Piloting Activities
In Year 2, the project hopes to build on insights from the co-design phase to develop structured curriculum and expand implementation across additional partner sites. Activities will continue to engage youth through hands-on biomaker experiences while incorporating refined designs that support consistent delivery at scale. The team will also strengthen recruitment, coordination, and data collection processes, while continuing to study participant engagement, learning, and family involvement.
Activity 2: Fungi Games
Shape living mycelium into game pieces, tokens, or tiles using molds. Over several days, the mycelium grows through the substrate, locking the shape together into a sturdy network of fibers. Finally, the pieces are dried and heat-treated to make them inert and durable.
Activity 3: Microbe Art Worlds
Create art through a two-part exploration of agar, microbes, and imagination. In Part I: Make a Microbial World (Miniverse), participants use agar as a creative material to explore scale, texture, and environment, building a tiny world inspired by unseen microbial communities. In Part II: Make Living Art (Microbe painting), participants use colorful engineered microbes on agar plates to create living artwork that appears and deepens over time. Along the way, learners discover how biology, care, and time shape what becomes visible.
Activity 1: Algae Accessories
Create wearable projects such as jewelry, charms, and keyrings using Bio String, a flexible bioplastic fiber made from kelp alginate. Shape it wet, let it dry, then turn it into bracelets, earrings, charms, or mini woven pieces.