Illustration by Aron Rook.
Draw with electricity, create a hydraulic-powered excavator using Pascal’s principle, or learn about hydrophobic sand.
Local entrepreneur Carrie Bryson’s STEM Discovery Boxes for kids include all three of these experiments in just one box.
Bryson started her STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) box subscription business in 2016 after spending too much time and money creating experiments for her own children and their Boy Scout troop—or buying experiments that didn’t include all the supplies.
“I couldn’t even figure out where to get all the stuff or it cost too much to buy just a dab for this experiment. Some of the chemicals we use you’re not just going to go to Walmart and pick up,” said Bryson, clarifying that they’re not dangerous, just hard to source.
The neatly packed, colorful boxes, designed by Bryson, include full directions and explanations of scientific terms like capillary action, evaporation and kinetic energy. They include experiments for all ages.
“I purposefully have different levels of abilities for projects in each box since I want stuff that younger kids can do by themselves,” she said. “I also want something that an adult helps with, because I really think it’s important that adults participate.”
Tai Prince, an engineer with TechnipFMC, an energy company, praised the thoughtfully put together boxes.
“It’s being able to learn in the best way to learn,” Prince said. “When you’re a reader, you have instructions, and you see what happens. If you’re a doer, you need to be hands on. You have the hands-on piece, and it’s more trial and error.”
TechnipFMC has used STEM Discovery Boxes for its own STEM day, which hosts local students, for three years.
Prince said that they also decided to use Bryson’s company for the exceptional customer service, which included personalization for their event, attended by 300 children from kindergarten through 12th grade. The boxes are available typically through a monthly subscription, but like TechnipFMC, schools, scout troops and the like also order them for special events. Bryson ships 750 to 1,000 boxes a month.
Bryson’s boxes have received awards from Popular Mechanics, Amazon and Cratejoy to name a few, and she even found her way to the semifinals of the TV program, “Shark Tank.” Bryson had to make a video for the show.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
That’s quite a statement since she is running this business out of her Etters home while raising five children—three teenage sons and twin 2 year olds, with husband Chan.
As difficult as it was, Bryson learned much from the experience
“I learned the [financial] numbers that I didn’t know, and you had to have it organized and calculated, and I think that was good to do,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Bryson would eagerly consider taking another stab at making the finals, she said.
Her kids have participated in the evolution of the business, offering critiques of different STEM box projects, often interjecting with, “what if we do it this way, and what if we did that,” Bryson said.
The business, though her third foray into entrepreneurship, has been an overall learning experience. She once exceeded the 1-pound-per-box shipping limit and quadrupled her shipping costs. She also didn’t anticipate all the certifications required to be on Amazon.
“I didn’t know that, and that’s the learning lesson,” she said. “Now, I know, and it felt catastrophic and then I realized, I can do this.”
The hardest part of owning her own business?
“There’s nobody to pass the buck to, when something goes wrong,” she said. “It all comes to me.”
But one of the benefits is the satisfaction that it’s making a difference for students and for the expansion of STEM.
“STEM is in everything,” Prince said.
At their STEM day, TechnipFMC pulls in every department, from accounting to legal, to show the relationship between STEM and each job.
“Touching it early, they’ll be better off learning what they want when they go to school,” Prince said.
Bryson also gets feedback from parents that their kids are waiting at the mailbox for their boxes and that grandparents buy them so that the grandkids have something fun to do when they visit.
Play has a purpose. Bryson’s STEM Discovery Boxes introduce children to STEM activities and help them and their caregivers discover what they like and how they learn, all under the guise of fun.
For more information on STEM Discovery Boxes, visit www.stemdiscoveryboxes.com.
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