Biology is changing quickly, with many exciting developments every year, but teens often don’t know about these innovations. That may deter them from entering the field. In our lab, we developed Cellverse, a game for learning cell biology that incorporates several cutting-edge aspects of biotech, including virtual reality, nano-robotics, personalized medicine, and high-resolution microscopy.
Behind the new MIT Museum, MIT Open Space Programming creates outdoor events for the public. In April, they coordinated with LEAP Lab: Teen Science Café to create an event by teens for teens called Breakthroughs in Biology. Our own Dan Roy spoke at the event about Cellverse, how we made it, what our research questions were, and what we learned along the way. After the talk, teens and their families got a hands-on demo of Cellverse alongside other interactive STEM stations set up by the teens.
It was great to get back in touch with large groups of excited learners in a covid-safe way after such a long hiatus. Seeing everyone’s excitement gives us energy to keep up our work. Thanks everyone for coming out, and looking forward to more collaborations in the future!
