BRINGING TO S.T.E.M.

WHAT IS

An original free-to-stream web series featuring a diverse group of five best friends who travel through time, meeting real-life historical figures and experiencing major events, learning about S.T.E.A.M. topics through interactive historical fiction adventures.

THREE AND GOALS

1. Engaging Storytelling

2. Relatable Characters for Minority Communities

3. Intentional STEM Education

GOAL: Recruit Underrepresented Students into STEM

WHO WE WILL

We are a group of digital content creators who are partnering with seasoned K-12 educators, so we know how to create engaging content that reaches students and gets them to watch it online. Team STEAM has been developed to reach grades 4-8 as a lead into our existing Science IRL and History IRL brands that connects with grades 8-12, covering common core STEM topics that instructors cover in the classroom. This will allow teachers to utilize Team STEAM content in their existing curriculum. Our goal is by featuring the stories of minorities in STEM history and through diverse characters, we will be able to attract underrepresented communities into STEM.

We are seeking institutional and education partners to come on board and provide us opportunities to reach students in the classroom and through live educational events. This will be achieved through our combination of three digital formats: 1) a weekly educational entertainment web series released free on social media, 2) a series of educational videos designed for the classroom featuring our Team STEAM characters, and 3) field segments featuring the real life people behind the animated Team STEAM characters showing STEM in real life.

Each episode will start with a question or conflict the group has to find a solution to, which sparks the adventure of each episode. ‘Team S.T.E.A.M.’ will then go back in time and use STEM to solve the problem of the day, learning new concepts each webisode.

With Team STEAM, Intersectionality is key! The 5 main characters contain representatives from the learning disabled, physically disabled, DACA, religious minorities, multiple racial, ethnicities, foster families and adoption, and gender-nonconforming communities. All of the members of the group represent multiple minority groups and thus have unique experiences and can reach students who are currently underrepresented in STEM.

Play Video

SCIENCE SAMPLE

Play Video

HISTORY SAMPLE

POSSIBLE

A) Jamie feels bad because kids were bullying her for being a tomboy/breaking gender stereotypes, but when the Team helps Empress Wu Zetian, China’s only female empress, stop the organization from hurting her people, using math to solve the enemy’s code; Jamie learns from the empress that if being yourself mean you have to break stereotypes than it isn’t bad at all.

B) It’s spirit week at school and the theme is “rock and roll”. Each grade is assigned a famous rock singer or band to represent and they’re all white men. Aleah mentions that it’s annoying how minorities and women helped create rock and roll yet the school didn’t pick any of them to represent it. T-Bot sends them back in time to help out Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the black woman who created the first ever rock record. While the team learns about vibrations and how musical instruments use vibrations to make music, Aleah and Jamie get to talk to Rosetta and get inspired by her never give up spirit.

C) Kids at school are bullying Aleah because she’s a muslim and she starts to feel angry at the Christians around her. When the Team go back in time to prevent the Babington plot from succeeding they learn about the art of code breaking to desciper one of the secret coded letters used in the plot. After seeing the way religious intolerance can tear families, lives, and countries apart, Aleah learns not to repay intolerance with intolerance.

D) A bully at school is trying to convince Timo that gay guys are inferior to straight guys. He tells him to name one president, king, or hero that isn’t straight, and leaves before Timo can respond. Timo is deeply troubled that he couldn’t come up with an answer. T-Bot sends the Team back in time to help Alan Turing crack a code after the bad guys destroyed his key. While Gabe, Jamie, and Turing teach the viewer about the science of code-breaking, T-Bot notices Timo is too down to help out. When she finds out his reason, she informs him that Alan was actually a gay man himself, and was also one of the main figures in cracking the German Enigma Code that would help the Allied Powers finally defeat the Nazis. Timo regains a sense of pride and realizes that members of the LGBT community are just as strong, smart, and capable as straight people.

Meet TEAM S.T.E.A.M.

JAMIE

Quick as a whip with math and one of the most mature members of the group, Jamie helps keep the team cool when their adventures get out of hand. The epitome of a tomboy, Jamie rejects gender stereotypes and does whatever makes her feel happy and comfortable. As a gender non-conforming African American girl who’s a part of the LGBTQ+ community, she knows a thing or two about being treated like the odd one out, which is why she always makes sure the people around her feel included and important.

DEREK

Adopted by his white American parents when he was a baby, Derek is a very physically fit asian American teen. He loves playing sports, fitness, video games, and technology, which has led to him being an expert on topics on health and technology. He tends to bother his younger brother Gabrielle a lot, but to him, that’s what older brothers are for. He often affectionately calls the rest of the team nerds and is always looking for adventure due to his short attention span and his penchant for getting bored easily.