The immune system plays a critical role in defending people against pathogens and threats like cancer. However, its complexity makes it challenging to explain, especially to a younger audience. Inspired by talking to her son about the work she did in the lab, Marion Brunck, an immunologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, created trading cards to teach children about the basic functions of the immune system.
Where did your inspiration for these cards come from?
Marion Brunck's immunology trading cards resembled Pokémon cards that were more relatable for young kids to learn about immune cells.
Submitted by Marion Brunck
I came up with this idea when my son was six, and he was really into Pokémon. I thought about how I may be able to use that show as an analogy for the different types of immune cells. I picked a couple of characteristics of each cell, like how B cells produce antibodies, which was similar to how the different types of Pokémon have different abilities. Then, I used AI to create images for the cards.
How do these cards teach students about immunology?
The first version of the cards that I made a few years ago only included immune cells, so the students were just comparing the different functions of the cells. Now, since my son is a bit older, I updated the cards to include enemies, like bacteria, viruses, or cancer cells. For this, I had to generalize some of the concepts to pair one immune cell broadly with these different agents. I also referenced the maturation of some cells, like dendritic cells from monocytes, by making the cards the same color, which was similar to evolutions in Pokémon.
What have students thought of the cards?
Third grade students enjoyed learning the features of immune cells using Brunck's cards.
Submitted by Marion Brunck
They absolutely love them! In the original set, the kids had so much fun exchanging cards. At first, they wanted to try to figure out which immune cell was the best based on what it could do, but by the end, they agreed that all of the cells worked as a team, which was really great to watch. In the more recent edition, the kids are really interested in winning, but they still have to learn the features of the different cells and pathogens so that they can match them correctly. They also have a lot of fun learning some of the vocabulary I included, like phagocytosis.
What challenges did you run into while making these?
Since I’m an immunologist, I really want everything to be accurate and to use all of the right terminology, but especially when I first made the cards, I couldn’t include every detail because it would have been too complicated for six-year-olds. It’s been nice to be able to add a little bit more detail, now that he’s older, but there’s still a lot of stuff I haven’t included.
What are you looking forward to in future versions of these cards?
It’s been so great to see how people all around the world have used these cards and also to get ideas from other researchers. One person suggested a way to incorporate cytokines as a booster type of card, so I’m looking forward to trying that. I’m also going to be printing the cards in Spanish, soon, since I have made them in both French and English based on my son’s schools.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
