In a nutshell

We create videos that give the public a unique, personal window in the world of STEM. What is it like to ACTUALLY be a marine biologist / astrophysicists / biochemist / rainforest ecologist / nuclear physicist / sea turtle biologist / chemical oceanographer / behavioral ecologist / quantum physicist / microbiologist / grad student / postdoc / professor? We'll tell you, and we'll share our personal stories of how we got here, why we do what we do, and how you (or anyone with the drive) can do the same. The REAL world of science is more incredible than you can imagine. We aim to get the secret out to the masses....



As a token of our appreciation for your support, we provide various incentives, which increase with your pledge amount. But let’s be honest: you support this campaign because you share our mission – you believe that science could better enhance our lives, sustain our environment, and attract a diversity of future STEM leaders of all backgrounds, if we find creative ways to get the secret, adventurous, thrilling, awe-inspiring side of science out to the masses. Words cannot adequately express how passionate we are about this mission, nor how appreciative we are that you support it. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. And welcome to the movement :).



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The problem



Our response



Who we are

is a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization, consisting of a multidisciplinary team from various racial identities and socioeconomic backgrounds (e.g., 58% female, 39% underrepresented minorities). Our team of biologists, chemists, physicists and engineers is unified by a personal need to diversify access to the often-misunderstood world of STEM. We acknowledge our privilege as researchers that get to work toward exhilarating and potentially world-changing discoveries for a living. This motivates us to volunteer our time and energy to use artistic expression through visual storytelling to build personal connections between the scientific process and the public, which science is intended to serve.



How this started

Formal K-16 science education often prioritizes the memorization of scientific findings for the purposes of standardized testing (especially in under-funded K-12 school districts) and to thin out over-crowded majors in college (e.g., the dreaded ‘weed-out’ introductory science classes found at virtually every research university). Meanwhile, lobbyists have successfully politicized major scientific findings (e.g., those relating to human infectious disease and climate change). Together, these processes leave much of the public indifferent or even averse to ‘science’.



We have just begun Phase, which will consist of weekly free video releases, in which scientists, ranging from astrophyscists and field biologists to chemical oceanographers and immunoengineers, at career stages ranging from Ph.D. student to senior professor, will share their stories. Our founder, Dr. Mike Gil, is the son of an immigrant from Argentina, was raised working class in an oil town in Texas, attended under-funded public schools in K-12, and was in the ‘averse to science’ category. Then, at age 19, he experienced science as the creative process that it truly is, akin to art — limited only by the imagination of the practitioner. This led Mike, as a Ph.D. student that had walked an unlikely path to STEM, to build an online platform through which to ‘get the secret out’ about science by leveraging the most engaging (from a sensory perspective) mass communication medium: free online video. At the end of 2015, just as Mike completed his Ph.D. in biology, he launched Phase I of SciAll.org and began publishing videos that share personal stories about the scientific process and how to become a scientist. This platform has since attracted >12K subscribers from around the world and published >100 videos that have collectively been watched for >20K hours and counting. The impact of these videos has also been measured through voluntary viewer surveys; for example, 530 respondents (60% female, 19% underrepresented racial/ethnic groups): 94% (95% of females, 96% of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups became interested to learn more about scientific research because of these videos, which “made science more appealing” to 51% (54% of females, 56% of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups ( full results published open access* ). This platform has proven to be effective in reaching and inspiring many of the previously unreached. Now it is time to scale it up...We have just begun Phase, which will consist of weekly free video releases, in which scientists, ranging from astrophyscists and field biologists to chemical oceanographers and immunoengineers, at career stages ranging from Ph.D. student to senior professor, will share their stories. Formal K-16 science education often prioritizes the memorization of scientific findings for the purposes of standardized testing (especially in under-funded K-12 school districts) and to thin out over-crowded majors in college (e.g., the dreaded ‘weed-out’ introductory science classes found at virtually every research university). Meanwhile, lobbyists have successfully politicized major scientific findings (e.g., those relating to human infectious disease and climate change). Together, these processes leave much of the public indifferent or even averse to ‘science’. SciAll.org is a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization, consisting of a multidisciplinary team from various racial identities and socioeconomic backgrounds (e.g., 58% female, 39% underrepresented minorities). Our team of biologists, chemists, physicists and engineers is unified by a personal need to diversify access to the often-misunderstood world of STEM. We acknowledge our privilege as researchers that get to work toward exhilarating and potentially world-changing discoveries for a living. This motivates us to volunteer our time and energy to use artistic expression through visual storytelling to build personal connections between the scientific process and the public, which science is intended to serve.

Much of the public, particularly underserved communities and households that lack a tradition of higher education, is denied the opportunity to understand the process of science and what STEM careers offer, both in terms of benefits to society and fulfillment to individuals. Thus, our diverse team of professional scientists uses storytelling to share personal experiences and wisdom in vlog-style videos (e.g., on YouTube) that humanize scientists, demystify the process of scientific discovery, and make STEM career mentoring freely accessible to all.We are creating the first-ever centralized repository of scientists speaking directly to the public, unfiltered, on video. The content we are generating addresses topics ranging from who scientists are, how and why research is done, and how to pursue a career in STEM, to the causes and consequences of the under representation of females and minorities in STEM fields. We complement traditional teaching approaches: our content first rouses interest in STEM, inspiring viewers to seek knowledge, and, once sufficient knowledge is acquired (e.g., in the classroom, through Khan Academy), our content then fills a glaring gap in the formal and informal STEM education landscape by offering publicly available mentoring on how to advance in a STEM career — from K-12 student to professional.