical and community dietitians prioritize the development and implementation effects of personalized plans. These findings helped us construct a multi-dimensional picture of nutritional intervention across different scenarios.

Reflect：

This research made us realize that the dissemination of scientific nutritional knowledge needs to be more closely aligned with real-life scenarios. In the next step, we plan to transform the research outcomes into health education materials suitable for community dissemination, using accessible and easy-to-understand expressions to ensure that professional nutritional knowledge truly serves the daily lives of the public.

Challenge:

When conducting lactose intolerance science popularization in communities, we faced three challenges: many elderly people are unfamiliar with this concept and find it difficult to understand complex physiological mechanisms; some elderly people adhere to traditional beliefs and have low acceptance of scientific theories; additionally, there is a wide gap in the educational level of residents, making it a difficulty in our design to ensure that everyone can understand the content through accessible and easy-to-understand methods.

Contest

With the increasing awareness of health, the relationship between diet and health has attracted growing attention. Lactose intolerance, as a key factor affecting dairy product intake, is generally poorly understood among the elderly. For this reason, we visited Dongfeng Community in Changchun, hoping to help the elderly establish scientific cognition and improve their nutritional intake methods through face-to-face communications and science popularization activities.

Outcome

We set up a questionnaire-filling area in the community activity room, where volunteers patiently assisted the elderly in completing the surveys. Subsequently, team members sat down with residents to explain the causes and manifestations of lactose intolerance in daily language, and shared the advice from dietitians and physicians on alleviating discomfort through dietary adjustments.

During the interviews, we found that many elderly people mistook symptoms such as bloating and diarrhea for "milk allergy" and even refused to drink milk as a result. We promptly provided practical suggestions, such as choosing low-lactose dairy products and consuming them with bread or grains, to help them continue to obtain nutrients from dairy products while avoiding discomfort.

Reflect

This community activity made us realize that the real difficulty in science popularization lies not in the transmission of knowledge, but in how to align with the life experiences and cognitive habits of the audience. In the future, we will further optimize our expression methods and enhance interactive experiences, allowing health knowledge to integrate into the daily lives of the elderly in a warmer and more tangible way. Through the interviews, we learned that many elderly people misjudge symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, and abdominal pain caused by lactose intolerance as "milk allergy," and even develop doubts about the nutritional value of milk, refusing to purchase or consume dairy products. We provided specific solutions to middle-aged and elderly people, such as choosing low-lactose milk and consuming it with grains, to help them reasonably intake nutrients from dairy products while avoiding discomfort.

Challenge：

This survey is not only for data collection but also a learning process that delves into society. The challenge we face is how to build a research framework that can truly "hear" diverse voices, thereby understanding the real situation of lactose-intolerant individuals and the gap in social cognition. Meanwhile, cross-regional collaboration spanning nine provinces also tests our ability to extend the team's reach to different corners in a gentle yet effective manner.

Contest：

In previous activities, we discovered that due to factors such as regional differences and insufficient science popularization, the real needs of lactose-intolerant groups and social cognition have long been in a "hidden" state. Therefore, we hope that through this extensive and detailed survey, we can not only identify directions for the project but also make these overlooked experiences seen and understood — this in itself is the starting point of public education.

Outcome：

Starting from Jilin Province, we extended the survey to nine provinces including Henan and Beijing, covering urban and rural areas, campuses, enterprises, and communities, striving to capture authentic feedback from different regions, age groups, and lifestyles. The final 500 valid questionnaires collected not only provided solid data support for us but also acted like a mirror, reflecting the vague state of public perception of lactose intolerance and the real needs of individuals.

Reflect：

What touched us most during the survey was not the clear data results, but the "uncertainty" expressed by many respondents regarding whether they were lactose-intolerant. This clearly reflects that this common health issue still remains in a gray area in public cognition. However, this is precisely the educational significance of our survey.

Challenge：

In the early stage of the project, we faced a practical difficulty: due to the lack of official databases of ethnic minority languages, we needed to independently find and contact ethnic groups to collect audio materials. However, ethnic minorities account for only 8.89% of China's total population, and with social changes, many ethnic group members have gradually integrated into Han culture, leading to a decreasing number of people who can speak their native languages fluently. How to accurately find suitable audio collaborators has become the primary challenge for us to promote multilingual science popularization.

Contest：

In the previous "TE-Exchange: Southwest China University Collaboration," we realized that the low acceptance of cutting-edge scientific and technological products among some ethnic minority groups often stems from language barriers and mismatched knowledge transmission methods. Many ethnic group members are only familiar with their native languages and find it difficult to understand science popularization content delivered in Mandarin. We gradually clarified that science popularization should not have only one "voice" but should enter their context through languages they can understand.

Outcome：

Through a combination of online and offline methods, we successfully established connections with members from 16 different ethnic minorities and communicated the project concept with them face-to-face. Encouragingly, they showed strong interest in the application of synthetic biology in daily life and highly recognized the value of multilingual science popularization. On this basis, we jointly recorded audio clips in 8 ethnic minority languages, including Yi, Buyi, Shui, Bai, Naxi, Hani, Lahu, and Dongxiang, conveying scientific principles and the project's vision through the most familiar voices.

Reflect：

This cross-language and cross-regional dialogue made us deeply realize that the warmth of science popularization lies in "being understood." Ethnic minority partners from different age groups, occupations, and life backgrounds were all willing to record audio clips in their native languages to help us spread scientific knowledge to more ethnic group members. This is not only a project practice but also a two-way education — we brought scientific perspectives, and they brought back cultural identity. China has 55 ethnic minorities, and we hope that future iGEM teams will continue this endeavor, using more ethnic languages to make the voice of science spread farther and more intimately.

Challenge：

In China, various media platforms have different standards for the content and style of manuscripts. The dual challenge we face is how to ensure that science communication content complies with media standards while balancing professionalism with public readability.

Contest：

As an important carrier for building social consensus, news media can connect scattered individuals around the same public issue and form a foundation for collective cognition. Therefore, we realized that promoting science education with the help of media is not only about information transmission but also about fulfilling social responsibility — allowing synthetic biology to break out of the academic circle and become a field that the public can experience and participate in together.

Outcome：

We successfully published multiple press releases on six central-level media platforms, systematically reporting on the team's series of educational promotion activities, including enterprise visits, voluntary teaching practices, and ethnic minority research. These reports not only increased the visibility of the project but also helped a broader social group understand the connection between synthetic biology and daily life, further expanding the communication boundaries of science education.

Refect：

Through the practice with domestic media, we recognized the important significance of popularizing professional content to the public. In the future, we hope to promote the project concept to international media platforms and further enhance the breadth and inclusiveness of science popularization education through the power of cross-cultural communication, making science enlightenment a borderless public good.

Challenge：

During the research, we found that the public is unfamiliar with synthetic biology. The challenge lies in how to position ourselves appropriately on social media platforms, and how to ensure that our scientific content is seen by more people given the different platform algorithms and fragmented public interests.

Contest：

The public's trust in authoritative information sources has been declining, while the time spent on short-video platforms has been increasing year by year.

Outcome：

To expand our audience, we established accounts on WeChat Official Account, Douyin, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo, and released different types of content based on the characteristics of each platform — for example, graphic content on Xiaohongshu and long articles on WeChat Official Account. We combined synthetic biology with college entrance examination blessings, following current trends while ensuring the accuracy of knowledge; we also produced unboxing videos after learning about the public's love for this format to attract attention, and at the same time updated our practical daily work on the platforms. Currently, the total number of views has exceeded 10,000, achieving good results in the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Refect

This communication attempt made us understand that enthusiasm alone is not enough for science communication; a stable methodology is also essential. We need to establish a fixed process covering topic selection, script writing, and data feedback analysis to form a cycle, ensuring that content production can keep up with platform trends and avoid relying on luck to create popular content. In the future, we will transform laboratory daily work and scientific research processes into "scientific stories" suitable for different platforms, making more people feel that science is interesting.

Challenge：

China has a vast territory, and the dialect differences across 34 provincial-level administrative regions are significant. Even within a relatively small region, multiple different dialects may exist. The primary challenge we face is how to overcome geographical limitations and systematically collect representative dialect pronunciations from various regions.

Contest：

We noticed that, similar to the communication with elderly people from ethnic minorities and other ethnic groups, many elderly people face difficulties in understanding science popularization content because most of it is presented in standard Mandarin. This difference in language habits has invisibly deprived them of the opportunity to access cutting-edge knowledge on an equal basis. We hope to build a bridge connecting them to modern science through the most familiar local dialects.

Outcome：

We successfully produced dialect science popularization audio clips covering [ ] provinces. When these clips were played to the [ ] group, we observed warm smiles on their faces. The familiar local dialects significantly lowered the understanding threshold, and they commented, "Explained in the local dialect, it feels more intimate and easier to remember."

Refect：

From the practice of ethnic minority languages to dialects, we are more convinced that the true inclusiveness of science popularization lies in respecting the cognitive habits behind each mother tongue. In the future, we plan to deliver these audio clips to family scenarios through the children of the elderly, leveraging the bond of family affection to enhance the communication effect and allowing scientific knowledge to truly integrate into their lives through local dialects and warmth.

Challenge：

In the process of promoting international science popularization of synthetic biology, we realized that the real challenge goes far beyond language translation. Audiences from different cultural backgrounds have profound differences in their ways of understanding information and focus areas. Simple literal translation may obscure or even distort the core concepts. How to achieve "cross-cultural resonance of scientific connotations" rather than just "text conversion" has become the core issue we faced in producing the multilingual handbook.

Contest：

Language should not be a barrier to science communication. We hope that through the handbook, readers with different mother tongue backgrounds can understand the basic logic and application potential of synthetic biology without cognitive barriers caused by expression methods. Therefore, we not only focus on the accuracy of language but also attach great importance to whether the content can connect with the cognitive habits and life scenarios of the local audience.

Outcome：

During the compilation of the handbook, we adjusted the expression methods according to the thinking habits of different language groups, striving to ensure that the scientific content is truly "understood" rather than just "seen." After the handbook was released, we received feedback from readers in multiple regions, including discussions on the local applicability of the project and suggestions on content presentation. These voices not only verified the communication effect of the handbook but also provided authentic basis for optimizing the project's global perspective in the subsequent stage.

Refect：

This practice made us deeply realize that effective science communication is essentially a "cultural dialogue" rather than a "one-way transmission of information." The key to the handbook's positive response lies in the fact that we invited professionals with cross-cultural backgrounds to participate in content adaptation, reconstructing the expression logic from the audience's perspective. This enlightens us that in future international communication work, we should prioritize "cultural research," allowing understanding to start with respect and science to take root in context.

Click on any puzzle piece to hear an audio and access the hidden interface.