To bring awareness to the PFAS problem, one of our goals is to inform different communities about PFAS and how it can be avoided. Another goal is to make the topic of synthetic biology more accessible, so solutions like ours can be implemented with more ease in the future.

Educational Materials

We chose to create educational materials that encompassed the PFAS issue, including its sources and the significant risks associated with these 'forever chemicals’. We created an insightful discussion with open-ended questions that allowed students to personally engage and reflect on the material presented.

The material was mostly made for people who don’t have much knowledge within the field of synthetic biology. We made the material easy to adjust to different target groups, such as elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, and the elderly.

We discovered that utilizing different analogies, such as enzymes being scissors or linking our Error Prone Kit to a defective printer, made complex topics easier to understand. These analogies were supported by visuals to make the ideas more tangible.

We aimed to cover the realm of synthetic biology and the applications of GMOs. GMOs are often discussed in the media as a controversial topic, despite their widespread use in major Danish companies like Novo Nordisk. We wanted to change the narrative by shedding light on GMOs’ positive contributions to society. We asked the students whether they had heard about GMOs before, how much they knew about them, and their thoughts about them. The students’ feedback was varied, but many were unsure about whether GMOs were harmful or not.

After giving the students a basic understanding of synthetic biology, we took the opportunity to present the vitroFAS project. Based on the target group’s age and knowledge of synthetic biology, we increased the complexity of terminology and the project details.

To conclude the teaching session, we developed a Kahoot quiz, which we know young people with a competitive heart would appreciate. Kahoot is a fun way to interact with material you have just learned. Our experience with Kahoot is that it makes the material sink in because students are challenged to actively recall some of the information they just learned. This not only helped show their understanding of the topics we covered, but also provided an exciting interactive element that went beyond conventional learning methods.

Trip to Nordfyns Højskole

We went to a school at northern Fyn called Nordfyns Højskole to test our educational material.

A Højskole is a valued Danish tradition that serves an older student demographic and is often located in remote places. They are seen as great environments to make friends and find new passions.

The students at Nordfyn cover a wide demographic because they are divided into different tracks. The student body ranges between 18 to 40 years old with student from everywhere from Japan to Mexico to Denmark. We saw the school as an excellent opportunity due to the students’ diversity and their focus on climate-related topics. Before we began making our educational materials, we were briefed on the students’ curriculum on the water cycle and UN SDGs. We adjusted our lesson accordingly by integrating the water cycle into our talk of clean water, and PFAS removal techniques.

We talked about PFAS, its origins, its common locations, and our efforts to address the issue.

Recognizing that our audience had limited knowledge of laboratory procedures, we tried to convey the information in a straightforward and accessible manner.

We were curious to gather their perspectives on GMOs and any information they had encountered about them. During our lesson, we aimed to highlight the positive aspects of these organisms and illustrate how they could contribute to an improved daily life for individuals, such as the way we intend to use our project. From the feedback, it seemed evident that the students had gained new perspectives about GMOs after the lesson.

We wanted to ensure that the participants derived educational value from the event. To this end, we made a questionnaire that they completed both at the beginning and the end of the session, enabling us to analyze their takeaways. One of the questions in this questionnaire was, "How often do you think you are exposed to PFAS in your daily life?" The responses were as follows:

The statistics reveal a heightened awareness among the participants regarding their exposure to PFAS following our presentation. Initially, 13 individuals (ranging from 5 and below) believed their exposure was limited, while 8 thought they were exposed relatively often. After the lesson, this perception shifted. 6 people perceived a minor exposure, whereas 16 people now recognized a heightened exposure to PFAS. This doubling effect showed the impact of our lesson on the attendees. Subsequently, we invited them to write post-it notes about one thing they had learned from our presentation.

They provided feedback to enhance our materials. The following comments were particularly noteworthy:

• Adding more information about the source of PFAS and PFAS applications.
• More information about the uses of GMOs.
• Positive feedback regarding the analogies we used such as describing enzymes as scissors.

Naturally, we incorporated these suggestions into our presentation. We drew upon insights from our meeting with Professor Philippe Grandjean and discussions from the People’s Meeting on Bornholm, as inspiration for our educational material.

We also engaged in self-reflection regarding our lesson. We identified which parts of the lesson were effective and which areas could be improved. Our presentation displayed an abbreviated list of items produced with PFAS garnered a priceless shocked reaction from the students, and we aspire to elicit more of these "Aha" moments in the future. The idea of forming small groups, allowing us to circulate and inquire about their discussions, emerged as a potential approach to gathering additional insights from them.

The PFAS Pathway Game

Before the Climate Meeting in Middelfart, we prepared a game for people to understand the ways PFAS ends up in nature, animals, and the human body. The participants had to find their way in a 4x4 grid of tiles from PFAS in a non-stick pan to where it ends up in the ocean, or animals or humans ingesting it.

When they found a path in the game, we discussed their thoughts about the decisions they made during the game.

Because we saw how the game made the participants reflect, we wanted to have it as a game on the Wiki too! You can try playing the game below.

Find a path where PFAS can go from an everyday item to accumulation in humans, animals, or nature.

• The goal is to make it to the finish line: the upper row of tiles marked with a dark blue border. It is here that the PFAS has either been eaten by humans, eaten by animals, or released into the ocean.
• Start at the non-stick pan, the bottom right tile.
• To get to the finish line, you can move up and down, left and right - not diagonally!
• When you find a correct path, you will be congratulated!

Test yourself and see how many paths you can find.

The PFAS Board Game

To test the participants' knowledge of PFAS and where it is found in everyday products, we created a board game. Many of the products we use daily contain PFAS, which came as a surprise to many of the participants. This would spark discussion on our daily exposure to the forever chemical. As with the other PFAS game, we decided to implement the board game on this page for you to test your PFAS knowledge.

Game Description:

On the board are 8 tiles, each with a familiar product. Clicking on a product reveals whether it contains PFAS and a short description of why. Test your knowledge by trying to predict whether a product on the board contains PFAS and why.