Kickstarter Campaign FUNDED!

February 10, 2015

At the end of 2014, we ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise capital to get Yellow Scope up and running. And we're happy to report that we were successful! We surpassed our goal of $25,000 by over 30%. Thanks to all of our amazing Kickstarter supporters for backing us at the very start. We've just finished fulfilling our Kickstarter orders in the past month. And now we are open for business here on our website. We're posting content from our Kickstarter page here in case you missed it. There's lots of good information about our mission and our product. Thanks for checking it out.

Change the message. Change her world.

"Science is not for girls." That's the wrong message for our girls to hear. We know that inside every girl is a scientist, but over time, girls pick up on societal cues that tell them that science is not for them - it's for boys. This message is reinforced in the toy aisle, where chemistry and physics kits are marketed to boys and pseudoscience "spa" kits are marketed to girls.

Girls lose confidence. And miss opportunities.

In 4th grade, most girls say they like science. But by 8th grade this number drops dramatically as girls lose confidence in their ability to do science. This trend continues beyond school. Although women make up 48% of the total workforce, they make up only 24% of science jobs.

Science is for girls.

At Yellow Scope, we want to build girls' confidence in science before they fall off the curve. Research shows that girls learn best when they can approach projects in a creative and open-ended way. That's why we designed our kits to engage both the scientific and creative minds of girls. The experiments are rigorous, and there is plenty of room for girls to draw their observations and doodle their ideas in their very own lab notebook.

STEM and the leaky pipeline.

STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. There has been a lot of talk about the gender imbalance in STEM and the "leaky pipeline" - a term used to describe the loss of girls and women at every step along the path to STEM careers. We want to fix the leak early, while girls are still confident and enthusiastic about science.

Our kit:

is targeted for girls 8 - 12 years old, when interest in science is most vulnerable
aligns with Next Generation Science Standards
includes supplies for dozens of experiments

Key concepts:

Molecules and molecular motion
Chemical reactions
Temperature in chemistry

Included in the kit:

Lab notebook (which is really a lot more than just a lab notebook...) It's a sketch pad - reference guide - doodle book - and lab safety & instruction manual. In a nutshell, it's a place to learn, experiment, wonder, design, and create. And it's really cool. (See photos below.)
Safety goggles
3 Beakers
Thermometer
Timer
Stirring rod
Candle
Citric acid
Sodium bicarbonate
Colored pencils
Pencil sharpener
Red, yellow, and blue colored dye
Red, yellow, and blue citric acid/sodium bicarbonate tablets
Mini pencil with eraser and logo
Chalk cloth/lab mat (phthalate-free)
Chalk
Collectible chemistry badge

Earn Your Collectible Chemistry Badge. Future kits (Biology badge, anyone?) will come with different badges that girls can pin on their backpacks or lab coats.

Real science girls doing real science:

What's Currently on the Market?

We dare you to Google "science kits for girls" images. Go ahead, open another window and do it. We did this the other night, and here's what came up:

Screenshot of Google search for "Science Kits for Girls" Images - Can you see us in the bottom right corner?

There are a couple of good kits that come up in the search -- including Roominate, which is a really great toy (go Alice and Bettina!) And we're really excited that our kit showed up. However, take a look at the overwhelming majority of the science kits that are targeted specifically at girls. This is what the toy aisle offers our daughters, nieces, granddaughters, and friends. The world may tell girls that they can be anything and do anything. But the real message is that they should focus on their appearances, and that rigorous science is not for them.

Reward Details:

The lab coat embroidered with our yellow microscope

These are the three science girls (and their lab rat friend) that you can help name in the NAME THE SCIENCE GIRL reward

Reasons to support us on Kickstarter today:

You will be the first to own the Foundation Chemistry kit. Our product is unique; there are no products currently on the market like this.
You will send the message that girls can do anything - especially real science.
You will help get real science into the hands of your daughter/niece/granddaughter/friend.
You will help fix the leaky pipeline, so girls in STEM will become women in STEM.
Kickstarter perks! Need we say more?
We ask for your pledge so that we can get volume discounts, finish up the graphic design for the lab notebook, and cover start-up printing costs.
If this really takes off, your pledges will help start us on the path of a whole line of science kits for girls. After our Foundation Chemistry Kit, we plan to develop a series of kits in different subject areas - Physics, Biology, Earth Science, Coding, and more. For each subject area, we will create several kits on different topics, and at different price points. As a backer, you will receive exclusive updates on our new products.
If you believe in our mission, and you want to change her world, please share this on Facebook using the convenient button just below our video at the top.
And please tweet this to the world. (Handy hashtags are #girlsinSTEM #womeninSTEM #STEM #MakerEd #LikeAGirl and maybe you could throw in #GirlPower)
Thank you for considering our project!

Yellow Scope in the News:

Founders Marcie and Kelly in the Portland Tribune

News

Miss Piggy Enthusiastically Embraces The Feminist Label

We love you, Bill Nye (of Science Guy fame)!