With time-traveling, cyborg scientists, superpowered kids, and experiments using fantastical devices, Craniate is a STEAM kit like no other! Craniate’s two-part subscription entreats young minds to neuroscience through the interactive comic Axon Squad, complemented by MOD Capsule’s experiments. Created by scientists, backed by research, Craniate is STEM learning for the future!
Subscribers to Craniate receive an alternating monthly package. One month, it’s AXON Squad, where readers will learn about neuroscience, biomechanics and other interdisciplinary STEAM fields through visual storytelling. The following month, subscribers receive The MOD Capsule and build a futuristic device to conduct experiments with. Either the experiment or the device is featured in AXON Squad, perhaps found in G.I.A.’s MOD Cap. The devices help students learn about physics and neuroscience, and encourage playful exploration.
Science, after all, is simply organized curiosity.
-Ron Harris Warrick, Ph.D.
The Craniate team creates compact, transportable kits that use recycled materials to minimize ecological impact while maximizing access to a true diversity of students.
The AXON SQUAD print comics follow the adventures of 5 plucky middle school students who have a chance encounter with G.I.A., a genderless, cyborg scientist from the future. Follow students from diverse backgrounds with diverse skills as they learn to work together to solve puzzles and thwart bad guys! Each comic features interactive puzzles and a new, standalone episode of a story.
The M.O.D. Capsule is AXON Squad’s complementary experiment kit. With it, subscribers will build devices and conduct experiments that they read about in the comic series. The M.O.D. Capsule is named after G.I.A.’s modular toolkit, which helps the Squad understand their newfound powers and stop evildoers. The M.O.D. Capsule is standalone–providing all the tools, materials, and instructions needed to make neat devices such as vision-shifting goggles, static field detectors, and cardboard limb attachments that augment sound!
Mission
Craniate aims to produce content that represents and includes as much diversity as possible, with language and images from various cultures, minimal text to accommodate varying reading abilities and minimal fine-motor skill requirements to accommodate varying physical abilities. Craniate is ideal for afterschool activities, home schooling, library project kits, and informal learning at home. Created for students aged 9-13, Craniate uses visual storytelling, hands-on activities and diverse science identities to broaden inclusion into STEAM education efforts.
The Craniate Team
Shaz Zamore (they/them/theirs) – Principle Investigator/Director – creates story content (storylines, scripting, games) and develops kit experiments, community networking, prototyping, STEAM education research, funding.
Harly Ellis (they/them/theirs) – Lead Artist – creates character designs, does layout, some inking, storyboarding. Creates content (storylines, scripting) and edits scripts. Primary creator of the AXON Squad universe.
Arva Syed (she/her/hers) – Artist/Designer – creates logos, brand concepts, and layout for AXON Squad (lines, coloring & inking) and The MOD Capsule. Design, brand and SWOT research.
Chase Gordanier (he/him/his) – Engineer/Designer – creates concepts, prototypes and content for The MOD Capsule. Conducts STEAM education research and tests and creates experiments.
