Bringing 21st-century science into schools

Advances in biodesign, in which principles of engineering and technology are applied to the life sciences, are moving out of laboratories and into daily life. However, they have not made their way into K-12 classrooms. Today's students need to become familiar with biotechnologies so that they can make informed decisions about how they will be applied in the future. Yasmin Kafai and Justice Walker describe some of the programs that can help K-12 students and their teachers to build understanding of this new area of science.