Question: How would you teach primary schools about stem cells in a simple way?

Jayne Charnock answered on 22 Mar 2011:

Great question graciek,

I asked myself the same thing when i was first asked to go into a primary school! I was like,’ Oh my goodness- how on earth am i going to explain this to 5 year olds?!!’

I bascially use a mixture of games and dressing up to get across the big ideas- but firstly i have to start at th very beginning, talking about cells being the building blocks of our body (i get them to build big towers) and what happens if we get sick (tower falls over). Then we do a role play where we have a cut and some nasty germs get in and then we send in the good white blood cells which have come from the stem cells in the bone marrow. They get to dress up a scientists and bacteria with scary masks and then knights with swords that go and save the day! Its lots of fun! But i really need more kit- i have to keep borrowing my little nephews stuff from his dressing up box! We play ‘guess what sort the cell is’ and they ask LOTS of questions about working in the lab. They are so interested in everything you say, its probabkly more scary than speaking to the university professors!! It is completely exhausting but one of the most enjoyable things i do in my job.