Science in a box/ maker kits

In Latin America, only 1 out of 10 children are digital natives; only 10% access higher education and over 18 million people liver below poverty lines. By 2030, 65% of the most competitive jobs haven't been invented yet and they will all be technology-based.

Infrastructure is another big challenge for the region as there are few equipped labs and in rural areas, there is less than 50% of internet penetration in the country. Poverty is perpetuated due to lack of quality education opportunities, creating a vicious cycle that does not enable social mobility based on merit.

Our solution combines DYI maker kits to teach STEAM while using biomaterials that are friendlier with the environment. We enable children and teachers to learn highly relevant skills that make them more competitive and prone to innovate. Our "mobile maker labs", enable children to learn on-the-go while engaging with technology through their interests.

Most STEAM solutions use materials based on plastic. Experts think that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will weigh more than the amount of fish in the ocean and each year 100,000 animals in the sea are killed by this material.

On top of that, the communities we work with in the country and region have no access to high-quality STEAM education. These communities represent millions of children and people whose potential is not unleashed to the fullest, perpetuating poverty cycles and violence. 

Contributing factors to the problem we are solving are also the violence lived in the country for decades and the displacements people are facing - both internally and externally (ie: Venezuela). In less than 4 years, almost 1.5 million immigrants have come to the country, making the situation even more complex.

We have been working in the technology education sector in Latin America since 2014. We pioneered on-site coding bootcamps initially in the region and have been able to continue impacting underserved populations with our work. We build relationships with the communities we work with or partner with organizations that have established connections with the populations we want to impact. 

For example, we partner with organizations like https://caballosformadores.com/ that already work with many rural schools; we have also partnered in multiple occasions with the public sector to launch calls to action and verify information. 

The solution not only enables us to teach and reach populations that don't necessarily have the best access to infrastructure, but we also measure - through our mobile SMS and software system - the engagement our users are having. We also make sure we impact populations that have expressed a need to learn STEAM skills with high-quality education solutions.

We bioengineered a conductive ink based out of Colombian organic materials. This ink conducts electricity and replaces the traditional cables that are used in STEAM kits. 

We also designed and developed an innovative methodology to teach technology through children's hobbies: https://vimeo.com/374118334, increasing the chances of engagement and "states of flow"; this guarantees user retention. We also developed a software-based solution for teachers and students to access content and a personalized system called "digital DNA" in case they are able to access the internet and computers; the content can be downloaded and made accessible without the use of the internet. 

We provide a STEAM curriculum and learning guides for children and teachers to continue acquiring skills after the mobile maker labs are completed.

Our solution is innovative from different perspectives:

1) we bioengineering biomaterials that are organic and that replace plastics; plastics are found in the traditional STEAM toys offered in the markets. for instance, we created a bio-conductive ink (conducts electricity), 

2) we teach traditional "STEAM" through people's hobbies and interests; we teach technology skills by creating an emotional engagement first, increasing the chances of high interaction.

3) we decentralize education, meaning teachers no longer depend on physical infrastructure to run their classes; our "mobile maker labs" enable invisible classes to take place; in times of crisis or hard access to physical buildings, our kits continue unleashing potential, from every child's home.

Our theory is that by enabling decentralized education that is non-reliable on infrastructure, more children - especially those from rural or poorer areas - will have access to high-quality technology education.

Moreover, by enabling children to learn through their hobbies, we expect to see an increase in engagement, diminishing dropout rates and multiplying exponential creativity and innovation.

Moreover, by providing a solution that is non-plastic dependent, we are revolutionizing an entire toys/education industry that is serving our children and YET destroying our planet. Other companies will follow.

1) We are currently serving 2,300 children;

2) by 2021, we expect to be serving 10 million children; we are open sourcing our STEAM K12 curriculum for Latin America;

3) in 5 years, we expect global reach; we are waiting to hear back from the UNICEF Innovation Fund for an investment that will enable us to reach global scale.

Within the next year, we expect to have open-sourced our STEAM K12 curriculum; we had this vision back in 2017 but it was not a good timing: https://vimeo.com/210871026

With this decision, we expect to impact at least 60% of the children in Latin America, leveraging our contacts with multi-national organizations, governments and private institutions.

In 5 years, we expect to have global outreach.

There are many barriers:

- funding as a female-led company in tech;

- bureaucracy since we want to change national curricula at a large scale;

- access to labs to continue bio-engineering materials. 

We continue overcoming these challenges with grit, a sense of humor and by recruiting the best talent we can find.

Also, we want to continue innovating in technology education. We did it in 2013 when we brought the "coding bootcamp" model in Latin America. Now we want to establish a new unit of learning with the digital DNA

We have been working in Latin America for many years; we led the 1st private-public initiative to position "coding bootcamps" as strong and data-driven mechanisms to reduce unemployment among youth; our partners included the World Bank, Ruta N, the mayorship of Medellin and private companies.

Since last year, we have been working with Deloitte after winning the Lead 2030 challenge: https://www.lead2030.com/challenges/goal-4/deloitte; 

We were also selected by ProColombia (https://procolombia.co/) to represent the country as top entrepreneurs, provide mentorships at the national levels and create content to share via our platforms: https://forbes.co/2020/03/08/negocios/10-emprendedores-digitales-fueron-nombrados-embajadores-de-marca-pais-colombia/

We selected the other option.

We did not select "other" as an option.

We are currently 10 people working at the startup. Some of us are full-time and some are part-time. 

Full-time we have:

- Oliver: learning architect

- Jenny: learning architect

- Ilana: lead software designer and CEO

- Peter: backend developer

- Yuki: frontend developer

Part-time we have two bio-technologists: Carlos and Sergio; one hardware engineer: Fredy and one technical advisor - Guillermo Iguaran. Our industrial designer is called Paola.

We are extremely passionate about technology education. We come from different countries and understand the importance of high-quality education.

We are also multi-disciplinary; we have a very strong innovation culture and are driven by intrinsic motivations that have enabled us to go through and overcome multiple challenges.

We are data-driven so have a very strong record of working with organizations ranging from the World Bank, multiple mayorships, the private sector and academic institutions. Our lead scientists have proven-record of biomaterial engineering and also research.

We are partnering the ProColombia: https://procolombia.co/; our CEO was selected as one of the 10 "entrepreneur Ambassadors" in 2020; this includes being part of the network at a national level, helping with mentorships and scaling our solutions.

Deloitte: https://www.lead2030.com/challenges/goal-4/deloitte, we are receiving mentorships and on top of that have been invited to work with the multiple organizations they already work with.

Medellin's 4th industrial revolution center: https://es.weforum.org/focus/centro-para-la-cuarta-revolucion-industrial; we are negotiating a big contract with this mayorship to impact thousands of people in the next 4 years.

We open source the curriculum but sell the DYI maker kits. We also find B2B corporate clients that have users and money and can sponsor users that could not have access to these opportunities otherwise.

We also enable users to access our solution with on-demand purchases or a recurring revenue model (monthly or annual). 

We sell the maker kits by unit or by membership. We keep a balance of investing our resources in innovation (ie conductive ink) and also marketing efforts (paid ads or commercial teammates).

We expect to be able to close a seed round soon as we want to continue innovating with biomaterials and biotech is expensive. By leveraging our network of allies in the private and public sector, we increase our chances to execute programs to impact cities and regions.

We are also waiting to hear back from UNICEF for a $90,000 USD non-dilutive grant. If we win, we will be able to open source our STEAM K12 curriculum this year, impacting millions of children before the end of 2020.

We are applying to TPrize because the schools behind the prize are very rigorous and can be game changing for when we open source the STEAM K12 curriculum.

ie: at the University of the Andes, Ilana has been a mentor for the CS department and knows about world class teachers like Hernando Barragan (real creator of Arduino).

In Mexico, the Tec de Monterrey is the best school and has a large network of leadership centers that give back to the communities across the country.

The MIT recognized our work in the past (https://www.innovatorsunder35....) and it is considered the best university in the world.

We want to partner with these organizations to be able to attract the best talent possible and make sure we have rigorous research implemented.

I did not select "other" as an option.

There are three types of maker kits:

- 10X, technologies that leverage VR and AR

- Impact, technologies leveraging biomaterials science

- Collectible, maker kits co-created with organizations or people

Since our methodology teaches STEAM through people's hobbies, we want to partner with organizations like Nike for the Sports Tech kits, Shakira for the Music Tech kits, and so on.