Story-driven resources designed to make STEM inclusive for students.

I Am A Scientist • San Francisco, California

A collage of posters and photographs promoting STEM careers and science education for students, featuring diverse young people and thematic text about science and innovation.

Impact Areas

Education

Services

Brand identity
Website design
Website development
Ongoing design support

Years

2023-2024

A smartphone being held by a hand displays a profile of a woman with curly hair, a white headband, and earrings, smiling widely. The screen shows text indicating she is a developmental biologist at Harvard, with her name Cassandra Extavour, PhD, and includes some additional information and a photo of her.
A website featuring a man with glasses and dreadlocks wearing a blue shirt with white patterns, smiling with arms crossed. The page header reads 'I AM A SCIENTIST,' highlighting him as a bioprocess engineer, with sections about his life, influences, and journey to becoming a bioprocess engineer.

The Challenge

I Am A Scientist, a program of The Plenary Co., helps K–12 students see themselves in science.

They needed a website and resources that made real STEM careers feel personal and were easy for educators to use in classrooms or at home.

Sign for a molecular engineering event or conference, featuring a woman with curly hair and a colorful jacket, under a modern building with textured concrete and large digital screens.
Laptop displaying a webpage titled 'I Am a Scientist' with a message to inspire students in STEM, featuring images of diverse individuals and text about open source resources.
Two overlapping website screenshots featuring diverse scientists, with a woman in a white lab coat smiling and flexing her biceps.
A large poster on a building features a middle-aged man with short gray hair and a beard, wearing a greenish shirt, holding binoculars. The poster introduces him as Scott Edwards, PhD, Harvard University, an ornithologist, with the phrase "I am a scientist." The background of the poster is beige with black and gold text.

The Work

We designed interactive story hubs for each scientist.

The site centers on Sparks and Spotlights, highly interactive features that share the stories and science of real-world STEM professionals. Each story combines digital hubs, photo galleries, career paths, Spotify playlists, original illustrations, and day-in-the-life vignettes, so students can explore different careers from many angles.

Behind the scenes, we created the organizational system that makes the resources easy to mix and match, along with teacher materials including slide decks, presentations, and discussion questions. Educators can easily tailor each lesson to their classroom or to activities at home.

View the full website

A website display featuring a smiling young woman with curly hair, wearing a white sleeveless top, promoting scientific storytelling and education, with a black header menu and a blue footer bar.
A collection of colorful digital posters showing personal introductions, career aspirations, and motivational advice, including photos of a woman with glasses and short black hair, and images of mountain exploration, a lab group, and a plant in a beaker.

WHAT THEY SAID

“I looked forward to every meeting, both to see what brilliant creative solution you’d dreamed up and because you are such a warm and supportive creator.”

— Stephanie Fine Sasse, Co-creator

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