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Nanogirl’s Lab – Explosive Growth Going Global

Children around the world are turning Covid-19 home isolation into a futuristic learning experience thanks to engineer and nanotechnologist Dr Michelle Dickinson.

In the fortnight since launch, Nanogirl’s Lab has grown at the rate of 52 percent each day and picked up users in 75 countries around the world.

“We only launched Nanogirl’s Lab almost a fortnight ago week and already we have thousands of children around the world building their STEM superpowers as young scientists and engineers already seeing themselves as rocket scientists and geothermal engineers,” says founder Dr Michelle Dickinson (aka Nanogirl).

To help manage the explosion in demand Nanogirl Labs is probably an outlier as one of the few companies that is frantically hiring during the lockdown”

“Nanogirl’s Lab is a 10 week program designed to help children build their STEM superpowers. With a new STEM lesson every weekday children are provided with a 5 minute Nanogirl instructional video and then a set of ‘lab notes’ to go away with to help them to physically engineer and build their superpower with items found around the house. Each week focuses on a different superpower which includes flight, sound and vision. Each experiment is designed to give children access to essential hands on STEM while learning to tinker, and build which will be useful throughout their lives. We know that science learning can be perceived to be dry and difficult, whereas our expertise is showcasing how learning STEM can be fun, creative and applicable to the world we live in. Research shows that children make up their minds about science being for them by the age of 12, so it’s crucial that we don’t let this global disruption affect the world's future STEM career pipeline”.

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“The feedback from parents is that they are seeing their children instantly become inspired while they themselves are feeling more confident about teaching science - a subject they may not have been confident in themselves as a child. It’s amazing how a global crisis can demonstrate that quality learning can be available to anyone with access to a device irrespective of where they live.”

Nanogirl’s Lab costs just NZD$1/day (about 55c USD, or 50p)

“Because we built our platform to be a buy-one-give-one we are delighted to be able to continue our mission of funding access for all children, even those whose families may be going through challenging times right now. It’s amazing to know that children as in five continents are pushing their learning boundaries – while science nervous parents are feeling confident and empowered thanks to our daily cheat sheets” she says.

Founder of Nanogirl Labs, Michelle was focused on building a mission driven organisation dedicated to helping inspire, educate and empower everyone through positive hands-on science and engineering experiences. While most of her work was through live events around the world, the threat of a COVID lockdown drove Dickinson and her team to develop an action packed online learning module. The difference is that the learning was hidden in a mission to build a superpower and designed to help children and their families to actually build their superpower using only simple items found at home like paper and tape.

Working to make STEM accessible to all

Created by nanotechnologist and engineer Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl™ is a superhero with a difference. Her powers don't come from magic - or spider bites or alien suns! - but instead through her study of STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Sadly, missing even a week of school can have a profound impact on a child’s long-term relationship with STEM and can impact their future careers in these fields. With so many children currently at home, Nanogirl’s Lab is working to inspire, educate and empower STEM through their home experiments.

For every paying subscriber to Nanogirl's Lab, a STEM learning experience is donated to a family who could not otherwise afford to take part. Find out more about Nanogirl Labs' other projects at nanogirllabs.com

Behind Nanogirl Labs

Founded in 2016 by Joe Davis and Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl Labs is a social enterprise with presence all over the world. The home of Nanogirl, a scientist on a mission to build superpowers through science, the Nanogirl Labs team works around the world designing and creating transformational STEM learning experiences.

They produce explosive live science theatre, community experiences, write books (including the bestselling Kitchen Science Cookbook) and design hands-on learning programmes that enable everyone, everywhere to dream bigger and achieve more.

For every paying subscriber to Nanogirl's Lab, they donate a STEM learning experience to a family who could not otherwise afford to take part. Find out more about Nanogirl Labs' other projects at nanogirllabs.com

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