The Biotinkering Lab: An Experimental Museum Space for Creative Problem-Solving With Biology

• In Event: The Biomaker Ecosystem: Technologies, Spaces, and Curriculum for K–12 Making With Biology

Abstract

In recent decades, biotechnology has emerged as a powerful tool for innovation and change. Knowledge of and access to these advances, however, is still very limited for most K-12 students and the general public. The Biotinkering Lab is an experimental museum workshop embedded in a permanent exhibition that was created to help bridge that gap for visitors of all ages. Visitors to the Tech engage in exhibits that position living systems as a creative, problem-solving medium during drop-in bio-making programs that run as 30-minute facilitated sessions. In this symposium, we share results from two formative and two summative evaluation studies (funded by the NIH Grant R25 GM129220) about the development of several biomaking exhibits in the museum. In these evaluations, we asked over 300 visitors (aged 4th-7th grade) about their experience after participating in a session at the Biotinkering Lab.

Making, tinkering, and design challenge learning approaches have been shown to foster confidence, creative capacity, and problem-solving skills in learning (Tucker-Raymond & Gravel, 2019; Vossoughi & Bevan, 2014) and museum spaces (Sheridan et al., 2014). We wanted to create similarly rich opportunities for learning with biology in a public institution. Living mediums, however, are alive, slow to re-design, and complex by nature. To address these challenges, the development process of each Biotinkering Lab activity is informed by extensive prototyping and iterative post-launch modifications. Our first activity which allowed visitors to use 3D-printed molds and fungal mycelium to grow objects from sawmill waste taught us how to leverage cooking show techniques to overcome time constraints and highlight collaboration.
A core Biotinkering Lab design goal is to empower participants with creative control and agency in their exploration and tinkering with biology. We report on post-visit survey data of 9-13 year olds to show that these bio-making activities can successfully engage kids and make them feel like they are both “doing real science” and engaging in “creative thinking.” Kids expressed that they most enjoyed the challenge and freedom of not being told exactly what to do. Making with Microbes had visitors collaborating with microorganisms to grow bespoke pieces of biomaterial and craft a personal memento, and kids strongly appreciated being able to make personally-motivated choices about what to grow. Across all activities, we see a consistent increase in science interest and even get contacted by kids who have been inspired to continue exploring biotinkering on their own after their visit, key sign of an impactful museum experience.

These activities have afforded visitors an opportunity to engage first-hand in biodesign practices previously limited to sophisticated university and commercial labs. Given the rapidly changing landscape of modern biology and the blurring of traditional disciplines, the life science industries of tomorrow need creative, independent problem-solvers. Current education models for biology, however, are struggling to keep up. Our findings support the perspective that there is value in applying making, tinkering, and design challenge learning approaches to biology. The Biotinkering Lab offers a new opportunity for community institutions to engage the general public and broaden access to these impactful fields.

Author

• Anja Scholze, The Tech Interactive