Biology is advancing at a rapid pace, and it can seem like the general public is not learning enough about simple concepts in science, leading to confusion and mistrust. As cutting-edge technologies become more widely used, it will be important to broaden people’s understanding, and one way to do that is to teach kids about genetics and molecular biology as part of a typical elementary school education.
To that end, researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Northwestern University, and MIT have created a kit called BioBits. The kit enables kids to perform simple experiments that introduce a variety of concepts in a hands-on way, which is an engaging way to learn. Learn more from the video.
“The main motivation in developing these kits was to give students fun activities that allow them to actually see, smell, and touch the outcomes of the biological reactions they’re doing at the molecular level,” said Ally Huang, an MIT graduate student in the lab of Wyss Founding Core Faculty member Jim Collins, Ph.D. “My hope is that they will inspire more kids to consider a career in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] and, more generally, give all students a basic understanding of how biology works, because they may one day have to make personal or policy decisions based on modern science.”
Source: Wyss Institute