STEM-themed escape room in a box experience for underserved students.
STEM-equity focused escape room experience for youth set in an Afrofuturistic universe where players must identify the source of a mysterious virus upon a space ship.
Project in collaboration with Michole Washington
In September 2019, I began collaborating with Michole to build out the first episode of the STEMulation experience, Spacebox, which is now a completely fleshed-out experience with saliva tests, immersive astronaut audio recordings, and an HQ dashboard to introduce students to STEM skills used in the real world. Spacebox brings forth a fuller and more inclusive picture of STEM practice by tapping into the concept of alternative reality games using transmedia approaches and social justice theory, centering narratives that are not typically centered.
It can be difficult to engage underrepresented K-12 students into STEM classrooms when they are constantly facing barriers to STEM opportunties. In traditional STEM curriculum, it can often undervalue and underdiscuss STEM themes, perspectives, and applications relevant to BIPOC students. In order to acknowledge and celebrate that all cultures practice STEM in their own ways, we must move beyond traditional textbooks and explore learning through other mediums that center the global majority.
I collaborativelly worked alongside sci-fi writers, astrophysicists, computer scientists, educators, and sociologists to co-design the elements of mid-fidelity Spacebox. As a team, we worked in sprints to give and receive frequent feedback between stages and engage in cross-disciplinary creation to convert our initial sketched out user flow diagrams and outlines into a complete product.
A video response from one of the Beta Testers interacting with the Spacebox (beta edition).