We knockdown classroom walls and take students across the globe, never having to leave their desks.
The goal of Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is to inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers. We think the best way to do this by bringing those on the frontlines of science, exploration, adventure, and conservation, live into classrooms through virtual guest speakers and field trips. Since September 2015, we’ve hosted 4,000 live events, connecting over a million students to scientists and explorers in 100+ countries. What we do is and always will be free for classrooms everywhere!
Every month during the school year, we host 30-40, live virtual events for classrooms. We introduce students to challenging issues, exciting places, strong role models, and new STEM career paths. Along the way, we tackle themes like biodiversity, climate change, engineering, women in STEM, geology, space exploration, and so much more. Classrooms can join in live camera spots and interact directly, an unlimited number can join the live stream and interact, and all of our events record to our YouTube channel for future viewing.
Students won’t remember every math or language lesson, but they will remember the time they met an astronaut or were hanging out in a penguin colony in Antarctica.
While most events take place from homes, labs, offices, zoos, aquariums, in the field with 4/5G connectivity, we also send textbook-sized satellite units into the field and have video broadcast live into classrooms from the most remote places on the planet! We’ve brought the tops of volcanoes, the bottom of the ocean, high in the rainforest canopy, and remote coral atolls, live into classrooms across North America and beyond!
We work with organizations, institutes and facilities around the world, and host hundreds of individual scientists and explorers. We’re proud to host a large number of female scientists and explorers, as well as a strong speaker representation from diverse backgrounds, so all students can see themselves in these exciting STEM careers!
Every scientist and explorer we have ever hosted can remember when it happened, when their passion for their chosen pursuit was ignited. It may have been meeting someone, an inspiring educator, seeing a documentary or reading a book. It’s these tiny ‘aha’ moments we’re striving to spark in classrooms everywhere.
We recognize that not every student will become a scientist or explorer, but if through these events they understand our planet better, practice their critical thinking skills, and recognize the role they can play through their everyday decisions and actions…that’s a pretty big win too!
