In the early months of our iGEM project, Tenna from our team was recognized by her old science teacher from her elementary school from seven years ago who felt delight that one of his students had been touched and chosen a career in science. They agreed that back then, the chances for being inspired and learn about different branches, such as biology, had been too low.

It was between the two of them that our project, ‘Priming the Next Generation’, grew.

As a part of our community engagement, we embarked on this journey of presenting the many possibilities in biotechnology and its intriguing possibilities to make the world a better place to ninth graders in elementary school.

Lina, Tenna and Jacob began the venture with three classes, a total of 60 students, who were all very eager to learn the advancements and capabilities that biotechnology holds in transforming our every day. After a short introduction to iGEM and our project, we spent some time embarking in subjects such as medical microbiology, bioinformatics, astrobiology and, of course, synthetic biology. We wanted to illuminate the variation of branches one could take and remove the stigma that biotechnology is “only bacteria and yeast”.

They proceeded to teach the students about existing projects, here among some old iGEM projects from DTU, and what their possibilities with education and careers in Denmark are. After the enlightenment of what you could do with synthetic biology a discussion began between the students with what a possible project could be. No ideas were too out there and Tenna, Lina and Jacob tried to develop on their ideas and illuminate the feasible aspects of them.

Of course, it shouldn’t be too heavy for the fleeting minds of ninth graders and, so they not only made sure to keep it interactive with questions, but they also held a fun Kahoot quiz where the students’ listening skills were put to a test and their Fortnite knowledge was questioned.

This work may relate to or overlap with the work you document on your Human Practices page. Whereas Integrated Human Practices relates to the process of refining your project purpose and design, this page may highlight significant efforts that go beyond your particular project focus and/or address a significant broader concern in iGEM.

Of course, we didn’t want it to be too heavy for the fleeting minds of ninth graders and, we not only made sure to keep it interactive with questions, but we also held a fun Kahoot quiz where their listening skills was put to a test and their Fortnite knowledge was questioned.

The students were thrilled and the teachers all agreed that they would like this to be an annual event with the future DTU iGEM teams.

After having gotten success with the first school, interest grew among other schools. A short period went by and they’d gotten into contact with Lina’s old school, Sankt Annæ elementary school as well as the private school Skt. Knud Lavard, near DTU.

At the end of the iGEM-period, they had visited 3 schools and had plans of visiting 1 more school.

It was an overall great learning experience for the team members as well and they were all extremely pleased having had the possibility of establishing this project. Being at university-level, it can be hard to remember what was interesting in elementary school, but many of the pupils surprised in their great ideas and pre-knowledge of biotechnology and it was great practice in building a presentation for the proper audience.