That is a common answer when that question is asked among mexican children. We think it’s a problem. We think we should be worried (and you too!). But we cannot take no for an answer, and a kid’s mind can be quite stubborn. We needed to change their mind, and although the children’s answer could change over time through different, positive stimulus on the children’s lives, we knew we have the power to be one of said stimuli, and thus, decided to take responsibility and bring science to the kids in a friendly, and most importantly, fun way.
Because it was important for us to introduce children to science topics related to biology, we made several visits to elementary and middle schools in our area. For each of our visits, we planned a “science day” where we explained the concepts in simple, visual ways. After each explanation, we assigned manual activities for kids to reinforce what they had just learned through playing: making their own edible culture medium, creating amino acid chains, and proposing transformations for bacteria were some of the activities they enjoyed.