We’re excited to announce that five Master Teacher Fellows have received mini-grants to expand hands-on bioscience learning for students. These grants fund innovative classroom projects that strengthen bioscience skills, deepen student engagement, and connect learning to real-world applications.
The following Fellows were awarded mini-grants:
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| Musserff Dalkikic, ABE Türkiye (2023–24 Türkiye MTF Cohort) This mini-grant supports making gel electrophoresis analysis accessible to the blind. It includes creating Braille cards and 3D-printed gel electrophoresis results-based scenarios with a broad range of contexts. |
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| Vanessa Gibbens, ABE Australia (2024–25 MTF Cohort) This mini-grant support gel electrophoresis units and pipettes to support curriculum developed during Fellowship year and to make ABE a permanent resource all year round for younger students, Year 10. Also looking to train non-ABE teachers to help disseminate hands-on biotech education. |
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| Christine Thompson, ABE Massachusetts (2024–25 MTF Cohort) This mini-grant supports the purchase of MiniPCR Pullits to help with the implementation of CRISPR-based curriculum developed as an MTF project. |
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| Maaike Vollebregt, ABE The Netherlands (2024–25 MTF Cohort) This mini-grant supports the creation of methods for students to detect DNA damage caused by microplastics in plant cells. Includes development of protocols to detect microplastic levels in animal cells and to measure DNA damage caused by the microplastics in animal cells. |
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| Sarah Yearby, ABE San Francisco Bay (2024–25 MTF Cohort) This mini-grant supports the purchase of spectrophotometer and protein quantification reagents to increase the accessibility of her project based on protein detection in milk. Yearby is also looking to train and share equipment with teachers in her school via in-school professional development institutes. |
Congratulations again to this year's awardees. We look forward to seeing your work in the future.