An educational non-profit with a big vision.

And even though engineering careers have one of the highest median earnings...

[Source: Federal STEM Education 5 Year Strategic Plan].

Even though STEM careers will form the backbone of future employment in the US…

[Source: Federal STEM Education 5 Year Strategic Plan].

An aerospace engineer created Iridescent 7 years ago because she saw a problem...

• Less than 20% of students choose STEM• Just 2.2% of Hispanics and 2.7% of African Americans go into STEM,

even though they account for 40% of K-12 students [Source: President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology].

This ultimately results in the US losing its innovative edge.In 2010, for the second year in a row, foreign companies were awarded more U.S patents. than U.S companies [Source: USPTO].

...there is an undersupply of scientists and engineers.

After a lot of trial and error, and research, and more trial and error...

Iridescent set out to educate underprivileged children to become Science, Engineering & Technology Innovators.

So Iridescent decided to change this.

● Science & Engineering● Focused on Underprivileged Children

● Technology Entrepreneurship● Focused on Girls

Iridescent developed two programs:

Please contact us to learn more about technovation, but for this story, we will focus on science and engineering and Curiosity Machine.

2. Curriculum Development by Engineers & Scientists

1. Science communication for Engineers & Scientists

5. Publishing Curriculum Online

3. Engineers teach Families over 5 weeks

6. Training Parents to use Curriculum

7. Training Teachers & After-school Educators to use Curriculum

8. Engineers & Scientists mentor Children online

4. Video Production

Curiosity Machine uniquely involves underserved children, their parents, their teachers and mentors.

Develop critical thinking skills.Develop life traits of curiosity, creativity, and persistence.

Advance toward powerful careers in science and engineering.

Curiosity Machine benefits everyone in the ecosystem.

Children

MentorsParents TeachersUnderstand benefits and accessibility of STEM careers

Learn how to support their children towards STEM careers

Gain greater confidence and sense of self-efficacy

Become more creative by problem solving with different groups

Become better leaders by learning how to motivate diverse learners

Improve their science communication skills by developing engaging multi-media presentations

Learn how to use different tools/resources to bring engineering and mentors into the classroom

Gain greater confidence and sense of self-efficacy

Professionals College Grades 6 - 12 preK-5

Contact Hours 10 40 40 20

Taught by Volunteer Engineers

Volunteer Scientists

Iridescent Staff Iridescent Staff

Organized by ParentsTeachersAfter-school Educators

TeachersAfter-school Educators

Iridescent Staff Iridescent Staff

Like school, Curiosity Machine provides a rich curriculum that inspires and prepares a child as she grows.

Online Curriculum: CuriosityMachine.org

Our technology tools and games

provide:

● Scaffolded curricula for K-12● Scalable assessment● Long-term mentoring ● Digital design challenges to

supplement the hands-on design challenges

We disseminate this curriculum through our online platforms, free, and available to everyone.

So far, Iridescent has reached more than 22,000 participants across both programs.

… and this is just a start!

In our 7 years of field-testing and optimizing our Curiosity Machine model, we have

reached 21,000 participants and trained 1,400 engineers and scientists…

Our model lets us scale by leveraging different stakeholders to develop and deliver content.

Curiosity Machine Staff

(12)

Run Science Communication Trainings

(60)

Engineers/Scientists

(600)Parents

(300)

Students & Parents (10,800) (5,400)

Run Partner Trainings

(60)

Teachers & Community Partners

(780)

Design Challenges

(350)

We care about our impact a lot… …so we have studied and analyzed this extensively.

NSF-funded External Evaluations show that after our programs:

● 75% of children are more persistent, less averse to challenges and understand

science better

● 90% of parents do hands-on science projects at home

We reach many participants, but do our programs have the intended effect?

FUN

DIN

G

PA

RTN

ER

SP

RO

GR

AM

PA

RTN

ER

SP

RE

SSThe strength of our vision - and our execution - has helped us to attract top tier partners.

So how will we do this?

In the next 15 years, we want to engage:

Now, we want to dramatically scale our reach.

24,000

265,000

1,300,000

...100,000

engineers and scientists

parents

underprivileged children, out of whom….

we will prepare and deliver

“first-in-family” children to pursue higher

degrees in STEM

by leveraging our “train the trainer” model..

1,000,000

15 yrs 15 yrs 15 yrs 15 yrs

120 team members

and a slowly growing team...

Kevin MiklaszPhD, Marine Biology Assessment, Digital Games

Amy Kim PhD, ChemistryEngineer & Scientist Training

Cristiano MeiraFilmmakerEngineer & Scientist Videos

Andrew CollinsMAEngineer & Scientist Video Interviews

Veronica CavallaroFormer Dir. of Evaluation, Boeing CSRCOO

Sylvie DenuitMS Aero. EngineeringStrategy & Engr. Partnerships

Tara ChklovskiMS Aerosp. Engineering Founder, CEO

Mariana MeiraBA JournalismParent, Teacher, & Educator Training

...with the right competencies...

We will hold ourselves to our mission and commitment.

It will cost us only $11,000 per child to support her for

15 years and prepare her to become a “first-in-family” going into a STEM college degree.

Professionals College 6 - 12 preK-5

YOU!

You will change the lives of many children and in doing so will also be benefited.

We believe we can pull all this off, so there is really just one more ingredient we need for success:

By working with us you will benefit in three ways:

Inspire Employees

● This model will bring your company’s core technologies directly to the public. In addition the public goes through an in-depth technical product training so that it can truly understand the value of these technologies.

● Curriculum developed through this model is made widely and freely accessible worldwide through video and online platforms.

Create Social Impact

● Employees can use their expertise to inspire underprivileged children. ● Employees will have long-term mentoring opportunities through which they can support

underprivileged children to prepare for STEM careers.

Align with Business

● Employees gain skills of clear science communication and presentation.● They become better leaders by learning how to motivate learners of all ages.● They get a chance to look at their work through different perspectives - resulting in more

creative problem solving. The end experience is challenging - and life changing.● They are publicly recognized for their contributions to the world and as powerful role

models.