Jennifer Bancej, a high school biology teacher in Ottawa, stands in front of her classroom, about to begin the unit on biology.

Her worst fear?

That what she's teaching doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately, for some students, “this subject doesn’t matter” is their default setting.

But Jennifer doesn’t believe it has to stay that way.

So, she begins by inviting students to find a challenge that does matter to them. To do this, they choose their top Challenge Card.

“So I had a girl who was very interested in female reproductive rights. Even though that's more of a social science thing, I'm like, we can tie this into genetics, we can tie it into studying cells... there's so much stuff we can do there.”

Teachers like Jennifer can connect curriculum to students’ personal interests, making learning feel relevant and customized.

'I saw an article on forensics, and I have three girls in my grade 12 class that were super into the Challenge Card that has to do with crimes and criminology. I scanned and posted it on my Google Classroom. I've already had two kids walk by my room as I'm like waving to people in the halls at lunch and say, "oh, that article you put out was really cool!" 

Another student could say, “I want to understand why people get addicted to video games.”

This might sound like a technology issue. But a teacher like Jennifer knows she can anchor it in the biology curriculum: the neurobiology of addiction, dopamine, reward pathways in the brain, even the genetic markers that influence vulnerability to addiction.

When students make this connection, science transforms into a tool for discovering what is meaningful in their own lives.

“If you talk to a kid about what they’re interested in, they’re going to be far more interested in talking to you in general … even if biology isn’t their favorite thing, they’re still going to be buying in.”

But here’s the key, Jennifer didn’t have to rewrite the curriculum, become a labor market expert, or turn into a matchmaker. 

“I had some girls who aren’t taking biology this semester … I said just come and see me and we’ll go through the Challenge mindset at lunch …for one of them it confirmed what she was thinking of doing next year, and the other one had no idea and it kind of helped her have some areas to focus on for career exploration.”

Jennifer is a catalyst. She helps students build a bridge between the biology they have to learn and the challenges they want to solve.