iHP

Overview

Our Integrated Human Practices (iHP) framework was built on a systematic approach to ensure our project effectively addresses real-world needs. We began with preliminary surveys targeting both the general public and rural farmers, which consistently revealed that antibacterial protection is the highest priority in food preservation, directly validating our project’s focus.

To strengthen our scientific foundation and technical design, we engaged in active communication with other iGEM teams and consulted domain experts in microbiology and material science. These interactions provided critical guidance for optimizing ε-PLL production and improving the mechanical properties of our film, enabling us to overcome key experimental bottlenecks.

With a functional prototype developed, we carried out multi-level promotion activities —from public parks to high-end restaurants and agricultural settings — to gather stakeholder feedback and assess real-world applicability. In parallel, we implemented a comprehensive education program tailored to different age groups, from preschoolers to high school students, fostering scientific curiosity and demonstrating the relevance of synthetic biology.

Finally, we designed creative products, including bio-inspired card games and interactive quizzes, to make complex scientific concepts engaging and accessible. Together, these efforts ensured our project remained grounded in societal needs, scientifically rigorous, and communicable to a broad audience, fulfilling the core mission of human-centered synthetic biology.

Preliminary Survey

To ground our project in real-world needs, we conducted a comprehensive preliminary survey targeting both the general public and a key stakeholder group—rural farmers. These investigations aimed to uncover usage habits, primary concerns regarding food spoilage, and the core demands for an ideal preservation wrap. Our findings consistently revealed that effective antibacterial protection is the universal and highest priority for users, a critical insight that directly validates and guides our project's focus. The following sections detail the results from our public questionnaire and rural interviews.

2.1 Public frequency of using wraps

Purpose:

This study aimed to investigate public usage patterns of cling film and perceptions of food spoilage effects, providing critical user insights to inform our project's development of novel, bio-based food preservation solutions that address real-world needs.

Summary:

Our survey reveals that cling film is a ubiquitous and frequently used household item, with the vast majority of respondents identifying the prevention of microbial growth as their primary concern regarding food spoilage.

Key Highlights:

The data shows an overwhelming 97.5% of households possess cling film, with 71.25% using it more than three times a week, highlighting its essential role in daily life. When asked about the effects of food spoilage, an impressive 83.54% of respondents selected "mold/bacteria growth" as a key issue, significantly outweighing concerns like water loss (51.25%) and flavor transfer (75.83%). This clear consensus underscores that effective antibacterial protection is the most critical public demand for food preservation, directly validating our iGEM project's focus.

2.2 Countryside investigation of wrap usage

Purpose:

This rural investigation aimed to understand the specific needs and current practices of a key potential user group—farmers—regarding food wrap usage, and to evaluate the feasibility of introducing our antibacterial, biodegradable cling film into this market.

Summary:

Our interviews with farmers in the Changsha-Zhuzhou region revealed a clear and urgent demand for effective food preservation, with antibacterial and anti-mold functions being the universal and primary concern.

Key Highlights:

The core finding is that farmers prioritize performance above all else: the product's antibacterial capability is the non-negotiable top priority, far outweighing secondary factors like environmental benefits. While price sensitivity is lower than expected——with many willing to pay a premium for proven efficacy——acceptance of the underlying synthetic biology technology is highly generation-dependent. This necessitates a differentiated communication strategy, highlighting "natural extraction" for older, more conservative farmers while being more transparent about the technological innovation with the younger, more open-minded generation.

Communication

To enhance our project's development and societal impact, we actively engaged in knowledge exchange with other iGEM teams. Through regional conferences and targeted university collaborations, we not only presented our work but also gained crucial insights into effective science communication and public engagement strategies. These interactions provided valuable external perspectives that helped us refine both our technical approach and human practices implementation.

3.1 Communication with SUSTech

Purpose:

This communication activity aimed to share project experiences, address challenges we encountered in human practices, and seek effective methods for project promotion and public engagement. Learning from a team that started earlier in the iGEM season provided us with timely guidance to overcome our initial bottlenecks in outreach planning.

Summary:

We held a productive exchange meeting with the iGEM team from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), where both teams shared their project progress and experiences. Despite the different focuses of our projects—theirs on marine environmental issues and ours on food preservation—we gained substantial inspiration from their advanced public engagement and science communication strategies.

Key Highlights:

The exchange proved to be a pivotal moment for our human practices work. SUSTech’s successful use of social media to connect complex scientific topics with daily life inspired us to adopt new approaches, such as launching large-scale questionnaires and organizing offline community events. This interaction highlighted that effective science communication goes beyond technical exchange, emphasizing the importance of making synthetic biology relatable to the public and directly shaping our subsequent outreach roadmap.

3.2 South China Exchange Conference

Purpose:

This event aimed to formally showcase our project's progress, gather targeted feedback from the synthetic biology community, and identify potential improvements by learning from the innovative approaches of other iGEM teams.

Summary:

Before the exchange event, our team prepared a roll-up banner to clearly present our project. During the session, members from the Wet Lab, Engineering, and Human Practices teams introduced our project’s background, progress, and goals. They explained the design in detail, responded to questions from other teams and teachers, and listened to feedback and suggestions for improvement. To further engage participants, we also organized a knowledge competition that integrated synthetic biology with our preservation film project, featuring a real-time leaderboard, participation prizes, and a special creative gift for the highest scorer.

Key Highlights:

Through this South China Regional Meetup, we not only showcased our work but also learned from the innovative approaches of other teams. The experience allowed us to gain valuable insights, reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our current design, and gather inspiration for future improvements. Overall, the exchange proved highly rewarding, and we sincerely wish all fellow iGEMers continued success in advancing their projects.

3.3 Consult with industry

Purpose:

Communicated with Researcher Yafeng Zhou, who is in charge of venture capital at the Investment and Finance Company, to gain insights into business operation models and prepare to conduct corresponding research work for drafting the business plan. We focused particularly on learning how to highlight the competitive advantages of the preservative film we produce and how to mitigate potential market risks.

We also exchanged ideas with Wu Benlin, a graduate student from the Finance Department of Sun Yat-sen University. Mr. Wu familiarized us with key points for drafting a business plan, provided reasonable suggestions on our pricing strategy, and interpreted relevant policies. He helped us summarize the target audience for product promotion and formulate sustainable promotion strategies.

Key Highlights:

Researcher Zhou believed that the most important aspect of our project is to compare with similar competitors and highlight our advantageous features. He said that we have shortcomings in pricing, so we need to highlight our advantage in antibacterial properties. Mr Wu believes that our focus on the target audience is relatively limited, and our product needs to focus on more specific customers. With his help, we re analyzed our customer portraits, which has been very helpful for our promotional activities.

Expert

In order to enhance the scientific rigor and practical feasibility of our project, we sought professional input by consulting several experts in relevant fields. These included microbiology professors specializing in bacterial inhibition and food preservation, as well as bioengineering researchers with expertise in material design and functional membranes. Their distinct professional perspectives allowed them to scrutinize specific aspects of our design, helping to uncover blind spots and propose refinements that lie beyond the scope of our internal expertise. Through in-depth exchanges with these specialists, we obtained multidisciplinary perspectives and a wealth of professional recommendations.

4.1 Dr. Yunzhu Xiao

Purpose:

In the experiment, we encountered the problem of low yield of PLL. We consulted Professor Xiao to obtain help from more authoritative scholars.

Summary:

In the process of producing ε-poly-L-lysine (PLL) using Bacillus subtilis, we observed a decline in PLL yield due to the replacement of the chassis strain, which significantly increased our production costs. To explore biologically driven strategies for boosting PLL yield, we interviewed Dr. Xiao, a specialist in microbiology. After learning about our project, Dr. Xiao offered the following key suggestions to enhance PLL production:

Key Highlights:

Based on Dr. Xiao's advice, we have identified a key strategies to optimize ε-PLL production: addressing the energy-intensive nature of the process by enhancing ATP supply through the introduction of ATP synthase to increase ATP output per unit time and resolve the energy bottleneck.

4.2 Professor Xuetuan Wei

Purpose:

To optimize poly-L-lysine (PLL) yield in engineered Bacillus subtilis for our antimicrobial wrap project, we consulted a microbiology expert for more specific and detailed guidance.

Summary:

We invited the Vice Dean of the College of Food Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Professor Xuetuan Wei, to give some critical advice and improvements we can make on our subject, aiming to make sure every step is of high quality and suits the requirements of an anti-bacterial product.

We are curious about whether Bacillus subtilis could incorporate Streptomyces genes, and the professor said it was possible, but with low efficiency. To improve lysine production, he recommended replacing aspartokinase with the Corynebacterium glutamicum version using CRISPR. He also suggested using auxotrophic strains for safer selection. Compared with Streptomyces, B. subtilis grows faster, is safer, and can secrete products directly. For downstream processing, he advised salting-out followed by ethanol precipitation to lower costs, and for potential PLL toxicity, adaptive evolution with increasing concentrations was proposed.

From our interview, we get valuable advice and learn new knowledge about how we can deal with our engineering bacteria and ways to preserve them in our wraps.

Key Highlights:

The discussion focused on two critical barriers: insufficient ATP supply and limited L-lysine accumulation. The expert proposed introducing an exogenous ATP regeneration system to enhance energy availability and recommended using CRISPR to engineer feedback-resistant enzymes for sustained L-lysine production. These strategies aim to address metabolic bottlenecks and significantly boost PLL synthesis. Moving forward, we will prioritize implementing these genetic modifications to develop an advanced B. subtilis strain capable of high-efficiency PLL production, ultimately supporting the scalable manufacturing of our product.

4.3 Dr. Xiuzhen Zhu

Purpose:

To address the issue of extremely low strength and fragility of the film we produced, we interviewed Dr. Zhu Xiuzhen, a senior experimentalist at Southern University of Science and Technology. Currently, our film is mainly using sodium alginate to form a supporting structure that can combine with chitosan and PLL well. However, as a structural substance, sodium alginate relies on intermolecular hydrogen bonds for its film-forming. It has good compatibility with chitosan loaded with PLL, but shows poor mechanical properties, which makes it difficult to meet the structural strength requirements of market cling films.

Summary:

Dr. Zhu Xiuzhen believes that the structural strength of sodium alginate film is mainly determined by the water content and the selection of plasticizers. In terms of water content, Sodium alginate films with high water content have poor cross-linking properties, good flexibility, and are quite soft, but can hardly endure shear stress. However, low water content can prevent cross-linking, and the hardness of the film is high but fragile. Therefore, it is very important to adjust the drying time for sodium alginate solutions. Secondly, traditional sodium alginate polymerization relies on glycerol as a plasticizer, but glycerol mainly forms intermolecular forces with sodium alginate in polymerization, so its cross-linking is limited. Due to the presence of negative charge in the structure of sodium alginate, we can introduce transition metal cations as new cross-linking agents to increase the polymerization degree by forming coordination bonds. In the discussion, Dr. Zhu pointed out that polymer film formation is a field full of randomness, and even small differences can lead to products with disparate properties. She encouraged us to conduct as many parallel experiments as we could.

Key Highlights:

In our communication with Dr. Zhu, we gained a better comprehension of the film-forming principle of sodium alginate, its physical and chemical properties, and the significance of water content on the mechanical properties of the membrane. In order to investigate the relationship between the drying time of the membrane and its mechanical properties, we need to use more repeated parallel experiments to rule out accidental experimental results. In addition, we have decided to introduce calcium ions into the film to increase the degree of cross-linking, thereby enhancing the mechanical properties of the membrane.

4.4 Dr. Weizhao Chen

Purpose:

For more help from researchers in biosynthesis, we keep in touch with Dr. Chen during the whole year, he provided us with a lot of help from a professional perspective.

Summary:

During our brainstorming session, we proposed many methods to improve food preservation, Dr. Chen inspired us with the topic from Shenzhen University. During the whole year project, he provided us with academic guidance multiple times, especially on our human practice activities.

Key Highlights:

Dr. Chen assisted us in brainstorming for the project and identifying research topics. He provided comprehensive and detailed evaluations of multiple potential projects, helping us pinpoint the optimal research theme. Additionally, he offered guidance during the mid-project phase and shared numerous effective suggestions for improving our presentation.

Promotion

To comprehensively validate our product's market applicability and social value, we conducted a multi-level promotion strategy targeting both individual consumers and key organizational stakeholders. Our outreach began with direct public engagement at Shenzhen Bay Park, where we gathered valuable feedback from urban residents and refined our product design for household use. Building on these insights, we further expanded our validation to specialized stakeholders across the catering and agricultural sectors—including large-scale cafeterias, high-end hotels, private restaurants, and lychee orchards—to assess the product's performance in diverse real-world scenarios. This systematic approach allowed us to verify our cling film's broad applicability while collecting essential insights to guide its ongoing optimization and implementation.

5.1 Promotion activities at Shenzhen Bay Park

Purpose:

Ordinary individual consumers are the most important audience for our products. In order to know the comprehension of urban residents of food preservation and whether our products are helpful to them, we conducted offline promotion activity at Shenzhen Bay Park. We selected densely populated parks to conduct research and promotional activities for individual consumers.

Summary:

To enhance public awareness and engagement with our project, we organized a community outreach event at Shenzhen Bay Park. During the activities, our team members proactively approached park visitors—many of whom are local residents—and introduced our synthetic biology-based preservation wrap in an accessible manner. We explained its practical benefits and the scientific principles behind it, which sparked considerable interest among the audience. Many expressed curiosity about how an everyday item like cling film could be innovated through biological technology.

Key Highlights:

We have noticed that most urban residents, especially young people, have noticed the issue of food preservation and are willing to invest in it. Our products have been widely accepted. Also, we received a lot of valuable advice, such as making it smaller to suit household usage, and providing us with essential suggestions to improve our products for a much wider range of customers.

5.2 Stakeholder Review

Following our public research, we further validated the practical value and market potential of our antibacterial cling film by engaging with diverse stakeholders across the food service and agriculture sectors. Our outreach began with large-scale institutional catering at SUTPC Canteen, where we identified critical needs for improved freshness and freezer safety. We then extended our dialogue to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, gaining insights into the high standards and specific challenges faced by premium culinary establishments. To understand the perspective of specialized private dining, we visited Hewei Herbal Soup, a high-end private restaurant emphasizing ingredient quality and cost efficiency. Finally, we expanded our scope beyond urban food service to the agricultural supply chain, conducting field tests and interviews at a Lychee Orchard Farm to assess how our wrap could reduce post-harvest loss of fresh produce. Through these targeted engagements, we not only demonstrated the broad applicability of our product but also gathered essential feedback to guide its ongoing refinement and implementation strategy.

5.2.1 Promotion activity of SUTPC Canteen

Purpose:

Food safety issues have frequently emerged in recent years, and large canteens that require large reserves and use of food are particularly affected. They definitely require a very large amount of plastic wrap to keep the ingredients fresh. As a potential customer of our product, we went to a large cafeteria that serves over a thousand people to promote our products.

Summary:

SUPCT's Canteen currently relies heavily on traditional cling film for preserving seafood, meats, and vegetables, but they face several challenges: limited freshness protection, inconvenient handling, inefficient thawing processes, and the inability to properly disinfect freezer environments. Our advanced cling film provides practical solutions to these problems: First, our cling film offers superior sealing and preservation properties. It creates a more effective barrier against air exposure in cold storage environments, better maintaining ingredient freshness while reducing moisture loss and flavor transfer compared to conventional cling film. This innovation saves considerable time and labor costs. Most importantly, our antibacterial cling film provides continuous antimicrobial protection even in freezing temperatures. This addresses the critical sanitation gap in freezer storage where liquid disinfectants cannot be used effectively, adding an essential layer of food safety protection. Although our product carries a slightly higher unit cost than traditional cling film, it helps reduce food waste, improve operational efficiency, and enhance compliance with national food safety standards. For a large-scale catering operation like SUPCT's Canteen, this investment translates to long-term economic benefits and operational security. At the end of the interview, he donated fresh ingredients to us on behalf of the organization, including beef, salmon, and blueberries.

Key Highlights:

Large canteens are the biggest use cases for plastic wrap. Our cling film not only meets the canteen‘s needs for convenience and preservation effectiveness but also helps them establish a safer and more efficient food handling workflow. We have a deeper awareness that food safety issues in large restaurants are very serious problems.

5.2.2 Main Chef interview in the Ritz Carlton Hotel

Purpose:

High-end restaurants use a lot of high-end ingredients, and if bacteria breed, the waste it causes will result in significant losses. Therefore, we have promoted our products in the executive restaurants of five-star hotels in Shenzhen.

Summary:

As one of our potential target customers, the interview with the head chef provided critical insights. Our initial assumption was that the use of wraps had declined significantly due to the prevalence of advanced industrial freezers and stringent standards for seafood preservation, particularly for salmon and tuna. Contrary to this expectation, the chef emphasized that wraps are still routinely employed to prevent dehydration and contamination, with cooling fans used to maintain freshness.

Key Highlights:

Importantly, the chef identified a major limitation of conventional wraps: they often contribute to dehydration and fail to fully prevent bacterial spoilage. For high-end restaurants, where ingredient quality is especially pivotal, such issues can result in considerable economic loss and reputational risk. This feedback strongly indicates that our product is well-positioned to meet the needs of premium catering businesses, given their rigorous requirements for food preservation and quality assurance.

5.2.3 Promotion visit to the Hewei soup

Purpose:

As a special form of restaurant, private restaurants are also very important potential customers for us. We chose a representative private restaurant in the market to promote our products and understand their purchasing intentions.

Summary:

Aiming to enhance our product in alignment with customer requirements, we conducted an interview with Hewei Herbal Soup, a restaurant that positions itself in the high-end segment. As an establishment dedicated to delivering premium soups, they emphasize the critical importance of ingredient freshness to maintain culinary excellence. Through the interview, we learned that cost is a significant consideration for them, as conventional preservation wraps must be replaced regularly and frequently. They also place strong emphasis on meat preservation, given that bacterial growth on meat can lead to spoilage and financial loss. While our product is priced at a premium, it offers superior protective performance, effectively inhibiting bacterial contamination and extending the freshness of ingredients.

Key Highlights:

The restaurant acknowledged the advantages of our wrap, recognizing its potential to reduce food waste and enhance operational reliability. In addition, they provided valuable feedback, advising us to ensure compliance with food safety standards and suggesting improvements to enhance user convenience.

5.2.4 Visit to Lychee Orchard Farm

Purpose:

Rural farmers have a very limited understanding of fruit and vegetable preservation, and the annual waste caused by fruit and vegetable decay is very obvious. Therefore, we have carried out preservation, popularization, and product promotion for fruit farmers.

Summary:

We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of our novel preservation wrap by analyzing the lychee supply chain and gathering practical insights from growers. The current preservation method relies on a two-day cold chain after harvest, yet significant spoilage persists due to unavoidable temperature fluctuations during transportation. Our solution is an innovative packaging design that integrates seamlessly into existing workflows while delivering remarkable preservation outcomes.

Key Highlights:

Most importantly, field tests demonstrate that our wrap reduces the decay rate by approximately 30% and extends shelf life by an additional 2-3 days, effectively mitigating risks associated with cold chain interruptions and creating substantial value for lychee growers. Looking ahead, we are actively pursuing collaborations with government agencies to optimize production costs and make our product more affordable, thereby expanding accessibility to a broader range of customers in the agricultural sector.

Education

6.1. Overview

Our educational outreach program successfully engaged diverse audiences through tailored approaches for different age groups. We developed interactive activities ranging from playful learning for young children to in-depth discussions with secondary students, all centered around synthetic biology and our project's applications. Through school visits, digital platforms, and campus initiatives, we effectively communicated the relevance of synthetic biology in addressing real-world challenges while inspiring the next generation of scientists and innovators.

6.2.Preschoolers

Purpose:

Our goal was to develop an engaging, age-appropriate activity that would capture the attention of preschoolers who lack formal science education. By replacing complex lectures with hands-on play, we aimed to plant the first seeds of scientific curiosity and demonstrate that learning about biology can be fun and accessible even at a very young age.

Summary:

We created a card game based on UNO that was specifically designed to introduce preschoolers to synthetic biology concepts through playful interaction. This innovative educational tool transforms abstract scientific ideas into colorful, tangible gameplay elements that young children can easily grasp and enjoy.

Key Highlights:

The card game proved exceptionally effective in captivating our youngest audience. Preschoolers were immediately drawn to the bright colors and familiar gameplay, enthusiastically participating while unconsciously absorbing basic biological concepts. Their excited reactions and continued engagement demonstrated how play-based learning can successfully introduce complex subjects to very young children, making this an ideal gateway to early science education.

6.3. Primary School Students

Purpose:

Our goal was to spark primary school students' interest in life sciences by connecting our antibacterial preservation film project with everyday experiences. We aimed to help young students understand how science can address practical problems like food waste, while nurturing their awareness of scientific discovery in daily life.

Summary:

We developed interactive lessons centered on food preservation science for primary school students. Through engaging demonstrations and hands-on activities, we introduced fundamental concepts of synthetic biology and their real-world applications.

Key Highlights:

The primary students showed remarkable enthusiasm for our antibacterial materials, actively participating in discussions and raising thoughtful questions. This playful learning approach not only made complex scientific concepts accessible but also allowed children to experience firsthand how science can transform our lives, planting valuable seeds for their future scientific exploration.

6.4. Middle School students

Purpose:

Our objective was to bridge classroom science with real-world innovation, demonstrating how synthetic biology enables the creation of functional materials that address practical challenges. We aimed to demystify the research process while encouraging students to think critically about how scientific discoveries translate into tangible solutions for sustainability and food safety.

Summary:

We developed a comprehensive educational program for middle school students that delved deeper into the scientific principles of our antibacterial preservation materials. Through tailored presentations and interactive discussions, we engaged students across different grade levels, from seventh grade to ninth grade, with the engineering and design aspects of synthetic biology applications.

Key Highlights:

The middle school students demonstrated remarkable engagement with our project's technical details, asking insightful questions about material properties, experimental processes, and real-world implementation. Their ability to connect scientific concepts with practical applications was particularly impressive, with many students proposing creative ideas for improving food storage solutions. These interactions confirmed the effectiveness of our approach in fostering deeper understanding and inspiring the next generation of scientific innovators.

6.5. High School students

Purpose:

The primary purpose of establishing the iGEM club was to build a lasting community of young science enthusiasts. We aimed to move beyond one-time presentations and create an ongoing forum where high school students could deeply explore synthetic biology, understand our project's real-world applications, and potentially inspire them to pursue their own scientific interests in this field.

Summary:

To create a sustainable platform for synthetic biology education, our team founded an iGEM club within our school. The club was officially launched during the school-wide society fair, where we actively recruited new members and introduced them to the fundamentals of synthetic biology and the innovative aspects of our food preservation project.

Key Highlights:

The club's launch was met with remarkable enthusiasm from the student body. Our interactive booth, featuring project demonstrations and engaging discussions, successfully attracted a diverse group of students curious about biotechnology. This initiative not only expanded the reach of our project but also established a foundational community for continuous learning and exchange, ensuring that the spark of interest in synthetic biology will continue to grow within our school long after our current project concludes.

6.6. Wechat Official Account

Purpose:

The account helps us bridge the gap between our research and the public. It allows us to explain the importance of food preservation technology and gather feedback from the community.

Summary:

Our WeChat public account has been a key tool in sharing our iGEM project with a broader audience. We regularly post updates, explain the science behind food preservation, and highlight the progress of our intelligent cling film.

Key Highlights:

Through the platform, we’ve built an interactive community interested in science and sustainability. The content is designed to be engaging and informative, making complex topics easy to understand.

Creative Product

In our public engagement efforts, we moved beyond conventional promotion by designing a series of interactive and entertaining games. This approach allowed us to connect with a broader audience, including both adults and children, while making foundational biological knowledge more vivid and accessible. By creatively integrating gaming with biology, we aimed to demonstrate that science is not just a subject confined to textbooks, but a dynamic and tangible field that everyone can explore, experience, and draw inspiration from.

7.1 Card game

Purpose:

The purpose of this initiative is to make cutting-edge scientific principles — such as amino acid properties, DNA-base pairing, and protein functions—accessible and intuitive to children. By merging gaming with biology, we aim to spark early interest in synthetic biology and inspire the next generation of young scientists.

Summary:

To introduce synthetic biology to younger audiences in an engaging way, we designed an innovative educational card game based on the popular UNO framework. This interactive tool transforms complex scientific concepts into playful, hands-on activities, allowing children to learn through structured yet fun gameplay.

Key Highlights:

The game enables players to simulate biological design processes by strategically combining molecular cards, effectively turning abstract knowledge into tangible understanding. Through this approach, we have successfully reached a wider audience, including both adults and children, making science both approachable and memorable while fostering a sense of curiosity and creativity.

7.2 Kahoot game

Purpose:

The primary purpose of this online quiz was to break down complex scientific concepts and make our project's research on intelligent food preservation more accessible and memorable for a diverse audience. By framing our communication around a fun and competitive quiz, we aimed to stimulate direct participation, spark curiosity, and foster a deeper, more intuitive understanding of the science behind our work, moving beyond one-way lectures to create a lively two-way dialogue.

Summary:

We designed and hosted an interactive Kahoot! quiz during the South China Exchange Meeting and various school promotional events. This game featured a series of carefully crafted questions that covered essential molecular biology techniques, core concepts of synthetic biology, and specific knowledge related to our project, the preservation of food.

Key Highlights:

The Kahoot! session proved to be a tremendous success, generating an atmosphere of excitement and friendly competition. Participants, ranging from fellow iGEMers to middle school students, were highly engaged and responsive. The quiz not only effectively reinforced key learning points but also provided us with immediate feedback on the audience's understanding, allowing us to clarify concepts on the spot. This interactive format brilliantly achieved our goal of making science education both fun and impactful.